Articles

The State of the World’s Midwifery 2021 report: findings to drive global policy and practice

The third global State of the World’s Midwifery report (SoWMy 2021) provides an updated evidence base on the sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health (SRMNAH) workforce. For the first time...

Authors: Andrea Nove, Petra ten Hoope-Bender, Martin Boyce, Sarah Bar-Zeev, Luc de Bernis, Geeta Lal, Zoë Matthews, Million Mekuria and Caroline S. E. Homer

Association between supportive supervision and performance of community health workers in India: a longitudinal multi-level analysis

Community health workers (CHWs) deliver services at-scale to reduce maternal and child undernutrition, but often face inadequate support from the health system to perform their job well. Supportive supervision...

Authors: Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, Nadia Diamond-Smith, Rasmi Avula, Purnima Menon, Lia Fernald, Dilys Walker and Sumeet Patil

Factors influencing the performance of community health volunteers working within urban informal settlements in low- and middle-income countries: a qualitative meta-synthesis review

There is limited information on community health volunteer (CHV) programmes in urban informal settlements in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This is despite such settings accounting for a high burden...

Authors: Michael Ogutu, Kui Muraya, David Mockler and Catherine Darker

Practices and resilience of dieticians during the COVID-19 pandemic: a national survey in the United Arab Emirates

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted the practices and resilience of most healthcare workers, including dieticians. In addition to offering critical care to COVID-19 patients, dieticians play a major role in prevent...

Authors: Farah Naja, Hadia Radwan, Leila Cheikh Ismail, Mona Hashim, Wafaa Helmi Rida, Salma Abu Qiyas, Karen Bou-Karroum and Mohamad Alameddine

Job satisfaction among Syrian healthcare workers in refugee health centres

Achieving universal health coverage is subject to the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of health workers. Countries that host refugees and migrants, such as Turkey, must strengthen the c...

Authors: Monica Zikusooka, Omur Cinar Elci and Habibe Özdemir

Do health policies address the availability, accessibility, acceptability, and quality of human resources for health? Analysis over three decades of National Health Policy of India

Human Resources for Health (HRH) are crucial for improving health services coverage and population health outcomes. The World Health Organisation (WHO) promotes countries to formulate holistic policies that fo...

Authors: Sweta Dubey, Jeel Vasa and Siddhesh Zadey

Correction to: Real wage growth in the U.S. health workforce and the narrowing of the gender pay gap

Authors: Janis Barry

COVID-19 vaccine uptake among health care workers in Ghana: a case for targeted vaccine deployment campaigns in the global south

Health care workers (HCWs) are among the high-risk groups in contracting and dying from COVID-19. World Health Organization estimates that over 10,000 HCWs in Africa have been infected with COVID-19 making it ...

Authors: Robert Kaba Alhassan, Seth Owusu-Agyei, Evelyn Korkor Ansah and Margaret Gyapong

Challenges facing the More Doctors program (Programa Mais Médicos) in vulnerable and peri-urban areas in Greater Brasilia, Brazil

A shortage of physicians, especially in vulnerable and peri-urban areas, is a global phenomenon that has serious implications for health systems, demanding policies to assure the provision and retention of hea...

Authors: Helena Eri Shimizu, Leonor Maria Pacheco Santos, Mauro Niskier Sanchez, Thomas Hone, Christopher Millett and Matthew Harris

Management of burnout among the staff of primary care centres in Spain during the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2

The provision of healthcare during the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus represented a challenge for the management of the resources in the primary care centres. We proposed assessing burnout among the s...

Authors: Isaac Aranda-Reneo, Azucena Pedraz-Marcos and Montserrat Pulido-Fuentes

Increasing doctors working in specific rural regions through selection from and training in the same region: national evidence from Australia

‘Grow your own’ strategies are considered important for developing rural workforce capacity. They involve selecting health students from specific rural regions and training them for extended periods in the sam...

Authors: Matthew R. McGrail and Belinda G. O’Sullivan

Pharmacists as immunizers in Lebanon: a national survey of community pharmacists’ willingness and readiness to administer adult immunization

Since the focus of healthcare has shifted toward prevention, pharmacists were highly encouraged to expand their practice to include immunization services. Our study aimed to assess the knowledge, attitudes and...

Authors: Dalal Youssef, Linda Abou-Abbas, Suzan Farhat and Hamad Hassan

Documentation and dissemination of scientific evidence by the Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program: experiences and lessons learnt, 2015–2020

During participation in Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETP) residents/fellows generate scientific evidence from the various public health projects they are engaged in. However, this evidence is not suf...

Authors: Lilian Bulage, Alex Riolexus Ario, Steven N. Kabwama, Benon Kwesiga, Daniel Kadobera, Christine Kihembo, Simon Antara and Rhoda K. Wanyenze

The workforce for rehabilitation in primary health care in Brazil

Studies on the workforce in rehabilitation in primary health care services are still unusual in health systems analysis. Data on the health worker density at the subnational level in rehabilitation in primary ...

Authors: Debora Bernardo da Silva, Taciana Rocha dos Santos Sixel, Arthur de Almeida Medeiros, Paulo Henrique dos Santos Mota, Aylene Bousquat and Ana Carolina Basso Schmitt

Factors associated with the rural and remote practice of medical workforce in Maluku Islands of Indonesia: a cross-sectional study

Many factors contribute to engagement in rural and remote (RR) medical practice, but little is known about the factors associated with rural and remote medical practice in such remote locations as the Maluku P...

Authors: Farah Noya, Sandra Carr, Sandra Thompson, Rhonda Clifford and Denese Playford

A systematic review of the profile and density of the maternal and child health workforce in China

To track progress in maternal and child health (MCH), understanding the health workforce is important. This study seeks to systematically review evidence on the profile and density of MCH workers in China.

Authors: Huan Zhang, Xiaoyun Liu, Loveday Penn-Kekana and Carine Ronsmans

The role of community health workers in the surgical cascade: a scoping review

Community health workers (CHWs) can increase access to various primary healthcare services; however, their potential for improving surgical care is under-explored. We sought to assess the role of CHWs in the s...

Authors: Helen W. Li, Michael L. Scanlon, Nicholas Kisilu and Debra K. Litzelman

The experiences of new graduate nurses and midwives going through a virtual interview recruitment process during the COVID-19 crisis: a cross-sectional study

The annual recruitment of new graduate nurses and midwives is key to recruiting large numbers of staff with the right attitude, skills and knowledge who are the best fit for the organisation. Virtual interview...

Authors: Doreen Holm, Se Ok Ohr and Michelle Giles

Accreditation of private midwifery and nursing schools in Mali: a local sustainable solution to increasing the supply of qualified health workers

The World Health Organization’s Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health (HRH) emphasizes the importance of dynamic and effective health worker regulation for achieving the health-related Sustainable Deve...

Authors: Cheick Oumar Touré, Sujata Bijou, Melanie Joiner, Andrew Brown, Jeanne Tessougué, Hamada Maiga, Fatoumata Dicko and Abdel Kader Keïta

Frontline healthcare workers’ mental distress, top concerns, and assessment on hierarchy of controls in response to COVID-19: a cross-sectional survey study

The existing studies showed that frontline healthcare workers during an epidemic experienced unusual stressors and mental distress which even lasted for years after the crisis. It is important to learn about t...

Authors: Lingling Zhang, Kimberlee L. Flike, C. Ann Gakumo, Ling Shi, Suzanne G. Leveille and Linda S. Thompson

A multimodal mentorship intervention to improve surgical quality in Tanzania’s Lake Zone: a convergent, mixed methods assessment

Safe, high-quality surgical care in many African countries is a critical need. Challenges include availability of surgical providers, improving quality of care, and building workforce capacity. Despite growing...

Authors: Shehnaz Alidina, Leopold Tibyehabwa, Sakshie Sanjay Alreja, David Barash, Danta Bien-Aime, Monica Cainer, Kevin Charles, Edwin Ernest, Joachim Eyembe, Laura Fitzgerald, Geofrey C. Giiti, Augustino Hellar, Yahaya Hussein, Furaha Kahindo, Benard Kenemo, Albert Kihunrwa…

Regulation of non-conventional therapies in Portugal: lessons learnt for strengthening human resources in health

The integration of non-conventional therapies (NCT) into health policies and health services delivery is a worldwide trend and might have a role in achieving Universal Health Coverage. WHO has encouraged count...

Authors: Pascoal Amaral and Inês Fronteira

Employment and working conditions of nurses: where and how health inequalities have increased during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Nurses and midwives play a critical role in the provision of care and the optimization of health services resources worldwide, which is particularly relevant during the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, they...

Authors: Alba Llop-Gironés, Ana Vračar, Gisela Llop-Gironés, Joan Benach, Livia Angeli-Silva, Lucero Jaimez, Pramila Thapa, Ramesh Bhatta, Santosh Mahindrakar, Sara Bontempo Scavo, Sonia Nar Devi, Susana Barria, Susana Marcos Alonso and Mireia Julià

Global accreditation practices for accelerated medically trained clinicians: a view of five countries

Shortages and maldistribution of healthcare workers persist despite efforts to increase the number of practitioners. Evidence to support policy planning and decisions is essential. The World Health Organizatio...

Authors: James Antwi, Anthony Asare Arkoh, Joseph Kiprop Choge, Turi Woticha Dibo, Alias Mahmud, Enkhtuya Vankhuu, Erick Kizito Wanyama and Danette Waller McKinley

Effect of healthcare system reforms on job satisfaction among village clinic doctors in China

Village clinic doctors (VCDs) are part of the health service force in rural China. VCDs’ job satisfaction (JS) is important to the stability of the three-tiered health service system. Since 2009, the Chinese g...

Authors: Zhongming Chen, Lifang Zhou, Haiyuan Lv, Kui Sun, Hongwei Guo, Jinwei Hu, Qianqian Yu, Dongmei Huang, Dongping Ma, Zhiqiang Feng, Changhai Tang, Mengna Dai and Wenqiang Yin

Physiotherapy services in patient care in Bhutan

Physiotherapy and rehabilitative services are an integral part of patient care, but in many developing countries they are not considered a priority and are either not available or not easily accessible to thos...

Authors: Monu Tamang and Thinley Dorji

Needs-led human resource planning for Sierra Leone in support of oral health

In Sierra Leone (SL), a low-income country in West Africa, dental care is very limited, largely private, and with services focused in the capital Freetown. There is no formal dental education. Ten dentists sup...

Authors: Swapnil Gajendra Ghotane, Patric Don-Davis, David Kamara, Paul R. Harper, Stephen J. Challacombe and Jennifer E. Gallagher

Real wage growth in the U.S. health workforce and the narrowing of the gender pay gap

Healthcare has been identified as a job engine during recent recessions in the U.S. Whether the healthcare sector provides better than average pay remains a question. This study investigates if wages grew with...

Authors: Janis Barry

Application of the Ultra-Poverty Graduation Model in understanding community health volunteers’ preferences for socio-economic empowerment strategies to enhance retention: a qualitative study in Kilifi, Kenya

A significant shortage of healthcare workforce exists globally. To achieve Universal Healthcare coverage, governments need to enhance their community-based health programmes. Community health volunteers (CHVs)...

Authors: Njeri Nyanja, Nelson Nyamu, Lucy Nyaga, Sophie Chabeda, Adelaide Lusambili, Marleen Temmerman, Michaela Mantel and Anthony Ngugi

Interventions for health workforce retention in rural and remote areas: a systematic review

Attracting and retaining sufficient health workers to provide adequate services for residents of rural and remote areas has global significance. High income countries (HICs) face challenges in staffing rural a...

Authors: Deborah Russell, Supriya Mathew, Michelle Fitts, Zania Liddle, Lorna Murakami-Gold, Narelle Campbell, Mark Ramjan, Yuejen Zhao, Sonia Hines, John S. Humphreys and John Wakerman

Education policies to increase rural physicians in Japan: a nationwide cohort study

Japan has established comprehensive education-scholarship programs to supply physicians in rural areas. Their entrants now comprise 16% of all medical students, and graduates must work in rural areas for a des...

Authors: Masatoshi Matsumoto, Yasushi Matsuyama, Saori Kashima, Soichi Koike, Yuji Okazaki, Kazuhiko Kotani, Tetsuhiro Owaki, Shizukiyo Ishikawa, Seitaro Iguchi, Hitoaki Okazaki and Takahiro Maeda

The physiotherapy workforce in the Brazilian Unified Health Care System

Maintaining sufficient health care workforce is a global priority to achieve universal health coverage. Therefore this study addresses the availability of physiotherapists in Brazil.

Authors: Carolina Hart Rodés, João Vitor Lovato Daré, Bruna Carolina de Araujo, Leonardo Graciani, Silvia Maria Amado João, Ana Claudia Camargo Gonçalves Germani and Ana Carolina Basso Schmitt

The impact of colonial-era policies on health workforce regulation in India: lessons for contemporary reform

Regulation is a critical function in the governance of health workforces. In many countries, regulatory councils for health professionals guide the development and implementation of health workforce policy, bu...

Authors: Veena Sriram, Vikash R. Keshri and Kiran Kumbhar

Does supportive supervision intervention improve community health worker knowledge and practices for community management of childhood diarrhea and pneumonia? Lessons for scale-up from Nigraan and Nigraan Plus trials in Pakistan

Lack of programmatic support and supervision is one of the underlying reasons of the poor performance of Pakistan’s Lady Health Worker Program (LHWP). This study describes the findings and potential for scale-...

Authors: Wafa Aftab, Suneel Piryani and Fauziah Rabbani

Retention of visa-trainee post-graduate residents in Canada: a retrospective cohort study

Visa trainees (international medical graduates [IMG] who train in Canada under a student or employment visa) are expected to return home after completing their training. We examine the retention patterns of vi...

Authors: Maria Mathews, Dania Koudieh, Yanqing Yi, Lindsay Hedden, Emily Gard Marshall, Asoka Samarasena, Geoff Barnum and Ivy Bourgeault

Brazil’s more doctors programme and infant health outcomes: a longitudinal analysis

Providing sufficient numbers of human resources for health is essential for effective and accessible health services. Between 2013 and 2018, the Brazilian Ministry of Health implemented the Programa Mais Médicos ...

Authors: Charlotte Bexson, Christopher Millett, Leonor Maria Pacheco Santos, Ricardo de Sousa Soares, Felipe Proenço de Oliveira and Thomas Hone

A practical measure of health facility efficiency: an innovation in the application of routine health information to determine health worker productivity in Ethiopia

A simple indicator of technical efficiency, such as productivity of health workers, measured using routine health facility data, can be a practical approach that can inform initiatives to improve efficiency in...

Authors: Md Zabir Hasan, Girmaye D. Dinsa and Peter Berman

Task-sharing to support paediatric and child health service delivery in low- and middle-income countries: current practice and a scoping review of emerging opportunities

Demographic and epidemiological changes have prompted thinking on the need to broaden the child health agenda to include care for complex and chronic conditions in the 0–19 years (paediatric) age range. Provid...

Authors: Yingxi Zhao, Christiane Hagel, Raymond Tweheyo, Nathanael Sirili, David Gathara and Mike English

Participation of women in the health workforce in the fragile and conflict-affected countries: a scoping review

The full participation of women as healthcare providers is recognized globally as critical to favorable outcomes at all levels, including the healthcare system, to achieving universal health coverage and susta...

Authors: Basnama Ayaz, Maria Athina Martimianakis, Carles Muntaner and Sioban Nelson

Factors affecting job choice among physician anesthesia providers in Uganda: a survey of income composition, discrete choice experiment, and implications for the decision to work rurally

One of the biggest barriers to accessing safe surgical and anesthetic care is lack of trained providers. Uganda has one of the largest deficits in anesthesia providers in the world, and though they are increas...

Authors: Tyler J. Law, Shivani Subhedar, Fred Bulamba, Nathan N. O’Hara, Mary T. Nabukenya, Cornelius Sendagire, Adam Hewitt-Smith, Michael S. Lipnick and Janat Tumukunde

How long does it take patients to find a new primary care physician when theirs retires: a population-based, longitudinal study

The retirement of a family physician can represent a challenge in accessibility and continuity of care for patients. In this population-based, longitudinal cohort study, we assess whether and how long it takes...

Authors: Lindsay Hedden, Megan A. Ahuja, M. Ruth Lavergne, Kimberlyn M. McGrail, Michael R. Law, Lucy Cheng and Morris L. Barer

Variations in regulations to control standards for training and licensing of physicians: a multi-country comparison

To strengthen health systems, the shortage of physicians globally needs to be addressed. However, efforts to increase the numbers of physicians must be balanced with controls on medical education imparted and ...

Authors: Wafa Aftab, Mishal Khan, Sonia Rego, Nishant Chavan, Afifah Rahman-Shepherd, Isha Sharma, Shishi Wu, Zahra Zeinali, Rumina Hasan and Sameen Siddiqi

Situational analysis and reflections on the introduction of advanced practice nurses in Brazilian primary healthcare

The shortage of doctors and their unequal distribution serve as challenges to advancing primary healthcare (PHC) and achieving effective universal healthcare coverage in Brazil. In an effort to use nurses’ pot...

Authors: Carinne Magnago and Celia Regina Pierantoni

Co-developing an integrated primary care workforce planning approach at a regional level: overarching framework and guiding principles

Health workforce planning provides a crucial evidence-base for decision-makers in the development and deployment of a fit-for-purpose workforce. Although less common, health workforce planning at the regional ...

Authors: Ivy Lynn Bourgeault, Caroline Chamberland-Rowe and Sarah Simkin

An integrated primary care workforce planning toolkit at the regional level (part 2): quantitative tools compiled for decision-makers in Toronto, Canada

Health workforce planning capability at a regional level is increasingly necessary to ensure that the healthcare needs of defined local populations can be met by the health workforce. In 2016, a regional healt...

Authors: Sarah Simkin, Caroline Chamberland-Rowe and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault

An integrated primary care workforce planning toolkit at the regional level (part 1): qualitative tools compiled for decision-makers in Toronto, Canada

A regional health authority in Toronto, Canada, identified health workforce planning as an essential input to the implementation of their comprehensive Primary Care Strategy. The goal of this project was to de...

Authors: Caroline Chamberland-Rowe, Sarah Simkin and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault

Regional inequalities and substitutability of health resources in the Czech Republic: a five methods of evaluation

An analysis of the regional distribution of health resources is one of the tools for evaluating equal geographic access to health care. The usual analytical approach to an assessment of regional differences is...

Authors: Martin Dlouhý

Task-shifting to optimize outpatient neurological care in Zambia

To investigate opportunities for task shifting to decongest an outpatient neurology clinic in Zambia by describing current patient flow through the clinic and potential nodes for intervention using process map...

Authors: Ana C. Villegas, Deanna Saylor, Michelle Kvalsund, Masharip Atadzhanov, Clarence Chiluba, Lorraine Chishimba, Stanley Zimba, Mashina Chomba and Omar K. Siddiqi

Educational needs of medical practitioners about medical billing: a scoping review of the literature

The World Health Organization has suggested the solution to health system waste caused by incorrect billing and fraud is policing and prosecution. However, a growing body of evidence suggests leakage may not a...

Authors: Margaret Faux, Jon Adams and Jonathan Wardle

Regulation of the global orthotist/prosthetist workforce, and what we might learn from allied health professions with international-level regulatory support: a narrative review

By 2050, the global demand for orthotic and prosthetic services is expected to double. Unfortunately, the orthotic/prosthetic workforce is not well placed to meet this growing demand. Strengthening the regulat...

Authors: Leigh Clarke, Louise Puli, Emily Ridgewell, Michael P. Dillon and Sarah Anderson