Documents & Reports

Human Resources for Health

This document outlines the current main issues for human resources for health and the impact of these challenges on health service delivery, particularly of HIV treatment.

Regional Strategic Plan for Strengthening Health Service Management in the South-East Asia Region

This strategic plan is intended to provide directions for countries to develop comprehensive interventions to strengthen the management of health systems and health sector managers in a coherent and systematic manner. [adapted from author]

Transforming the Health Worker Pipeline: Interventions to Eliminate Gender Discrimination in Preservice Education

This report describes the results of a systematic and expert review undertaken to identify practices that have the potential to counter forms of gender discrimination against students and faculty in preservice education institutions. [from publisher]

Strengthening the Health Worker Pipeline through Gender-Transformative Strategies

This technical brief provides an overview of how gender discrimination affects health professional students and faculty as well as intervention options that the expert panel identified as having potential to counter gender discrimination. In addition, it offers recommendations for preservice education institutions and other stakeholders to address these challenges. [from publisher]

Making Good Use of HMIS Information in Ethiopia

This brief describes the impact of using health management information system (HMIS) data, including an example of how this data improved the vaccination rates for newborns in Ethiopia.

Health and Education Sector Collaboration in Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health in Sri Lanka: A Situational Analysis and Case Study of the Kalutara District

There is a paucity of knowledge concerning the roles of those who provide adolescent health services, care and information across the health and education sectors, how they are managed and educated, and the policies that guide their practice.

Hotline HRH November 2012

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

Exit Interviews: Determining Why Health Staff Leave

This study found that limited data collection systems and lack of exit interviews has meant that up-to-date, reliable and accurate data regarding all exiting health workers (HW) (not only those who intend to emigrate) are not readily available. Without such datasets, the dynamics of mobility and migration within the Pacific health workforce remain poorly understood and the development of strategies to retain HW severely hampered. [from author]

Nursing in Costa Rica

This brief outlines the health system context and the basid statistics and facts about the nursing workforce in Costa Rica.

Understanding the Complex Drivers of Intrinsic Motivation for Health Workers in Malawi

This report is a nationally representative study in Malawi that employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods to assess statistically significant drivers of intrinsic motivation for health workers of every cadre accross the entire health system including public, private for-profit, and faith-based health workers. [adapted from author]

Right-Sizing Egypt's Health Workforce

This brief outlines an initiative to address some of Egypt’s health workforce challenges through the development of a workforce planning model to assess workforce needs and build ministry capacities in its implementation. [adapted from publisher]

Our Side of the Story: A Policy Report on the Lived Experience and Opinions of Ugandan Health Workers

This research set out to explore with frontline health workers and their managers how working conditions affect attitudes, behaviour and practices. It also sought the positive side of the health worker experience. The report documents the experiences and views of 122 nursing health workers in all regions of Uganda covering government, not-for-profit and private ownership organisations. [adapted from author]

Guidance on Using Needs Based Formulae and Gap Analysis in the Equitable Allocation of Health Care Resources in East and Southern Africa

This paper proposes that the needs-based formula be used to identify the provinces and districts that are furthest from their health equity targets and that they should receive priority for the allocation of additional budgetary resources. A detailed gap analysis focuses on comparing the current health human resources in each of these provinces and districts to national norms. [adapted from author]

Achieving the Twin Objectives of Efficiency and Equity: Contracting Health Services in Cambodia

The Cambodian experience of contracting out for health workers discussed in this document suggests how a move away from the traditional government-provided health services model to government-financed and monitored contracts for health services can be an effective approach to expand coverage especially for the low-income groups. [adapted from author]

Effects of Changes in the Pre-Licensure Education of Health Workers on Health Worker Supply (Review)

This review evaluates the available literature to assess the effect of changes in the pre-licensure education of health professionals on health-worker supply. [adapted from abstract]

Improving Infection Prevention and Control in Ethiopia through Supportive Supervision of Health Facilities

This report outlines an intervention that utilized supportive supervision in 86 facilities around Ethiopia that aimed to: enable healthcare workers to practice new skills in infection prevention and control (IPC) following formal trainings; coach health care facility staff to improve their performance in order to meet recommended IPC standards; improve the skills of supervisors for independent program monitoring; integrate IPC into the routine health care supervision system; and monitor the changes in program performance as a result of these activities. [adapted from author]

Hotline HRH October 2012

This edition of Hotline, an HRH newletter focused on the needs of faith-based organizations (FBOs) in Africa, highlights resources, trainings and workshops, articles of interest and other information for FBO HRH pracitioners.

Data Demand and Information Use in the Health Sector: Strategies and Tools

This document outlines the steps for designing and implementing a data demand and information use (DDIU) approach. It reviews the application of the information supply and demand matrix, examines the constraints to evidence-based decision, examines strategies to encourage DDIU, outlines guidelines for implementing DDIU activities and interventions, and presents a set of tools for facilitating DDIU. [adapted from author]

Data Demand and Information Use in the Health Sector: Case Study Series

These data demand and use (DDU) case studies from a variety of settings give examples of how interventions have successfully facilitated data demand and changed how information is used. Examples are from Bangladesh, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and nine Caribbean countries. [from publisher]

Human Resources for Health in Africa: Experiences, Challenges and Realities

This report contains the proceedings of a meeting of 18 francophone and Spanish-speaking countries in Africa focusing on the HRH crisis. It outlines common challenges faced by the countries concerned and provides suggestions on the role of regional entities and development partners. [from publisher]

Human Resources for Health Migration in the Philippines: A Case Study and Policy Directions

This paper aims to provide information on the migration of Filipino health workers and the impact it has on the individual migrant, his family, professions and specifically the health care system. Further it discusses policy initiatives that have been established to both ensure the country’s competitiveness in the global labor market as well as strengthen its capability to strengthen its health care system. [from introduction]

Improving the Mental Health Treatment Gap in Ghana

Health professionals that treat mental health in Ghana, such as community nurses and pharmacists, lack proper training but have become the default practitioners in dealing with illnesses. This brief explores the shortcomings of Ghana’s mental health policies, and highlights the implications and outcomes for the country’s population. [adapted from author]

Gaps and Shortages in South Africa's Health Workforce

This brief outlines the issues surrounding constraints in the health workforce which have emerged as a key obstacle to scaling-up access to prevention and treatment for the 5.7 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. [adapted from summary]

Human Resources Crisis in Southern Countries: A Major Obstacle to the Fight Against HIV

Conseil national du sida wished to delve further into the human resources crisis in Southern countries. It therefore sought to identify the main causes and determining factors behind the said crisis and to put forth various strategies in an attempt to turn that trend around. [from author]

Regulation of the Non-Medical Healthcare Professions

This document deals with the regulation of health care professionals other than doctors to strengthen procedures for ensuring the performance of non-medical health professionals and other health service staff does not pose a threat to patient safety or effective functioning of services, and to ensure effective continuing professional development and appraisal for these staff. [adapated from introduction]

Mobile Learning for HIV/AIDS Health Care Workers' Training in Resource-Limited Settings

This paper gives an overview of the approaches, methods and materials used in a mobile-based educational platform designed to enable health care workers involved in HIV/AIDS care in urban peripheral stations in Peru to access the state-of-the-art in HIV treatment and care. [adapted from introduction]

Doctoring the Village Doctors: Giving Attention Where It Is Due

This book outlines the impact of a package of public health interventions aimed at improving the quality of care of informal village doctors in a rural area of Bangladesh, where village doctors are the primary group of informal healthcare providers practising and dispensing modern medicines. [adapted from publisher]

Private Versus Public Strategies for Health Service Provision for Improving Health Outcomes in Resource-Limited Settings

This review is focused on comparing health outcomes in private versus public care settings. It seeks to summarize what is known regarding the relative morbidity or mortality outcomes that result from treatment by public or private providers in low- and middle-income countries. [from abstract]

Who Are 'Informal Health Providers' and What Do They Do?: Perspectives from Medical Anthropology

This paper explores gaps and limitations in the conceptualisation, methodology and policy implications of debates about informal health care providers by examining a cross section of empirical studies. [from summary]

HIV Self-Testing among Health Workers: A Review of the Literature and Discussion of Current Practices, Issues and Options for Increasing Access to HIV Testing in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines the particular issues of self-testing for HIV among health workers in sub-Saharan Africa, where high levels of interest and motivation for self-testing among health workers has been reported and informal self-testing already practiced. [from summary]