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Selected Topics - Human Resources in Health
 The WWW Virtual Library: Public Health
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Studies on Human Resource in Health at UNSW
Events
Global policies and related documents
- Global Atlas of the Health Workforce
"There is a growing need for high quality information on human resources in health systems to inform decision making for policies and programmes at the national and international levels. The WHO Department of Human Resources for Health has been collecting and compiling cross-nationally comparable data on health workers in all WHO Member States... Two sets of data are contained in the Global Atlas: a main (aggregated) set and a disaggregated set. The aggregated dataset includes estimates of the stock and density of health workers for up to 9 occupational categories. This includes: (i) physicians; (ii) nursing and midwifery personnel; (iii) dentistry personnel; (iv) pharmaceutical personnel; (v) laboratory health workers; (vi) environmental and public health workers; (vii) community and traditional health workers; (viii) other health service providers; and (ix) health management and support workers, that is, those who do not provide services directly but are critical to the performance of health systems. In the disaggregated dataset, estimates of the stock of health workers are available for some countries for up to 18 occupational categories, reflecting greater distinction of some categories of workers according to assumed differences in skill level and skill specialization."
Reports, guidelines and projects
- Addressing the health workforce crisis: towards a common approach
The challenges in the health workforce are well known and clearly documented. What is not so clearly understood is how to address these issues in a comprehensive and integrated manner that will lead to solutions. This editorial from Human Resources for Health presents – and invites comments on – a technical framework intended to raise awareness among donors and multisector organizations outside ministries of health and to guide planning and strategy development at the country level.
- Australia's Health Workforce Research Report
This January 2006 paper represents the findings of the Australian Productivity Commission's study to examine issues impacting on the health workforce including the supply of, and demand for, health workforce professionals, and propose solutions to ensure the continued delivery of quality health care over the next 10 years. The study was undertaken in the context of the need for efficient and effective delivery of health services in an environment of demographic change, technological advances and rising health costs.
- Competency based epidemiologic training in public health practice
"This special Public Health Reports supplement [Volume 123, Issue 7, 2008] presents articles and commentaries on the theme of competency based epidemiologic training in public health practice… The articles in this issue of Public Health Reports underscore the importance of clearly defined competencies for workforce education and training, and the usefulness of competencies for facilitating dialogue between academic and practice communities."
- Developing Public Health Management Training Capacity in Nicaragua - The Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Initiative in Nicaragua is distinctive in its focus on developing a cadre of in-country trainers whose aim is to equip frontline public health managers with widely applicable tools and techniques to assist them in identifying and solving implementation problems. Since 1999, 137 trainees — 37% more than originally planned — have demonstrated competence by completing and presenting applied management projects. Nineteen professors from the preventive medicine faculty at the Autonomous University of Nicaragua also have been trained. The country office now has a cadre of seasoned trainers who can meet the ongoing management training needs of CARE staff and their counterparts in the Ministry of Health and in other nongovernmental organizations. [author abstract]
- Distribution and Internal Migration of Canada’s Health Care Workforce
This 2007 report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information states that “…The distribution of health care providers is constantly changing. It is influenced by many factors such as both internal and external migration. Understanding and measuring where exactly these health professionals are located and how they move within the country is critical to the proper planning and management of the health care system. This series of reports uses a combination of Statistics Canada Census of Population and Scott's Medical Database data to examine internal migration - the movement of health care workers within provinces or territories or from one province or territory to another.”
- For Public Service or Money: Understanding Geographical Imbalances in the Health Workforce
Geographical imbalances in the health workforce have been a consistent feature of nearly all health systems, and especially in developing countries. In this paper we investigate the willingness to work in a rural area among final year nursing and medical students in Ethiopia. Analysing data obtained from contingent valuation questions, we find that household consumption and the student’s motivation to help the poor, which is our proxy for intrinsic motivation, are the main determinants of willingness to work in a rural area. We investigate who are willing to help the poor and find that women are significantly more likely to help than men. Other variables, including a rich set of psycho-social characteristics, are not significant. Finally, we carry out some simulations on how much it would cost to make the entire cohort of starting nurses and doctors choose to take up a rural post.
- Global Demographic Change: Dimensions and Economic Significance
This Working Paper by David E Bloom and David Canning is part of the Harvard Initiative for Global Health, Program on the Global Demography of Aging. It examines the potential effects of unusual demographic changes which have occurred in recent decades as the result of baby booms, reduced infant mortality rates and subsequent reductions in fertility in countries throughout the world.
- Global health diplomacy: training across disciplines
"The interface between trade and health is on the cutting edge of global health diplomacy, write Ilona Kickbusch et al. in a perspective. Foreign policy is now being driven substantially by health to protect national security, free trade and economic advancement, they say. But this exciting new field of study requires conceptual development and practical training programmes….Some governments have taken purposeful strides to incorporate health as a foreign policy tool. Perhaps, however, it is the other way around: foreign policy is now being driven substantially by health to protect national security, free trade and economic advancement. We offer a few examples of this changing field of health and foreign policy as background to our academic response: The United Kingdom is attempting to establish policy coherence with the development of a central governmental global health strategy based on health as a human right and global public good. Rooted in the recognition of globalization and its effects on health, this new effort will bring together the United Kingdom’s foreign relations, international development, trade and investment policies that can affect global health." (author)
- Health Care Workforce in Europe: Learning from Experience
"A trained and motivated workforce, with appropriate skills, a commitment to life-long learning and receiving adequate rewards is an essential prerequisite for high-performing health systems. Yet, for many countries the challenge of getting this right too often proves elusive. ...This volume is one of a series of books produced by the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies attempting to address this issue."
- Health Workforce and International Migration: Can New Zealand Compete?
"This paper examines health workforce and migration policies in New Zealand, with a special focus on the international recruitment of doctors and nurses. The health workforce in New Zealand, as in all OECD countries, plays a central role in the health system. Nonetheless, maybe more than for any other OECD country, the health workforce in New Zealand cannot be considered without taking into account its international dimension. New Zealand has the highest proportion of migrant doctors among OECD countries, and one of the highest for nurses. There is no specific immigration policy for health professionals, although the permanent and temporary routes make it relatively easy for doctors and nurses who can get their qualification recognised to immigrate in New Zealand. At the same time, New Zealand also has high emigration rates of health workers, mainly to other OECD countries. International migration is thus at the same time an opportunity and a challenge for the management of the human resources for health (HRH) in New Zealand. Increasing international competition for highly skilled workers raises important issues such as sustainability and ability to compete in a global market. In this context, new approaches to improve the international recruitment of health workers, as well as developing alternative policies, may need to be considered. As for international recruitment, better coordination and stronger collaboration between main stakeholders could contribute to more effective and pertinent international recruitment."
- Human resources for health: a gender analysis
This 2007 paper by Asha George “[examines] gender dynamics in medicine, nursing, community health workers and home careers. It also explores from a gender perspective issues concerning delegation, migration and violence, which cut across these categories of health workers. These occupational categories and themes reflect priorities identified by the terms of reference for this review paper and also the themes that emerged from the accessed literature. This paper is based on a desk review of literature accessed through the internet, search engines, correspondence with other experts and reviewing bibliographies of existing material. These efforts resulted in a list of 534 articles, chapters, books and reports. Although most of the literature reviewed was in English, some of it was also in Spanish and Portuguese.”
- Human Resources for Health in Europe
"This book analyses how the current regulatory processes and practices related to key aspects of the management of the health professions may facilitate or inhibit the development of effective responses to challenges facing health care systems in Europe. The authors document how health care systems in Europe are confronting existing challenges in relation to the health workforce and identify strategies to optimize the management of health professionals in the future."
- International Mobility of Health Professionals: Brain Drain or Brain Exchange?
"The consequences of health professional mobility have become a prominent public policy concern. This paper considers trends in mobility amongst doctors and nurses and the consequences for health systems. Policy responses are shifting from a reactive agenda that focuses on stemming migration towards a more active agenda of managed migration that benefits source and destination countries."
- Not enough there, too many here: understanding geographic imbalances in the distribution of the health workforce
Human Resources and Health Vol.4, 2006. "The objective of this paper is to offer a better understanding of the determinants of geographical imbalances in the distribution of health personnel, and to identify and assess the strategies developed to correct them. It reviews the recent literature on determinants, barriers and the effects of strategies that attempted to correct geographical imbalances, with a focus on empirical studies from developing and developed countries. An analysis of determinants of success and failures of strategies implemented, and a summary of lessons learnt, is included."
- Satisfied Workers, Retained Workers: Effects of Work and Work Environment on Homecare Workers' Job Satisfaction, Stress, Physical Health and Retention
The goal of this project, undertaken by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation was to assist health system managers and policy makers develop policies and strategies to recruit and retain human resources in the homecare sector and have a satisfied, healthy workforce. Researchers worked in partnership with the agencies and the unions representing workers in the agencies to examine the effects of work and work environments on homecare workers’ emotional, mental, and physical health and intention to leave their workplaces.
- The Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States
"The Voluntary Code of Ethical Conduct for the Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Nurses to the United States (the Code) reflects the mutual recognition of stakeholder interests relevant to the recruitment of foreign educated nurses (FENs) to the United States. It is based on an acknowledgement of the rights of individuals to migrate, as well as an understanding that the legitimate interests and responsibilities of nurses, source countries, and employers in the destination country may conflict. It affirms that a careful balancing of those individual and collective interests offers the best course for maximizing the benefits and reducing the potential harm to all parties. While the Code acknowledges the interests of these three primary stakeholder groups, its subscribers are the organizations that recruit and employ foreign educated nurses, e.g., third party recruiting firms, staffing agencies, hospitals, long-term care organizations and health systems."
- World Health Report 2006
"The World Health Report 2006 - Working together for health contains an expert assessment of the current crisis in the global health workforce and ambitious proposals to tackle it over the next ten years, starting immediately. Focusing on all stages of the health workers' career lifespan from entry to health training, to job recruitment through to retirement, the report lays out a ten-year action plan in which countries can build their health workforces, with the support of global partners."
Educational resources
- Guidelines on incentives for health professionals
"The world's leading health and hospital professional associations have joined to produce the first-ever joint guidelines on incentives for the retention and recruitment of health professionals. Commissioned by GHWA as part of its work to identify and implement solutions to the health workforce crisis, the Guidelines on Incentives for Health Professionals is the combined result of collaboration. …The report underlines how incentives are important levers that organizations can use to attract, retain, motivate and improve the performance of their staff in all professions and walks of life, This is especially and urgently needed in the health care sector, it states, where the growing gap between the supply of health care professionals and the demand for their services is reaching crisis levels in many countries. The 'Incentives' guidelines offer practical solutions that can make a difference. Professional associations will implement the guidelines by using the research to support claims and raise awareness of all stakeholders including patients. The serious shortage of health workers across the world has been identified as one of the most critical constraints to the achievement of health and development goals. The 2006 World Health Report estimated a global shortage of 4.3 million health workers, including 2.4 million physicians, nurses and midwives. Translated into access to care, the shortage means that over a billion people have no access to heath care professionals." Available in English, French and Spanish.
- The Observatory of Human Resources in Health Sector Reforms
The Observatory of Human Resources is a cooperative initiative among the countries of the Latin American Region and the Caribbean to produce information and knowledge necessary for improving human resources in health policy decisions, and to share the knowledge obtained from the experiences in order to improve the management of human resource development in the health services sector.
Organisations and Networks
UN and multinational
Government
Non Government
Academic Institutions with particular focus in this area
Key Conferences, conference and workshop reports
Coming conferences
Conference reports
Journals, Newsletters, Forums
Bibliographies, Libraries
Public health bookshops
Original website founded Lucien E. Schlosser and Eberhard Wenzel, 1997.
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