Americas & Caribbean

The development of best practices to promote physician wellbeing at the individual and organisational levels is receiving increased attention. Few studies have documented how physicians perceive their wellbeing in these contexts. The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify and discuss the reported factors that hinder wellbeing, as well as the reported factors that would promote wellbeing among physicians. [from abstract]

As a self-contained technical instruction manual, this handbook is intended to provide a practical tool to guide the identification and definition of initial baseline data to be collected in order to provide a descriptive profile of countries’ human resources for health to facilitate monitoring their progress towards achieving their HRH goals over time. [from author]

This study focuses on the recruitment practices of Canada (a country with a long reliance on internationally trained HHR) and recruiters working for Canadian health authorities. [adapted from abstract]

The purpose of this project was to determine the feasibility of routine use of information from community pharmacy claims databases by regulatory authorities to screen the quality of care provided at community pharmacies. [from abstract]

Low-resource countries often carry the heaviest disease burden and maintain the smallest health workforce. The deadly cholera epidemic in Haiti is only the most recent example of how the time for ‘task shifting’ has arrived. [from author]

This article presents a model for the development of sustainable primary health care in village communities in Honduras through the training and support of community health workers. [from author]

This study focuses on the implementation and evaluation of the Forecasting Future Workforce Demand Tool. It was hypothesized that implementation of the tool would enable hospitals to enter historical workforce data to create one to five-year forecasts for proactive HHR planning and strategy development. [from summary]

With the aim of arriving at a better understanding of specific dimensions of health workforce inequalities in their national contexts, three case studies are presented from Ethiopia, Brazil and Mexico. [from introduction]

Like many developing countries, Guyana has a severe shortage of surgeons. Rather than rely on overseas training, Guyana developed its own Diploma in Surgery and asked for assistance from the Canadian Association of General Surgeons. This paper reviews the initial results of Guyana’s first postgraduate training program. [from abstract]

The primary purpose of the Data for Improvement and Clinical Excellence Long-Term Care (LTC) project is to assess the effects of a quality improvement audit with feedback intervention delivered monthly over 13 months to healthcare workers in four LTC facilities. [adapted from abstract]

This article sought to systematically assess the research training needs of health care professionals working at Peruvian governmental institutions leading HIV and tuberculosis control and among senior stakeholders in the field. [from abstract]

This important document strives to address the issues and challenges facing the health workforce in Belize and further strengthens the foundation upon which Belize continues to build a vision of quality health care for all Belizeans.[from author]

This article summarizes a project that tested whether mobile learning in combination with social media might provide a solution for the lack of training for health care workers scattered across the country. [adapted from author]

This article presents an innovative approach to healthcare worker (HCW) training using mobile phones as a personal learning environment. Twenty physicians used individual Smartphones in urban and peri-urban HIV/AIDS clinics in Peru, where almost 70% of the nations HIV patients in need of treatment. [adapted from abstract]

Follow-up studies of former students are an efficient way to organize the entire process of professional training and curriculum evaluation. The aim of this study was to identify professional profile subgroups based on job-related variables in a sample of former students of a Brazilian public dental school. [from abstract]

The objective of this qualitative study was to understand how nursing professionals coped with job retraining in a public hospital after an illness. [adapted from abstract]

The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy of a clinically relevant educational program to enhance the language proficiency and professionalism of international medical graduates in a Canadian context. [adapted from introduction]

This case study presents the initial results of the pay-for-performance (P4P) experience of UNIMED-Belo Horizonte, a private, nonprofit organization in Brazil and provides an example of private sector P4P to improve service quality and efficiency. [from author]

This study explored sector specific components that contribute to positive work environments and job satisfaction for nurses working outside of the acute care sector. Specifically, this study examined the recruitment and retention initiatives being implemented by nursing employers in the community, public health and long-term care sectors in various geographic areas of Ontario. [from summary]

This article discusses practices in community health, supported by life quality indicators of the Brazilian population, emphasizing nursing contributions toward social justice. It presents the current situation involving inequities in health in Brazil and Latin America with regard to the economic aspects, access to and distribution of health services, as well as the scenario of education of health professionals. [adapted from abstract]

This research brief outlines a study done Belize, Honduras and Guatemala on the current and potential future role of faith-based organizations in HIV prevention and care. [adapted from author]

This report summarizes the findings of an exploratory, qualitative study of FBO involvement in HIV/AIDS in three Central American countries hard hit by the HIV/AIDS epidemic: Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. It provides an overview of the epidemics in each country studied and the range of HIV prevention and care activities conducted by FBOs. Further, it discusses the facilitators of these activities, as well as the challenges to FBO involvement in HIV prevention and care. [from preface]

The objective of this paper is to assess the impact of Oportunidades (Human Development Program)on skilled attendance at delivery in rural areas through the application of a variety of evaluation techniques, taking advantage of the experimental design implemented for the evaluation of this program in rural areas. [from introduction]

This paper explores a long-standing strategy to attract and retain doctors in rural areas in Chile: the Rural Practitioner Programme. The objectives of the study are to describe this programme for rural doctors (médicos generales de zona), to characterize its multidimensional set of incentives and to carry out a preliminary evaluation of programme outcomes. [from introduction]

This article outlines the Latin American Medical School program model which trains young people from developing countries and sends them home as doctors with a pledge to practise in underserved areas. [adapted from author]

This document describes an approach to developing competencies that can guide interprofessional education and collaborative practice for all professions in a variety of contexts and is the first attempt to develop a Canadian model of interprofessional competencies that is applicable to all health professions. [from author]

To confront the common problems in the management and development of human resources for health, the ministry has created policy guidelines for HRH and is defining the competency profiles of health personnel at different levels. This document outlines the process and lessons learned. [adapted from author]

Propõe-se um ensaio das questões que envolvem o planejamento de recursos humanos de enfermagem na área hospitalar em nossa realidade, abordando possíveis temas para futuras pesquisas. Traça-se uma retrospectiva da evolução das pesquisas sobre dimensionamento de pessoal no país e a incorporação de novos instrumentos para avaliação da carga de trabalho com base no grau de dependência dos pacientes e nas ações de cuidado.

In this article we analyse Brazil’s 80 year old public health course via its history, disciplines, organization and characteristics of the student body in order to gain an insight into the development of public health in Brazil and to highlight the progress of education for professionals in this field. [adapted from author]

This report presents the results of an evaluation of the Ontario provincial strategy for hiring new graduates, the Nursing Graduate Guarantee, for the year 2008-2009. [from summary]