East Asia & Pacific

This paper considers current HRH issues within pacific island countries from the perspectives of people who manage HRH within their country health ministry. The aim of this paper is to document and highlight their key areas of common concern. [from introduction]

This presentation was part of the University of New South Wales’ short course on managing human resources for health. It introduces the issues and challenges in HRH in 13 Pacific Island Nations leading to a proposed scheme to manage HRH migration and mobility. [adapted from author]

This brief outlines the need for supportive supervision, the challenges to its implementation in the Pacific, and recommendations to address these. [adapted from author]

This article presents factors that influenced the implementation of a capacity building assistance program in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Island jurisdictions that worked with health professionals to develop local organizational and clinical HIV capacity. It also evaluates the program to understand the contextual factors affecting the delivery of services. [adapted from introduction]

To improve clinician ability to recognize HIV and understand treatment, Hawai’s AIDS Education and Training Center developed innovative ways of training and building capacity. This is a report of the program and the experiences with these clinicians. [adapted from introduction]

This article suggests a strategy for addressing the difficulty in training enough health workers involving creating satellite sites of colleges that offer health worker training at district hospitals or other health worksites. [adapted from author]

This research examines the factors that current health professionals from the U.S. Pacific Islands region describe as helping and hindering them in their pursuit of health careers, as well as the barriers seen by students, educators and health professionals. [from abstract]

This report examines the growing phenomenon of the international migration of skilled health workers (nurses, doctors and more specialised workers, such as pharmacists, radiologists and lab technicians) in the Asia-Pacific region. [from summary]

This article reports on a pilot evaluation of distance education modalities was conducted among U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands healthcare workers. [from abstract]

There has been a well documented need for continuing education (CE) for health workers in the United States Affiliated Pacific Islands region. This executive summary highlights key points from a series of CE needs assessments conducted in the region in 2004. [from abstract]

This article outlines a program developed to provide formal training for health workers in the Western Pacific to address HRH problems in the region, especially the adverse impact of both the absolute shortages of select health workers and the under-training of many of the current health workforce. [adapted from author]

This code provides guidelines for an ethical approach to the international recruitment of health workers in a manner that takes into account the potential impact of such recruitment on health services in the source country and it seeks to safeguard the rights of recruits, and the conditions relating to their profession in the recruiting countries. [from author]

This article considers the shortage and maldistribution of health personnel in countries in southeast Asia in the context of international trade in health services. It analyzes the situation and identifies factors contributing to shortages and maldistribution in many countries in the region. The effect of trade in health services on the health workforce is discussed. [from introduction]

This discussion paper presents a comprehensive approach to the assessment of individual health worker, team and HRH management performance in the context of health system strengthening and the achievement of Millennium Development Goal 5. It provides examples of lessons learned in the planning, implementation and evaluation of HRH interventions in maternal, neonatal and reproductive health at the community level in the Asia and Pacific regions and considerations for enhanced performance in this area. [from introduction]

Despite the importance of accurate information about health service personnel and the context in which they practise, little is known about providers at the community level. The purpose of this discussion paper is to describe information flows and gaps concerning the workforce that provide maternal, neonatal and reproductive health care and services at community level; discuss potential stakeholders’ HRH information needs and uses; and provide recommendations for improving the availability, quality and use of HRH information. [from introduction]

This report summarizes a a rapid mapping of HRH resources in Pacific Island countries to generate baseline data on the current HRH situation in the region, information on in-country and external education institutions involved in HRH development, and data on external partners providing HRH-related assistance. [adapted from summary]

This paper provides a literature review and documents existing programmes for task shifting anaesthesia services to mid-level providers in South Asia to increase access to emergency obstetric care and reduce maternal mortality. [adapted from abstract]

Well-functioning health information systems are required to ensure the production, analysis, dissemination and use of reliable and timely essential human resources for health (HRH) information needed for workforce planning, management and evaluation. This project aims to produce a set of indicators and domains with definitions and associated fact-sheets to establish a minimum data set to record, share, analyse and apply HRH data.

The objectives of this paper are to highlight the situation of health workers in Pacific and Asian countries to gain a better understanding of the contributing factors to health worker motivation, dissatisfaction and migration; examine the regional and global evidence on initiatives to retain a competent and motivated health workforce, especially in rural and remote areas; and suggest ways to address the shortages of health workers in Pacific and Asian countries by using incentives. [from abstract]

The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean held a regional consultation on the accreditation of health professions education. The objectives of the meeting were to enable countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region to exchange experience in establishing national systems of accreditation, identifying strengths and constraints, and to formulate region- and country-specific plans of action for establishing accreditation of health professions education. [from author]

Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profiles are country-based reports that provide a detailed description of each health care system and of reform and policy initiatives in progress or under development. [publisher’s description] Each report contains a section on human resources for health including an overview of the situation and specific health workforce statistics.

Many countries around the world are now facing a huge brain drain of highly skilled professionals to well-paid jobs in developed countries. One of the worst affected sectors is healthcare, an area in which developing countries are struggling to keep professionals at home and encourage others to return. [auhor’s description]

These yearly summary reports provide information on nurse wages and the comparitive buying power of these wages in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macau, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. The data are results from a survey of 11 National Nurses’ Associations. [from introduction]

This report is from a workshop on HRD for mental health in Pacific island countries. The objectives of the workshop were to evaluate the mental health training needs and resources in the Pacific island countries; to achieve consensus on guiding principles in the developmenet of national mental health education and training programs in the local context; and to identify mechanisms to support countries in developing and strengthening mental health training programs. [from summary]

The 2009 edition of CHIPS comprises the country profiles and the health databanks for each country and area of the WHO Western Pacific Region. It contains crude data that are supplied either by the health ministries/departments or compiled from national databases and reference libraries. Estimates and adjusted data from various published sources are also used. Every effort is made to update the figures and analyses in CHIPS annually in response to ever-growing demands for current data and information. Clearance by the respective governments is also sought prior to publication.

This report, Action against Sexual Harassment at Work in Asia and the Pacific, is intended to serve as a technical report for discussion at the ILO Regional Tripartite Seminar on Action against Sexual Harassment at Work, to be held in Penang, Malaysia from 2 to 4 October, 2001.

The purpose of these Guidelines is to assist Member Countries in strengthening the management of their nursing and midwifery workforce and, through this, to assist in strengthening health care delivery and strategies for improving health. In particular, they aim to assist Member Countries by assisting them to effectively manage nursing and midwifery issues, including the problems of continuing shortage and maldistribution of nursing and midwifery personnel along with an inappropriate skill mix. [from introduction]

This paper reviews lessons learned regarding getting decision-makers to recognise the nexus between workforce planning, overall health service development and operational policy; data collection and collation; moving beyond a simple personnel to population ratio approach; and adjusting the model to suit local circumstances. The project has identified some emerging and worrying trends in health workforce development. The need for consistent, sustained technical assistance which reflects long and wide experience in health service development and management is underlined. [abstract]

Migration and remittances are of considerable importance in the small Pacific island states. There has been a significant migration of skilled health workers in recent decades to metropolitan fringe states, including Australia and New Zealand. This paper reports the findings of a re-analysis of a survey of Samoan and Tongan migrants in Australia where the sample is split between nurse households and others.