Articles

Distribution of health care resources in Mongolia using the Gini coefficient

Attaining the perfect balance of health care resources is probably impracticable; however, it is possible to achieve improvements in the distribution of these resources. In terms of the distribution of health ...

Authors: Oyunchimeg Erdenee, Sekar Ayu Paramita, Chiho Yamazaki and Hiroshi Koyama

The paradox of falling job satisfaction with rising job stickiness in the German nursing workforce between 1990 and 2013

Literature reports a direct relation between nurses’ job satisfaction and their job retention (stickiness). The proper planning and management of the nursing labor market necessitates the understanding of job ...

Authors: Mohamad Alameddine, Jan Michael Bauer, Martin Richter and Alfonso Sousa-Poza

Sharing Histories—a transformative learning/teaching method to empower community health workers to support health behavior change of mothers

One of the keys to improving health globally is promoting mothers’ adoption of healthy home practices for improved nutrition and illness prevention in the first 1000 days of life from conception. Customarily, ...

Authors: Laura C. Altobelli

Non-physician clinicians in rural Africa: lessons from the Medical Licentiate programme in Zambia

Most sub-Saharan African countries struggle to make safe surgery accessible to rural populations due to a shortage of qualified surgeons and the unlikelihood of retaining them in district hospitals. In 2002, Z...

Authors: Jakub Gajewski, Carol Mweemba, Mweene Cheelo, Tracey McCauley, John Kachimba, Eric Borgstein, Leon Bijlmakers and Ruairi Brugha

Patterns of resident health workforce turnover and retention in remote communities of the Northern Territory of Australia, 2013–2015

The geographical maldistribution of the health workforce is a persisting global issue linked to inequitable access to health services and poorer health outcomes for rural and remote populations. In the Norther...

Authors: Deborah J Russell, Yuejen Zhao, Steven Guthridge, Mark Ramjan, Michael P Jones, John S Humphreys and John Wakerman

The evolution of the national licensing system of health care professionals: a qualitative descriptive case study in Lao People’s Democratic Republic

The introduction of a systematic framework for the licensing of health care professions, which is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of human resources for health (HRH), is still evolving in Lao People’s D...

Authors: Miwa Sonoda, Bounkong Syhavong, Chanphomma Vongsamphanh, Phisith Phoutsavath, Phengdy Inthapanith, Arie Rotem and Noriko Fujita

Coping and compromise: a qualitative study of how primary health care providers respond to health reform in China

Health reform in China since 2009 has emphasized basic public health services to enhance the function of Community Health Services as a primary health care facility. A variety of studies have documented these ...

Authors: Mingji Zhang, Wei Wang, Ross Millar, Guohong Li and Fei Yan

The gap in human resources to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services at urban and rural primary care facilities in Mexico

The purpose of this study was to estimate the gap between the available and the ideal supply of human resources (physicians, nurses, and health promoters) to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and he...

Authors: Jacqueline Elizabeth Alcalde-Rabanal, Gustavo Nigenda, Till Bärnighausen, Héctor Eduardo Velasco-Mondragón and Blair Grant Darney

Cross-sectional description of nursing and midwifery pre-service education accreditation in east, central, and southern Africa in 2013

In 2013, the World Health Organization issued guidelines, Transforming and Scaling Up Health Professional Education and Training, to improve the quality and relevance of health professional pre-service education....

Authors: Carey F. McCarthy, Jessica M. Gross, Andre R. Verani, Annette M. Nkowane, Erica L. Wheeler, Thokozire J. Lipato and Maureen A. Kelley

The Human Resources for Health Effort Index: a tool to assess and inform Strategic Health Workforce Investments

Despite its importance, the field of human resources for health (HRH) has lagged in developing methods to measure its status and progress in low- and middle-income countries suffering a workforce crisis. Measu...

Authors: Alfredo L. Fort, Rachel Deussom, Randi Burlew, Kate Gilroy and David Nelson

The ‘Dream Team’ for sexual, reproductive, maternal, newborn and adolescent health: an adjusted service target model to estimate the ideal mix of health care professionals to cover population need

A competent, enabled and efficiently deployed health workforce is crucial to the achievement of the health-related sustainable development goals (SDGs). Methods for workforce planning have tended to focus on ‘...

Authors: Petra ten Hoope-Bender, Andrea Nove, Laura Sochas, Zoë Matthews, Caroline S. E. Homer and Francisco Pozo-Martin

Harmonizing community-based health worker programs for HIV: a narrative review and analytic framework

Many countries have created community-based health worker (CHW) programs for HIV. In most of these countries, several national and non-governmental initiatives have been implemented raising questions of how we...

Authors: Jan-Walter De Neve, Chantelle Boudreaux, Roopan Gill, Pascal Geldsetzer, Maria Vaikath, Till Bärnighausen and Thomas J. Bossert

How female community health workers navigate work challenges and why there are still gaps in their performance: a look at female community health workers in maternal and child health in two Indian districts through a reciprocal determinism framework

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are community health workers tasked to deliver health prevention in communities and link them with the health care sector. This paper examines the social, cultural, a...

Authors: Enisha Sarin and Sarah Smith Lunsford

What will make a difference? Assessing the impact of policy and non-policy scenarios on estimations of the future GP workforce

Health workforce planning is based on estimates of future needs for and supply of health care services. Given the pipeline time lag for the training of health professionals, inappropriate workforce planning or...

Authors: Caroline O. M. Laurence and Jonathan Karnon

Knowledge, attitudes, and values among physicians working with clinical genomics: a survey of medical oncologists

It has been over a decade since the completion of the Human Genome Project (HGP), genomic sequencing technologies have yet to become parts of standard of care in Canada. This study investigates medical oncolog...

Authors: Peter Chow-White, Dung Ha and Janessa Laskin

A comparison of physician emigration from Africa to the United States of America between 2005 and 2015

Migration of health professionals has been a cause for global concern, in particular migration from African countries with a high disease burden and already fragile health systems. An estimated one fifth of Af...

Authors: Robbert J. Duvivier, Vanessa C. Burch and John R. Boulet

An exploration of facilitators and challenges in the scale-up of a national, public sector community health worker cadre in Zambia: a qualitative study

In 2010 a public sector cadre of community health workers called Community Health Assistants (CHAs) was created in Zambia through the National Community Health Worker Strategy to expand access to health servic...

Authors: Sydney Chauwa Phiri, Margaret Lippitt Prust, Caroline Phiri Chibawe, Ronald Misapa, Jan Willem van den Broek and Nikhil Wilmink

A continuous quality improvement intervention to improve the effectiveness of community health workers providing care to mothers and children: a cluster randomised controlled trial in South Africa

Community health workers (CHWs) play key roles in delivering health programmes in many countries worldwide. CHW programmes can improve coverage of maternal and child health services for the most disadvantaged ...

Authors: Christiane Horwood, Lisa Butler, Pierre Barker, Sifiso Phakathi, Lyn Haskins, Merridy Grant, Ntokozo Mntambo and Nigel Rollins

Credentialing and retention of visa trainees in post-graduate medical education programs in Canada

Visa trainees are international medical graduates (IMG) who come to Canada to train in a post-graduate medical education (PGME) program under a student or employment visa and are expected to return to their co...

Authors: Maria Mathews, Rima Kandar, Steve Slade, Yanqing Yi, Sue Beardall, Ivy Bourgeault and Lynda Buske

Occupational therapy and physiotherapy education and workforce in Anglophone sub-Saharan Africa countries

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries are faced with the challenge of educating a critical mass of occupational therapists (OTs) and physiotherapists (PTs) to meet the growing demand for health and rehabilitation...

Authors: Augustine O. Agho and Emmanuel B. John

Health professionals’ job satisfaction and associated factors at public health centers in West Ethiopia

Human resources are vital for delivering health services, and health systems cannot function effectively without sufficient numbers of skilled, motivated, and well-supported health workers. Job satisfaction of...

Authors: Beyazin Kebede Deriba, Shimele Ololo Sinke, Berhane Megersa Ereso and Abebe Sorsa Badacho

The potential of task-shifting in scaling up services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV: a time and motion study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

In many African countries, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) services are predominantly delivered by nurses. Although task-shifting is not yet well established, community health workers...

Authors: Helga Naburi, Anna Mia Ekström, Phares Mujinja, Charles Kilewo, Karim Manji, Gunnel Biberfeld, David Sando, Guerino Chalamila and Till Bärnighausen

Nurses who work in rural and remote communities in Canada: a national survey

In Canada, as in other parts of the world, there is geographic maldistribution of the nursing workforce, and insufficient attention is paid to the strengths and needs of those providing care in rural and remot...

Authors: Martha L. P. MacLeod, Norma J. Stewart, Judith C. Kulig, Penny Anguish, Mary Ellen Andrews, Davina Banner, Leana Garraway, Neil Hanlon, Chandima Karunanayake, Kelley Kilpatrick, Irene Koren, Julie Kosteniuk, Ruth Martin-Misener, Nadine Mix, Pertice Moffitt, Janna Olynick…

Measuring health workers’ motivation composition: validation of a scale based on Self-Determination Theory in Burkina Faso

Although motivation of health workers in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) has become a topic of increasing interest by policy makers and researchers in recent years, many aspects are not well understoo...

Authors: Julia Lohmann, Aurélia Souares, Justin Tiendrebéogo, Nathalie Houlfort, Paul Jacob Robyn, Serge M. A. Somda and Manuela De Allegri

Health workforce and governance: the crisis in Nigeria

In Nigeria, several challenges have been reported within the health sector, especially in training, funding, employment, and deployment of the health workforce. We aimed to review recent health workforce crise...

Authors: Davies Adeloye, Rotimi Adedeji David, Adenike Ayobola Olaogun, Asa Auta, Adedapo Adesokan, Muktar Gadanya, Jacob Kehinde Opele, Oluwafemi Owagbemi and Alexander Iseolorunkanmi

Predictors of job satisfaction among nurses working in Ethiopian public hospitals, 2014: institution-based cross-sectional study

Nurses play a pivotal role in determining the efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability of health care systems. Nurses’ job satisfaction plays an important role in the delivery of quality health care. Ther...

Authors: Ayele Semachew, Tefera Belachew, Temamen Tesfaye and Yohannes Mehretie Adinew

Long working hours in the healthcare system of the Belo Horizonte municipality, Brazil: a population-based cross-sectional survey

Health personnel are key players in developing and improving healthcare systems, caring for individuals and their communities, and helping improve quality of life. However, these professionals are often expose...

Authors: Juliana M. Andrade, Ada A. Assunção and Mery N. S. Abreu

Does task shifting yield cost savings and improve efficiency for health systems? A systematic review of evidence from low-income and middle-income countries

Task shifting has become an increasingly popular way to increase access to health services, especially in low-resource settings. Research has demonstrated that task shifting, including the use of community hea...

Authors: Gabriel Seidman and Rifat Atun

Causes, consequences, and policy responses to the migration of health workers: key findings from India

This study sought to better understand the drivers of skilled health professional migration, its consequences, and the various strategies countries have employed to mitigate its negative impacts. The study was...

Authors: Margaret Walton-Roberts, Vivien Runnels, S. Irudaya Rajan, Atul Sood, Sreelekha Nair, Philomina Thomas, Corinne Packer, Adrian MacKenzie, Gail Tomblin Murphy, Ronald Labonté and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault

Training and deployment of medical doctors in Tanzania post-1990s health sector reforms: assessing the achievements

The shortage of a skilled health workforce is a global crisis. International efforts to combat the crisis have shown few benefits; therefore, more country-specific efforts are required. Tanzania adopted health...

Authors: Nathanael Sirili, Angwara Kiwara, Frumence Gasto, Isabel Goicolea and Anna-Karin Hurtig

Internationally educated nurses in Canada: predictors of workforce integration

Global trends in migration accompanied with recent changes to the immigrant selection process may have influenced the demographic and human capital characteristics of internationally educated nurses (IENs) in ...

Authors: Christine L. Covell, Marie-Douce Primeau, Kelley Kilpatrick and Isabelle St-Pierre

An examination of the causes, consequences, and policy responses to the migration of highly trained health personnel from the Philippines: the high cost of living/leaving—a mixed method study

Dramatic increases in the migration of human resources for health (HRH) from developing countries like the Philippines can have consequences on the sustainability of health systems. In this paper, we trace the...

Authors: Erlinda Castro-Palaganas, Denise L. Spitzer, Maria Midea M. Kabamalan, Marian C. Sanchez, Ruel Caricativo, Vivien Runnels, Ronald Labonté, Gail Tomblin Murphy and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault

Challenges and strategies to improve the availability and geographic accessibility of physicians in Portugal

Shortages of physicians in remote, rural and other underserved areas and lack of general practitioners limit access to health services. The aims of this article are to identify the challenges faced by policy a...

Authors: Ana Paula Cavalcante de Oliveira, Gilles Dussault and Isabel Craveiro

Survival analysis to measure turnover of the medical education workforce in Ethiopia

Until recently, there were only a few medical schools in Ethiopia. However, currently, in response to the apparent shortage in physician workforce, the country has made huge progress with respect to the expans...

Authors: Tsion Assefa, Damen Haile Mariam, Wubegzier Mekonnen and Miliard Derbew

Analysis of an international collaboration for capacity building of human resources for eye care: case study of the college-college VISION 2020 LINK

There is an extreme health workforce shortage in Eastern, Central, and Southern Africa. Shortage of eye care workers impedes effective implementation of prevention of blindness programs. The World Health Organ...

Authors: Nyawira Mwangi, Marcia Zondervan and Covadonga Bascaran

A rapid review of the rate of attrition from the health workforce

Attrition or losses from the health workforce exacerbate critical shortages of health workers and can be a barrier to countries reaching their universal health coverage and equity goals. Despite the importance...

Authors: Sofia Castro Lopes, Maria Guerra-Arias, James Buchan, Francisco Pozo-Martin and Andrea Nove

Incentives to change: effects of performance-based financing on health workers in Zambia

Performance-based financing (PBF) has been implemented in a number of countries with the aim of transforming health systems and improving maternal and child health. This paper examines the effect of PBF on hea...

Authors: Gordon C. Shen, Ha Thi Hong Nguyen, Ashis Das, Nkenda Sachingongu, Collins Chansa, Jumana Qamruddin and Jed Friedman

A systematic review of economic evaluations of CHW interventions aimed at improving child health outcomes

Evidence of the cost-effectiveness of community health worker interventions is pertinent for decision-makers and programme planners who are turning to community services in order to strengthen health systems i...

Authors: L. Nkonki, A. Tugendhaft and K. Hofman

Erratum to: Global Health Workforce Labor Market Projections for 2030

Authors: Jenny X. Liu, Yevgeniy Goryakin, Akiko Maeda, Tim Bruckner and Richard Scheffler

A cross-sectional study of the income sources of primary care health workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo

In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the state system to remunerate health workers is poorly functional, encouraging diversification of income sources and corruption. Given the central role that health w...

Authors: Rishma Maini, David R. Hotchkiss and Josephine Borghi

Impact of the rural pipeline in medical education: practice locations of recently graduated family physicians in Ontario

The “rural pipeline” suggests that students educated in rural, or other underserviced areas, are more likely to establish practices in such locations. It is upon this concept that the Northern Ontario School o...

Authors: Elizabeth F. Wenghofer, John C. Hogenbirk and Patrick E. Timony

Balancing the health workforce: breaking down overall technical change into factor technical change for labour—an empirical application to the Dutch hospital industry

Well-trained, well-distributed and productive health workers are crucial for access to high-quality, cost-effective healthcare. Because neither a shortage nor a surplus of health workers is wanted, policymaker...

Authors: Jos L. T. Blank and Bart L. van Hulst

Health workforce metrics pre- and post-2015: a stimulus to public policy and planning

Evidence-based health workforce policies are essential to ensure the provision of high-quality health services and to support the attainment of universal health coverage (UHC). This paper describes the main ch...

Authors: Francisco Pozo-Martin, Andrea Nove, Sofia Castro Lopes, James Campbell, James Buchan, Gilles Dussault, Teena Kunjumen, Giorgio Cometto and Amani Siyam

Can we halt health workforce deterioration in failed states? Insights from Guinea-Bissau on the nature, persistence and evolution of its HRH crisis

Guinea-Bissau is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries. Amid poverty, political turmoil and state withdrawal, its health workforce (HW) has been swamped for the last four decades in a deepen...

Authors: Giuliano Russo, Enrico Pavignani, Catia Sá Guerreiro and Clotilde Neves

Global Health Workforce Labor Market Projections for 2030

In low- and middle-income countries, scaling essential health interventions to achieve health development targets is constrained by the lack of skilled health professionals to deliver services.

Authors: Jenny X. Liu, Yevgeniy Goryakin, Akiko Maeda, Tim Bruckner and Richard Scheffler

Beyond patient care: the impact of healthcare reform on job satisfaction in the Ethiopian public healthcare sector

While healthcare reform has been a central attention for local governments, its impact on job satisfaction is poorly understood. This study aimed to determine the impact of healthcare reform on job satisfactio...

Authors: Tsegahun Manyazewal and Mokgadi C. Matlakala

An assessment of staffing needs at a HIV clinic in a Western Kenya using the WHO workload indicators of staffing need WISN, 2011

An optimal number of health workers, who are appropriately allocated across different occupations and geographical regions, are required to ensure population coverage of health interventions. Health worker sho...

Authors: B. Burmen, N. Owuor and P. Mitei

Human resources for health (and rehabilitation): Six Rehab-Workforce Challenges for the century

People with disabilities face challenges accessing basic rehabilitation health care. In 2006, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) outlined the global necessity to me...

Authors: Tiago S. Jesus, Michel D. Landry, Gilles Dussault and Inês Fronteira

Insights of health district managers on the implementation of primary health care outreach teams in Johannesburg, South Africa: a descriptive study with focus group discussions

Primary health care (PHC) outreach teams are part of a policy of PHC re-engineering in South Africa. It attempts to move the deployment of community health workers (CHWs) from vertical programmes into an integ...

Authors: Shabir Moosa, Anselme Derese and Wim Peersman

Physician migration at its roots: a study on the emigration preferences and plans among medical students in Romania

Migration of healthcare workers is receiving increased attention worldwide. In Europe, the creation of a border-free labor market and its expansion with the EU enlargements of 2004, 2007, and 2013 endowed heal...

Authors: Şoimita Mihaela Suciu, Codruta Alina Popescu, Mugur Daniel Ciumageanu and Anca Dana Buzoianu