Tanzania

This paper reviews available research evidence that links medical students’ characteristics with human resource imbalances and the contribution of medical schools in perpetuating an inequitable distribution of the health workforce. [from abstract]

While constrained health budgets and health worker shortages have been blamed for the low rates of surgery, there has been little empirical data on the providers of surgery and cost of surgical services in Africa. This study described the range of providers of surgical care and anesthesia and estimated the resources dedicated to surgery at district hospitals in three African countries. [from abstract]

Recognizing the need to focus on health worker supply in order to achieve progress on health indicators, the Ministry of Health in Tanzania developed the Twiga Initiative to strengthen health workforce production through. This document outlines the steps taken to improve health worker training and institutions and the challenges involved. [adapted from author]

The HIV epidemic poses significant challenges to the low income countries in sub Saharan Africa, affecting the attrition rate among health care workers, their level of motivation, and absenteeism from work. This study aimed to predict the intention to provide surgical treatment to HIV infected patients among medical- and dental students in Tanzania and Sudan using an extended version of the Theory of Planned Behaviour. [from abstract]

This report outlines a rapid descriptive assessment to gain an initial understanding of the management workforce for service delivery in Ethipia, Ghana and Tanzania and to test selected criteria for assessing managers as part of the health workforce. [adapted from summary]

This study was designed to document the role and experience of health professionals with significant responsibility for human resource management (HRM); identify the challenges that these health professionals face; identify additional skills and knowledge needed by these health professionals to address HRM challenges; solicit recommendations for changes in pre-service and in-service HRM training. [from summary]

This evaluation focused on the relevance of the health sector strategic and implementation plans to the achievement of the the MDGs in health; the extent of progress and achievements in the health sector reform process; achievements in improving acces, service quality and health outcomes; and changes in partnership activities. Section 8 examines how effectively the health sector has dealt with important issues in HRH during the evaluation period. [adapted from author]

This video highlights task shifting in Tanzania where many areas rely on assistant medical officers to fill the gap caused by the severe doctor shortage. It also touches on the training of these workers to provide medical care in areas without doctors.

Poor public health indicators in Tanzania have led to the upgrading of nursing and clinical personnel who currently have just core training. This article reports on a project to assist the upgrade of clinical officers working around sexually transmissible infections within the context of healthcare, education and policy developments in Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

A postabortion care program was implemented in 11 primary and secondary health facilities in rural Tanzania in order to decentralize comprehensive postabortion care to community level by upgrading midlevel providers to perform manual vacuum aspiration. [from abstract]

In Tanzania maternal and perinatal mortalities and morbidities are problems of public health importance, and have been linked to the shortage of skilled staff. We quantified the available workforce and the required nursing staff for perinatal care in 16 health institutions in Dar es Salaam. [from abstract]

Current estimates indicate that between 30% and 70% of health care services in Africa are operated by faith-based organizations. However, these resources are not effectively integrated into national health information systems. While most partners providing health care in sub-Saharan Africa agree that FBOs play an important role in providing health services, there are few comprehensive data about the scope and scale of their contribution. This document details a project to collect facility location and personnel information to support the mapping and database development processes.

The shortages of teaching faculty and insufficient learning resources have hampered the traditionally intensive surgical training apprenticeships. To address this, Muhimbili University attempted to enhance technical skills in general surgery and emergency procedures for senior medical students by implementing a surgical skills practicum using locally developed simulation models. This article evaluates the effectiveness of the program. [adpated from abstract]

This study sought to assess the impact of HIV/AIDS on the human resources in the health sector in Tanzania, to provide up to date and specific data on the needs and the supply of human resources in the health sector, and to inform the formulation of strategies for strengthening human resources in the health sector. [from summary]

The purpose of this study was to explore the role and importance of human resources for the scaling up of health services in low income countries. In two case studies [of Chad and Tanzania], we investigated the size, composition and structure of the current health work force; produced estimates of future human resource availability; estimated the quantity of human resources required significantly to scale up priority interventions towards 2015; and compared human resource availability and human resource requirements. [from introduction]

This report provides an overview of paid healthcare workers in Tanzania.

This article provides an evaluation of an intervention using the Health Workers for Change initiative for improving the relationship between nurses and parents on a pediatric ward in a busy regional hospital in Tanzania. [adapted from abstract]

There is growing evidence that informal payments for health care are fairly common in many low- and middle-income countries. Informal payments are reported to have a negative consequence on equity and quality of care; it has been suggested, however, that they may contribute to health worker motivation and retention. This study suggests that the practice of informal payments contributes to the general demotivation of health workers and negatively affects access to health care services and quality of the health system. [adapted from abstract]

Given that IT projects may take a long time to be fully institutionalized, sufficient resources are required to build the local capacity to support and sustain the project after the withdrawal of donors. Inadequate donor support often contributes to weakening rather than strengthening human resource capacity and effective system design, since it emphasizes the technology itself at the expense of the needs of the users. These factors contribute to the design and implemntation of unsustainable health information systems in developing countries. [from abstract]

Recent years have seen growing awareness of the importance of human resources for health in health systems and with it an intensifying of the international and national policies in place to steer a response. This paper looks at how governments and donors in five countries: Cameroon, Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda and Tanzania, have translated such policies into action. [from abstract]

Voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) is a cornerstone for successful implementation of prevention, care and support services among HIV negative and positive individuals. VCT is also perceived to be an effective strategy in risk reduction among sexually active young people. This study aimed to assess the acceptability of VCT and its actual uptake among young health care professional students. [adapted from abstract]

The shortage of qualified health professionals is a major obstacle to achieving better health outcomes in many parts of the world, particularly in Africa. The role of health science universities in addressing this shortage is to provide quality education and continuing professional development opportunities for the healthcare workforce. Academic institutions in Africa, however, are also short of faculty and especially under-resourced.

This study highlights the experiences and challenges associated with decentralisation and the partial re-centralisation in relation to the recruitment and distribution of health workers. [from abstract]

Tanzania is implementing the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI), developed by the WHO and UNICEF to improve the management of child health at the primary care level in order to reduce child mortality in low and middle income countries. Workers in health facilities are trained in a structured IMCI case management course. IMCI also advocates the strengthening of the health system to facilitate practice of the skills acquired by health workers, as well as calling for improvement of household and community practices related to child health. [from executive summary]

The overall human resource shortages and the distributional inequalities in the health workforce in many developing countries are well acknowledged. However, little has been done to measure the degree of inequality systematically. This paper describes and measures health worker distributional inequalities in Tanzania on a per capita basis; and it suggests and applies additional health care needs indicators in the measurement of distributional inequalities. [adapted from abstract]

The ongoing reforms in Tanzania encompass the disposition and remuneration of health workers. This paper presents findings of the outpatient workload for clinicians based on a review of routinely available data from two districts in Tanzania. It was concluded from the study that there is an enormous variation in workload among facilities of the same type and between districts. It was therefore recommended that future plans on staff disposition and incentive schemes should take into consideration the burden of work shouldered by health workers at their respective working places.

Tanzania’s government has developed various policies and guidelines to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic, including a five-year commitment to provide anti-retroviral therapy to 500,000 Tanzanians. This program faces many HRH-related challenges and constraints. This report discusses the implementation of a home-based care model to support older caregivers for Tanzanians living with HIV/AIDS. [adapted from report]

Irrational drug use is contributed by many factors including care providers giving wrong drug information to patients. Dispensing staff in private pharmacy shops play a significant role in pharmaceutical management and provision of relevant information to clinicians and patients, enhancing the improvement of rational medicine use. This report offers an evaluation/staff assessment of pharmacist knowledge in a situation where they function as health workers in dispensing and prescribing medications. [adapted from introduction]

In developing countries, postabortion care (PAC) programs are frequently available only in urban or regional health facilities, placing rural women at greater risk for mortality and morbidity from complications because they lack access to services. This technical brief evaluates efforts to decentralize PAC activities in Senegal and Tanzania that show PAC can be safely and successfully decentralized with services capably provided by mid-level personnel in health centers, dispensaries, and some health posts when providers are trained and supervised and equipment and supplies are available. [adap

The Tanzanian health system is currently undergoing major reforms. As part of this, a study was commissioned into the delivery of services and care at the Muhimbili National Hospital. One of the main components of this comprehensive study was to measure the extent to which workers in the hospital were satisfied with the tasks they performed and to identify factors associated with low motivation in the workplace. [from abstract]