Planning

This case outlines how Oman is continuing to turn around its excessive dependence on expatriate workforce through strategic workforce development planning. [from abstract]

The purpose of this toolkit, consisting of 7 booklets, is to provide nurses and midwives with tools to effectively participate in and influence health care planning and policy-making. This tool-kit has been designed for use by any nurse or midwife who has an interest in advocating for change in their work environment. [from publisher]

In response to the critical HRH shortages in Africa, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and Office of the US Global Aids Coordinator (OGAC) have been in discussion with a number of African countries to develop strategies and country level actions. The aim is to demonstrate the maximum flexibility of disease specific programmes to support broad based primary care in line with countries’ health plans. This report presents a summary of the main findings from the country visit to Kenya. [from introduction]

This presentation covers the proces of developing a regional guideline for country strategic planning, results from a situational analysis, a draft regional guideline and the next steps. [adapted from author]

This commentary outlines strategies the authors have found successful in aligning health education and training with local health needs in ways that demonstrate socially accountable outcomes for Vancouver Island, Canada. [adapted from abstract]

Anticipating physician supply to tackle future health challenges is a crucial but complex task for policy planners. While there are number of forecasting tools available the methods, advantages and shortcomings of such tools are not straightforward and not always well appraised. This paper attempts to present a typology of existing forecasting approaches and to analyze the methodology-related issues. [adapted from abstract]

This report utilizes statistical information derived from a central data source for resource planning regarding the supply, distribution and migration of physicians in Canada. [from introduction]

The objective of this report is to identify future workforce challenges that will have a profound impact on the capacity to recruit and retain staff. In addition, issues that pertain to key staff groups for this care group will be identified. [from introduction]

The objective of this paper is to identify the future workforce challenges that will have a profound impact on the capacity to recruit and retain staff. In addition, issues that pertain to key staff groups for this care group will be identified. [from introduction]

This guidance note is designed for countries seeking to scale up midwifery services, especially at the community level. It outlines in detail the action required by policy-makers and program managers to effect change at country level and scale up midwifery capacity, specifically in poor and hard-to-reach areas.

Imbalances in quantity and quality of human resources for health (HRH) are increasingly recognized as perhaps the most critical impediment to achieving health outcome objectives in most African countries. However, reliable data on the HRH situation is not readily available. Some countries have hesitated to act in the absence of such data; other countries have not acted even when data are available while others have moved ahead in spite of the lack of reliable information. This paper addresses the issue of data use for HRH policy-making. [from summary]

This publication provides a framework for health and information professionals, as well as stakeholders, for improving the use of information to guide policymaking, program design, management, and service provision in the health sector in developing countries. [adapted from introduction]

To help build the health workforce in Uganda, the Capacity Project is assisting the Ministry of Health to strengthen its human resources management and ability to gather and use accurate data for strategic planning. Drawing on key policy questions developed by the Health Workforce Advisory Board, the Capacity Project installed a certification and licensing information system at the four health professional councils and a human resources management system at the Ministry of Health.

Several high-profile meetings have focused global attention on critical human resources for health (HRH) issues, providing much needed high-level support and calls for action to address the HRH crisis. The Capacity Project’s HRH Action Workshop series was intended to extend this work by focusing on specific HRH actions and experiences, what is being done in countries, what is working and what is not.

The purpose of this guide is to explain why it is necessary to ground health workforce planning in human rights, and how to develop a plan that does just that. [from summary]

Health workforce planning is necessary in order to ensure that trained and knowledgeable health workers are available to deliver health care services when and where they are needed. The aim of this technical brief is to provide a rapid review of different health workforce projection approaches. [from author]

This mid-term evaluation report focuses on Capacity Project support to the Government of Kenya’s Emergency Hiring Plan. It assesses the main achievements, challenges and impact on service delivery and health systems improvement, from the plan’s inception through the November 2007 mid-point. The report outlines all aspects of the approach used, providing clear recommendations on how the Ministry of Health may strengthen its existing human resource systems on the basis of lessons learned, and provides additional insights to the process, which may be useful for informing similar country contexts.

Planning the supply of and demand for human resources for health is a significant challenge for most countries. Workforce shortages, underemployment and unemployment, skill-mix imbalances and geographical maldistribution are among some of the critical challenges at national level and within organizations Health human resources planning is essential for countries and systems to ensure the presence of workforces capable of meeting the needs of populations. [from author]

This brief describes the successful process of working within the government to achieve results in HIV planning. [adapted from author]

Modernizing the way health care professionals are educated and engaged in their vital work requires a collaborative and coordinated approach among many players. The Health Council convened the summit on health human resources to focus on practical, short-term solutions. This report attempts to capture the lively discussion and encouraging examples of innovation brought forward at that forum, organized into four theme areas: education and training, scopes of practice, workplace practices and planning. [adapted from author]

The purpose of this toolkit is to assist health professionals, health professional associations, and civil society organizations to develop advocacy strategies to address human resource and health financing issues in their countries. [from introduction]

These guidelines help answer what national health workforce plans should contain and how they should be developed to give them the best chance of significantly improving health outcomes and moving countries as rapidly as possible towards universal access to essential health interventions. The guidelines should serve as overarching principles that will promote the success of health workforce plans, while ensuring that they are consistent with human rights. [adapted from author]

In this policy brief, we review approaches to capacity planning, a crucial component of health care governance. By concentrating on a diverse selection of countries, we aim to show a range of approaches to health care financing and organization, since both of these factors have an impact on approaches to capacity planning. [adapted from introduction]

The Capacity Project helped to organize and facilitate a regional Human Resources for Health (HRH) Action Workshop in Accra, Ghana, September 23-28, 2007. Participants came together with the overall purpose of exchanging knowledge and best practices in planning, developing and supporting the health workforce in order to improve health workforce management capacity and strategic development at the country level.

This article outlines different efforts at making strategic HRH plans in the developing world. The article focuses on the financial aspects of HRH planning and provides some general guidelines on the best way to make these plans.

This presentation was given at the First Forum on Human Resources for Health in Kampala. It outlines the Philippine’s HRH Master Plan to develop and install HHRMD systems that will support Philippine health sector reforms to improve health outcomes. [adapted from author]

The main aim of the study was to estimate how much clinician-time that malaria exacts on Malawi’s Ministry of Health resources. It estimates the proportion of finances that anti-malarial medications exact on the country’s health budget and determines whether the Malawi public health sector had adequate human resources to provide treatment. [adapted from author]

Strategic planning helps an organization make fundamental decisions about its human resources by taking a long-range view of what it hopes to achieve and, in broad terms, how. [author’s description]

One of the most significant challenges in fighting the AIDS epidemic in Southern Africa is securing the health care workforce to deliver care in settings where the manpower is already in short supply. The authors produced a demand-driven staffing model based on treatment protocols for HIV-positive patients that adhere to Mozambican guidelines.

This document reports on the findings of three projects in Canada that link population health needs to health human resource planning, to illustrate the value and challenges in using health human resource data to inform policy decisions on nursing productivity and to generate evidence based retention policies to guide nursing workforce sustainability. [adapted from summary]