East Asia & Pacific

This report presents the findings and key messages for Thailand of a multicountry rapid situation analysis of the human resources for health implications for scaling up to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care, and support. [from summary]

This study aims to identify aspects of recruitment and retention of rural allied health professionals using qualitative methodology to establish the motives and conditions that encourage allied health professionals to practice rurally. [from abstract]

This study focused on female Japanese physicians and addressed factors that were associated with their empathic engagement in patient care. [from abstract]

This paper reports pharmacists’ feedback as providers of a pharmacy asthma management service, a trial coordinated across four academic research centres in Australia. [from abstract]

This paper examines the differences in the demographic characteristics, smear grades, and treatment outcomes of pulmonary tuberculosis cases detected through both active and passive case finding to determine if active case finding from health workers in mobile radiography units could contribute to early case finding, considering associated project costs. [adapted from author]

This study examined inter-personal, intra-personal and extra-personal factors that influence job satisfaction among rural primary care nurses in a low and middle income country, Papua New Guinea. [from abstract]

Areas of the Vietnam still experience severe shortages of health workers for reproductive health, particularly mountainous and other remote areas populated by ethnic minorities. This case study evaluates a program to lower maternal mortality rates and encourage healthier births in these areas through an 18 month training for ethic minority midwives. [adapted from author]

Many countries are facing an ageing of the nursing workforce and increasing workforce shortages. This article reports findings from a qualitative study of 15 participants who explored perceived opportunities for and barriers to implementing flexible strategies to engage older nurses in the workforce after they resign from full-time work. [adapted from abstract}

Medical student education is perceived as utilising significant amounts of preceptors’ time, negatively impacting on clinical productivity. This study triangulated practice financial data with the perspectives of clinical supervisors before and after regional/rural longitudinal integrated community-based placements of medical students to determine at what point students become financially beneficial to a practice. [adapted from abstract]

Studies have suggested that a rapid increase in physicians does not necessarily change an urban–rural inequity in their distribution. This study applied spatial competition and attraction–repulsion hypotheses to the geographic distribution of physicians during a time of insufficient physician supply in Japan to determine whether an insufficient supply of physicians worsens an inequity. [adapted from abstract]

This article identifies trends in the evolving practice of rural paramedics and describes key characteristics, roles and expected outcomes for a rural expanded scope of practice model. The study found that paramedics are increasingly becoming first line primary healthcare providers in small rural communities and developing additional professional responsibilities throughout the cycle of care. [from abstract]

This study aimed to investigate the association between cancer surgical outcomes and physician/nurse staffing in relation to hospital volume. [from abstract]

This paper reviews the magnitude and form of Cuban medical cooperation in the Pacific and analyses its implications for health policy, human resource capacity and overall development assistance for health in the region. [from abstract]

This study aimed to evaluate perceived and assessed clinical capabilities of recent graduates of an outcomes-based integrated medical program and compare to benchmarks from traditional content-based or process-based programs. [from abstract]

This article evaluated a four-year action research study across the Australian Capital Territory health system to strengthen interprofessional collaboration though multiple intervention activities. [from abstract]

This study examined the hypothesis that a medical school in a low-resource setting, based on volunteer faculty, can be sustainable and associated with improvement in medical workforce and population health outcomes. [from abstract]

This policy brief addresses the role of partnerships between health workers and the community, for the purposes of improving maternal, newborn and child health in resource-constrained settings, with a particular focus on the Asia-Pacific region. [from author]

This policy brief summarises the critical workforce issues
highlighted from a review of the literature of maternal,
newborn and child health services at community
level, with a particular focus on the Asia Pacific region. [from author]

The objective of this researach was to discover the prevalence of sharps injuries among nurses in a regional hospital in Thailand and to identify factors associated with these injuries. [from abstract]

This study sought to contribute to the development of a more sustainable and effective regional mental health workforce by complementing earlier research on common factors in health workforce difficulties with those of leading administrators, managers and senior clinicians in the field. [from abstract]

These case studies provide country-level information on the prevalence of gender based violence; the policy framework; health sector response; health worker capacity building; and successes, challenges and lessons learned dealing with gender based violence in the health sector. Countries included are: Bangladesh, Malaysia, Maldives, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Timor-Leste. [adapted from author]

This study aimed to provide an overview of the research which has clarified the relationship between nurse staffing and patient mortality of acute care hospital wards under a universal health insurance system and attempted to provide explanations for some of the phenomena that are unique in Taiwan. [from abstract]

This report summarizes a quality assurance project and explains how citizens were engaged at the facility level in improving health service quality, while also contributing to increased responsiveness and accountability on the part of health providers. [adapted from author]

This profile summarises the available information on the cadres working at community level in Papua New Guinea: their diversity, distribution, supervisory structures, education and training, as well as the policy and regulations that govern their practice. [from author]

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]

The aim of this study is to identify and assess factors affecting preference for future rural practice among medical students participating in the Australian Rural Clinical Schools Program. [from abstract]

This paper assesses what health workforce sustainability might mean for Australia and New Zealand, given the policy direction set out in the World Health Organization draft code on international recruitment of health workers. [from abstract]

This article evaluates a pilot project to examine the feasibility of an innovative three-tiered network of community-based providers for delivery of maternal health interventions in the complex emergency setting of eastern Burma. [adapted from author]

The objectives of the research are to come to a better understanding of why health workers adopt behaviours that impact negatively on patients and to look for solutions in policy and practice to improve staff motivation and morale. [from author]

These case studies from accross Austraila show how rural and remote health professionals are making a difference locally and give insights, approaches and solutions to similar challenges or problems faced elsewhere. Evaluated solutions for many pressing health issues are presented as well as two big policy issues: building sustainable rural primary health care services, and responding to an ageing health workforce. [adapted from foreword]