Documents & Reports

The focus of this study is to assess the level of migration expectation among health care professionals and to determine some of the factors which have pushed - and are likely to continue to push - them to seek employment outside Ghana. [from introduction]

The need for documenting how the AIDS epidemic is affecting the health care personnel has long been recognized. In the specific case of Tanzania which already has a Health Sector HIV/AIDS Strategy it is imperative to have information on how the health system and the health personnel who are expected to spearhead the implementation of that strategy are being affected. This can guide preventive and remedial measures to ensure that the capacity of the system and its personnel for the effective implementation of the Strategy is not unduly compromised. [from author]

The function of this meeting was to gather information on medical and nursing education, including learning from countries and institutions where innovative solutions are already being tested and implemented. The information, summarized in this meeting report, will inform the the development of evidence-based policy guidance that will serve to support countries in their efforts to scale up medical and nursing education. [adapted from author]

This article describes human resources in nursing and the role and status of nurses within the health care system. It also deals with government measures and the foreseeable impact on nursing and health care services. [adapted from introduction]

This report summarizes the findings from research examining the role of the private sector in health systems in developing countries and emphasizes the importance of effective stewardship by governments of their country’s health system, especially given the reality that the private (nonstate) part of the system is large and complex, with major challenges and significant opportunities. [adapted from author]

This brief outlines the barriers to overcome to improve the functioning of the private health sector, the impact, the pros and cons of engaging the privat sector, myths of using provate providers and policy options. [adapted from author]

This paper identifies key considerations for countries and policymakers planning the financing of their health workforce, and is based on an extensive review and synthesis of the literature, research findings, and experience on the financing and economic aspects of health workforce scale-up and improvement. [from author]

This technical brief describes several approaches used to achieve needed changes in reproductive health service delivery practice, and provides recommendations for actions at the local level. [from introduction]

The objectives of this study include documenting the role of the private for-profit sector in voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service delivery; establishing whether there are significant differences in the quality of VCT services, particularly in counseling and referral practices, between public, private for-profit, NGO, and mission providers; measuring key VCT service statistics at facilities within each sector; and identify best practices from each sector. [adapted from introduction]

This report highlights how changes in the legal and regulatory environment can facilitate expanded access to family planning and reproductive health services through Africa’s private health sector. Using laws and regulations from three Africa countries - Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria - this report presents a road map on how to review the most important laws governing the private sector, as well as key issues to assess. [from introduction]

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]

The purpose of this report is to provide background information to support the development of guidelines for the integration of internationally educated health professionals into the Ontario workplace. [from summary]

This concept paper summarizes an approach based on the principles of organizational development that is aimed at complementing health information systems (HIS) strengthening efforts to make them more effective. [from summary]

The report is the culmination of a work group tasked with exploring practical and feasible ways for donors and technical agencies to support improvements in public-private interaction in developing countries as a means to accelerate the achievement of widely agreed-upon social objectives: reduced mortality and expanded and more equitable access to health services and essential medicines and products. [from author]

This working paper describes a tool and model for extimating the health worker requirments for scaling up priority health interventions in limited resource areas of sub-Saharan Africa, rooted in the concept of functional job analysis and taking into consideration skill set and quality measures. [adapted from author]

This paper supports the promotion of appropriate standards and practices to ensure quality in FP/RH services at the local level. It argues that investments in written updates of FP/RH norms and standards and their dissemination must be complemented with innovative organizational and management systems strengthening to ensure their use in low-resource settings. [adapted from introduction]

The Capacity Project worked with governments and partners in Central America and Uganda to test approaches for strengthening supervision systems in the health sector, as one component of the Project’s workforce performance support strengthening. [from summary]

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]

This report examines demographic, social, and political factors driving the increased international migration of workers to provide long-term care services in developed countries. [from introduction]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the fiscal and macroeconomic implications associated with scaling up health workforce capacity. While these general issues and concepts are relevant in all setting, the focus of the discussion is on low-income countries and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. [from publisher]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 presents an analysis of the relationship between the availability of doctors, nurses and midwives across countries and the intervention coverage. It demonstrates that health status and levels of coverage are positively associated with health worker density. The purpose of this paper, is to determine whether these relationships are robust to the inclusion of many more countries in the data set.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 discusses the various options to allow comparative analysis of inequalities in the distribution of health workers across and within countries, using a single summary measure of this distribution. The paper first presents the scale problem of various inequality indices, then tests how sensitive a simple ratio measure of the distribution of health workers is to changes in scale.

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 aims to calculate the workforce implications of demographic changes by projecting future health workforces for developed economies, including Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada. [from publisher]

This background study to the World Health Report 2006 is an attempt to provide a preliminary analysis of inflow and outflow patterns of health service providers in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis is limited only to three types of health workers—doctors, nurses and midwives—and to countries in the region with critical shortages of health workers. [from publisher]

Managing health workforce expenditure requires the generation of evidence in order to support informed policy decisions. This background paper for the World Health Report 2006 takes a step forward in exploring HRH expenditures and presents the results of a first measurement for the health workforce in WHO Member States in the years 1998–2003. [from publisher]

The overall objective of this background paper for the World Health Report 2006 is to describe variations in health worker wages across countries. However, where data are available, the authors explore variations within countries between health workers and comparable professionals. The main issues of standardization and comparability are discussed. The results are a first attempt to understand the nature of the variability of wages across settings. [from publisher]

This background paper to the World Health Report 2006 describes the approaches followed in assembling the global database as well as some preliminary analysis of the content of the source data. The broad picture of health workers worldwide is examined and some useful strategies for improving health workforce statistics are highlighted. [from publisher]

This issue of Voices highlights the Capacity Project’s success in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce and its impact on health systems strengthening. [from publisher]

This book explores a new approach to health funding, the transfer of money or goods to patients or providers when they take health-related actions or achieve performance targets. It documents a host of experiences with incentives for maternal and child health care, tuberculosis, child nutrition, HIV/AIDS, chronic conditions and more. [from publisher]

The objective of this study was to field test tools designed to measure stigma and discrimination against patient with HIV/AIDS in the Kenyan context, focusing on facilities and providers of health services. [adapted from summary]