Thailand

Quality of Intrapartum Care by Skilled Birth Attendants in a Refugee Clinic on the Thai-Myanmar Border: A Survey Using WHO Safe Motherhood Needs Assessment

This manuscript describes the quality of intrapartum care provided by SBAs [Skilled Birth Attendants] in Mae La camp, a low resource, protracted refugee context on the Thai-Myanmar border. [from abstract]

Human Resources for Health and Universal Health Coverage: Fostering Equity and Effective Coverage

The paper reports on country experiences using an analytical framework that examines effective coverage in relation to the availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality (AAAQ) of HRH. [from abstract]

Attitudes toward Working in Rural Areas of Thai Medical, Dental and Pharmacy New Graduates in 2012: A Cross-Sectional Survey

This study aimed to explore the current attitudes of new medical, dental and pharmacy graduates as well as determine the linkage between their characteristics and the preference for working in rural areas. [from abstract]

Thailand Special Recruitment Track of Medical Students: A Series of Annual Cross-Sectional Surveys on the New Graduates between 2010 and 2012

This study compared the rural attitudes, intention to fulfill mandatory rural service and competencies between medical graduates’ from two modes of admission, normal and special tracks in order to evaluate Thailand’s comprehensive policies for rural retention of medical doctor and other health professional, including education strategy and mandatory service. [adapted from abstract]

Literature Review: The Role of the Private Sector in the Production of Nurses in India, Kenya, South Africa and Thailand

This study examines the supply of, demand for, and policy
environment of private nurse production in four selected countries. [from abstract]

Projecting Thailand Physician Supplies between 2012 and 2030: Application of Cohort Approaches

This study forecasts physician supply between 2012 and 2030 using cohort analysis, based on future production capacity and losses from the profession, and assesses if, and by when, the projected numbers of physicians would meet the targets of one doctor per 1,500 population. [from abstract]

Physical and Mental Helath among Caregivers: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study of Open University Students in Thailand

Caregivers constitute an important informal workforce, often undervalued, facing challenges to maintain their caring role, health and wellbeing. This study investigates the physical and mental health of Thai adult caregivers. [from abstract]

Human Resources for Health Implications of Scaling Up For Universal Access to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Treatment, and Care: Thailand Rapid Situational Analysis

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]

Sharps Injuries among Nurses in a Thai Regional Hospital: Prevalence and Risk Factors

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]

Thailand’s Health Workforce: a Review of Challenges and Experiences

This paper provides an overview of the Thai health workforce situation and challenges, policy initiatives and programs aimed at addressing health workforce challenges, and a discussion of future challenges and key information and evidence gaps. [adapted from preface]

Mandatory Rural Service for Health Care Workers in Thailand

This article discusses Thailand’s mandatory health service system. Under this system, all early-career health workers from public professional schools serve in rural areas as a governmental worker to maintain the rural health workforce. The system has ameliorated the shortage of physicians in rural areas by substantially decreasing the emigration of Thai physicians to foreign countries.

Kenya, South Africa and Thailand: a Study to Improve Human Resource Policies

A study across three countries to identify policies which would help recruit and retain health workers in rural areas revealed that there is a danger in one size fits all recommendations when it comes to designing human resource policies. Results also show that there is room for both financial and non-financial incentives in human resource interventions in developing countries. [from author]

Thailand’s Unsung Heroes

The success of primary health care programmes in Thailand over the past three decades can be attributed not only to medical advances but to the role of community health volunteers. Buddhist monks and their temples have been strongly involved in health promotion and education, particularly in remote, rural communities. [from introduction]

Retention Strategies for Nursing: a Profile of Four Countries

A seven-point framework was used to analyze retention strategies in four countries: Uganda, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Thailand. This framework draws upon available country data and includes GDP and investment in health, mix of private/public investment, international migration, health policy frameworks, countrywide strategies, provincial/regional strategies, and professional associations/regulatory bodies. Comparison of the countries demonstrated that progress has been made in nurse retention. [from executive summary]

Workplace Violence in the Health Sector: a Case Study in Thailand

This research report has been published to illustrate the situation of workplace violence in the health sector in Thailand as well as contributing factors to, the consequences, and management of that violence. [from preface]

Inequitable Distribution of Doctors: Can it be Solved?

Maldistribution of human resources for health is a worldwide phenomenon and may appear in different dimensions. The first and greatest concern is the inequitable distribution, particularly of high level professionals like doctors, both among countries in the world and within each country. [author’s description]

Is Motivation Enough? Responsiveness, Patient-Centerdness, Medicalization and Cost in Family Practice and Conventional Care Settings in Thailand

In Thailand, family practice was developed primarily through a small number of self-styled family practitioners, who were dedicated to this professional field without having benefited from formal training in the specific techniques of family practice. In the context of a predominantly hospital-based health care system, much depends on their personal motivation and commitment to this area of medicine. The purpose of this paper is to compare the responsiveness, degree of patient-centredness, adequacy of therapeutic decisions and the cost of care in 37 such self-styled family practices, i.e. practices run by doctors who call themselves family practitioners, but have not been formally trained, and in 37 conventional public hospital outpatient departments (OPDs), 37 private clinics and 37 private hospital OPDs.

Abundant for the Few, Shortage for the Majority: the Inequitable Distribution of Doctors in Thailand

This paper reviews the situation and trend in human resources for health and its priority problems in Thailand. It also highlights the issue of the inequitable distribution of doctors. Through several brainstorming sessions among stakeholders, it summarizes a package of recommendations for the future continuous and sustainable knowledge-based human resources for health development. [from abstract]

Modified Population-to-Physician Ratio Method to Project Future Physician Requirement in Thailand

Imbalance in the cadre mix, number, distribution, and quality of health personnel are major concerns for health planners and policy makers. Many methods were developed and used to project future supply and requirement for health personnel. This paper modified the population-to-physician ratio method, by taking into account the specific characteristics of the Thai health care system, and of the future economic scenarios to project requirements of Thai physicians over the next twenty-five years. [from abstract]

Future Policy Options for HRH Production in the Ministry of Public Health, Thailand

Most human resources for health in developing countries are produced by highly subsidized public institutes. Due to inequity in basic education most health science students are from wealthier urban families. They tend to remain in urban areas after graduation, creating inequitable distribution of health personnel. At the same time the public education institutes are subject to strong bureaucratic inefficiency and usually no systematic quality control system. This paper analyses this situation in Thailand. [adapted from abstract]

Human Resource Development Through Continuous Improvement: a Case Study of Yasothorn Hospital, Thailand

Human Resource Development (HRD)is a very important yet very difficult component for effective health care delivery, especially in the public sector. Bureaucratic barriers, discontinuity, ineffective leadership, and lack of systematic approaches are major reasons for failures. A package of HRD strategies were introduced into Yasothon Hospital. This paper describes the detail of the implementation and evaluation of the results. [from abstract]

Conditions, Constraints, and Strategies for Increased Contribution of General Practitioners to the Health System in Thailand

This paper analyzes the present situation of general practitioners in the Thai health care system and the conditions under which their contribution could be strengthened. [from abstract]

Equivalence Determination of Qualifications and Degrees for Education and Training of Health Professions in Thailand

This study explores the details of the process leading to the equivalence determination of qualifications and degrees for the education and training of the health professions in Thailand. [from abstract]

Human Resources Development as Part of the Response to the Changing Paradigm of International Health Functions: the Case of Thailand

This paper analyses in detail the changing international health paradigms and the situations that challenge international mechanisms existing globally and in Thailand. Human resources development on international health and negotiation skills constitute the core responses. The initial success of the recent development in Thailand is also reviewed. Finally, the conceptual framework, possible strategies and priority activities are proposed to be carried out for future international health development. [from abstract]

International Service Trade and its Implications for Human Resources for Health: A Case Study of Thailand

This study aims at analysing the impact of international service trade on the health care system, particularly in terms of human resources for health (HRH), using Thailand as a case study. [from abstract]

Potential Implications of Hospital Autonomy on Human Resources Management: A Thai Case Study

Using Thailand as a case study, this paper aims to explore the potential implications of integrated health system intervention. Within the Thai context, it is argued in this paper that autonomy of a network of public providers, rather than autonomy of individual hospitals, should be encouraged if management of health manpower is to be optimized. [from abstract]

Integrated Strategies to Tackle the Inequitable Distribution of Doctors in Thailand: Four Decades of Experience

This paper aims to summarize strategies to solve inequitable distribution of human resources for health (HRH) between urban and rural areas, by using four decades of experience in Thailand as a case study for analysis. [from abstract]