Tools & Guides

Competencies Assessment Tool 2010

This tool is an instrument for healthcare executives to use in assessing their expertise in critical areas of healthcare management. [adapted from author]

Competency-to-Curriculum Toolkit

This toolkit has been developed to facilitate the development of a public health workforce competent to meet its assigned mission. One part of that process is the use of competency-based curricula in public health training or education and how to determine the right activities for moving from a competency set to developing a curriculum. [adapted from author]

Core Competencies for Public Health Professionals

The core competencies are a set of skills desirable for the broad practice of public health. They reflect the characteristics that staff of public health organizations may want to possess as they work to protect and promote health in the community. The competencies are designed to serve as a starting point for academic and practice organizations to understand, assess, and meet education, training and workforce needs. [adapted from introduction]

Health Systems in Action: An eHandbook for Leaders and Managers

This handbook brings together effective practices in leadership, management, and governance. It includes effective practices in key management systems that all work together to improve health. [from preface]

Calculating Human Resource Need

Who will you need, when will you need them, can you afford them? This toolkit, recently developed for use in Liberia, can substantially assist the process. [from author]

Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice

At a time when the world is facing a shortage of health workers, policymakers are looking for innovative strategies that can help them develop policy and programmes to bolster the global health workforce. This document highlights the current status of interprofessional collaboration around the world, identifies the mechanisms that shape successful collaborative teamwork and outlines a series of action items that policymakers can apply within their local health system.

What Countries Can Do Now: Twenty-Nine Actions to Scale-Up and Improve the Health Workforce

This document explains seven financing and economic issues that matter for health workforce scale-up and financing. It then states twenty-nine actions that policy-makers could take right away to address the issues, independent of any long-term HRH interventions in progress. [from introduction]

Strategies to Advance 70% Full-Time Nurse Employment Toolkit

This toolkit was designed for nurse employers across the province of Ontario to use as a resource in working toward the 70% full-time nurse commitment. It is a practical guide to assist Nurse Managers and Human Resource Staff in identifying staffing needs and creating organization-specific strategies to increase full-time employment for nurses. [from author]

Planning the Development of Human Resources for Health for Implementation of the Stop TB Strategy: a Handbook

This handbook provides background information on the current workforce situation in the health sector and summarizes the issues and challenges; introduces the HRH Action Framework and the Stop TB (tuberculosis) Strategy; applies the Framework to human resource development (HRD) for comprehensive TB control; describes how to prepare a strategic plan for HRD in support of comprehensive TB control; and gives a step-by-step guide on how to develop HRD plans based on the structures and processes described. [adapted from introduction]

WISN Toolkit: Toolkit for Implementing Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) to Improve Health Workforce Planning and Management in Decentralized Health Systems

The Toolkit is adapted from the WHO WISN Manual. WISN has traditionally been in a top down approach with limited success, particularly when applying it within the context of a decentralized government system. It was recognized that a more innovative approach was required to implement the methodology successfully at decentralized levels. [from author]

Handbook on Monitoring and Evaluation of Human Resources for Health with Special Applications for Low and Middle Income Countries

This handbook offers health managers, researchers and policy makers a comprehensive, standardized and user-friendly reference for monitoring and evaluating human resources for health. It brings together an analytical framework with strategy options for improving the health workforce information and evidence base, as well as country experiences to highlight approaches that have worked. [from preface]

Guidelines on Planning Human Resources for Nursing

The purpose of these guidelines is to assist nurse leaders in strengthening the management of their professional workforce and, through this, to assist in strengthening health care delivery and strategies for improving health. [from author]

Paying for Performance in Health: Guide to Developing the Blueprint

Pay for performance (P4P) is an innovative approach that explicitly links financial investment in health to health results. However, the mechanics of its implementation need to be planned very carefully to elicit the desired behavior change in a given country. This guide offers the reader a systematic framework to document and structure a P4P initiative. [adapted from foreword]

Global Opportunities Tool

The GO Tool is a comprehensive resource connecting health professions students to domestic and international reproductive health training opportunities. [from author]

Curricula Organizer for Reproductive Health Education (CORE)

CORE is an open access, cutting edge tool for building presentations on the full spectrum of reproductive health topics. It has sample slides for easy insertion into a presentation that users can download as well as fact sheets, activities, studies and other resources. [adapted from publisher]

Guidance for Nurse Prescription and Management of Antiretroviral Therapy

In resource-limited settings, serious healthcare worker shortages that contribute to weak health systems exist alongside the drive to scale up ART and other HIV services to reach those in need. The global health community thus needs to reassess current delivery models and pilot new ones that could expand needed healthcare and be more cost effective, while preserving the quality of services. This book provides a roadmap for conceptualizing and initiating the expansion of the nursing scope of practice to include ART prescription and management. [adapted from author]

Equity-Oriented Toolkit for Health Technology Assessment and Knowledge Translation: Application to Scaling Up of Training and Education for Health Workers

This paper illustrates how decision-makers can use evidence and tools from an equity-oriented toolkit to scale up training and education of health workers. [adapted from abstract]

Quantitative Tool for Workforce Planning in Healthcare: Example Simulations

This report summarizes a series of quantitative models developed to assist in workforce planning and using example simulation projections for the demand and supply of healthcare workers in Ireland. [adapted from executive summary]

Health Service Planning and Policy-Making: a Toolkit for Nurses and Midwives

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]

WHO Guidelines for Implementing Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery Services in the African Region 2007-2017

The regional guidelines for implementing the SDNM in the African Region are to accelerate action at country level. The guidelines also provide both a framework for WHO action to support countries in improving the quality of nursing and midwifery services, and a guide for action at national and local levels. Possible priority actions have been proposed to countries to facilitate strengthening of nursing and midwifery services at national and local levels. [from foreword]

Safer Place Self-Audit Tool: Combating Violence Against Social Care Staff

This self-audit tool can be used at any management level and is designed to help employers make a quick judgement about whether an organization’s framework for management and practice minimizes the potential for workers to be subject to violence and abuse. The tool also enables a supportive response if incidents occur. [adapted from description]

National Framework to Support Local Workforce Strategy Development: a Guide for HR Directors in the NHS and Social Care

This document suggests a framework within which governing bodies and boards — supported by HR directors and managers across health and social care — can develop local workforce strategies. [adapted from introduction]

Standards-Based Management and Recognition: a Field Guide

This field guide is intended to provide some help with the task of improving the delivery of health services using standards of care as the basis for improvement. This guide is designed to answer questions such as: What types of standards are really useful to local providers and mangers? How can they be implemented in a practical way? How can the improvement process be supported?

Guidance for the Health Information Systems (HIS) Strategic Planning Process: Steps, Tools and Templates for HIS Systems Design and Strategic Planning

This document is an early version of procedures for use by national health and statistics constituencies in planning and carrying out the design of strategies and operational plans for strengthening their national health information systems. [from summary]

Health Systems in Transition: Template for Analysis

This Health Systems in Transition profile is a country-based report that provides a detailed description of a health system and of policy initiatives in progress or under development. It is a template intended to be used in a flexible way to allow authors and editors to adapt it to their particular national context. [adapted from introduction]

Rapid Assessment Tool for Sexual and Reproductive Health and HIV Linkages: a Generic Guide

The objective of this adaptable tool is to assess HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) bi-directional linkages at the policy, systems and service-delivery levels. It is intended also to identify gaps, and ultimately contribute to the development of country-specific action plans to forge and strengthen these linkages. It includes assement tools for evaluating staffing, human resources and capacity development (p.32) as well as a checklist for evaluating health workers’ capacity to perform SRH and HIV functions (p.82). [adapted from author]

HRIS Strengthening Implementation Toolkit

This toolkit provides a package of HRIS procedures and tools to HRH stakeholders, HR information system managers and software developers to facilitate applying the HRIS strengthening processes and iHRIS software developed by the Capacity Project. The toolkit collects briefs, forms, case studies, resources and other materials to assist with all five steps of the HRIS strengthening process: introduction, building HRIS leadership, assessing and improving existing systems, developing software solutions, using data to make decisions, and ensuring sustainability. [from author]

Key Characteristics of Positive Practice Environments for Health Care Professionals

This document presents a checklist of key characteristics of quality workplaces for health care professionals. It is intended for use by employers, professional organizations, regulatory bodies, government agencies as well as health sector professionals. It is designed as a reference tool to enable these groups to assess the quality of their practice environment, identify any deficiencies and develop strategies to address priority gaps. [adapted from introduction]

Global Framework for Quality Assurance of Pharmacy Education

Many countries are introducing, expanding, or undertaking major reform of pharmacy education. Such developments must be accompanied by robust systems to assure the quality of the educational structures, processes and outcomes; the latter primarily being graduates who are competent and capable of performing safely and effectively in their practice setting and contributing to the delivery of healthcare. [from author]

An updated and expanded version of the FIP Global Framework for Quality Assurance of Pharmacy Education Version 1 was published in 2015.

Performance-Based Contracting for Health Services in Developing Countries: a Toolkit

This toolkit provides practical advice to anyone involved in, or who is interested in becoming involved in, performance-based contracting of health services with nonstate providers in the context of developing countries. It addresses many of the issues that may be encountered and provides input from experienced contracting professionals, many of whom contributed to the development of this toolkit. [adapted from introduction]