The South African government plans to increase the number of new medical students by 10% over the three to four years, raising the total from 1,800 to 2,395 by 2016. According to the Department of Health’s chief operating officer, the department’s plan to ensure more medical students at South African universities is part of its health systems strengthening strategy and aims to address the critical shortage of public health workers in the country, particularly in rural areas.
Human Resources
SA's medical student intake to be upped
Mkhwanazi S: The New Age, 17 April 2013
SA: NEDLAC, COSATU MEET ON PRIVATISATION
The National Economic Development and Labour Council's (Nedlac) standing committee on Friday met representatives of the Congress of SA Trade Unions and the Department of Public Enterprises on Cosatu's notice of possible protest action against privatisation. Last week Cosatu notified Nedlac that it was planning mass action in protest against the privatisation of state assets.
SADC pushes for affirmative action to accelerate gender equality
SARDC
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is pressing for affirmative action to speed up progress towards substantive equality between women and men at all levels of decision-making. 'To realise full implementation of this decision, member states must endeavour to adopt affirmative action to protect women and enshrine it in national constitutions,' said Mathiba-Madibela at a media briefing prior to the Council of Ministers that takes place in Gaborone this week.
Salaried and voluntary community health workers: exploring how incentives and expectation gaps influence motivation
Ormel H; Kok M; Kane S; Ahmed R; et al: Human Resources for Health 17(59) 1-12, 2019
This paper aims to critically analyse how using incentives affected community health worker motivation in six countries was undertaken. The motivational factors were defined as financial, material, non-material and intrinsic and semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with community health workers, supervisors, health managers and selected community members were used. The authors found that incentives influence motivation in similar and sometimes different way across contexts. Motivation was negatively influenced by gaps between incentives and expectations, including lower than expected financial incentives, later than expected payments, fewer than expected material incentives and job enablers, and unequally distributed incentives across groups of community health workers. Furthermore, it was found that incentives could cause friction in the interface between community health workers, communities and the health sector. Whether they are employed or volunteers has implications for the way incentives influence motivation. Intrinsic motivational factors are important to and experienced by both types of community health workers, yet for many who are salaried, payment does not compensate for the demotivation derived from the perceived low level of financial reward. The authors suggest that managing expectations and consistency in payments may be as important as the absolute level of incentives.
Scaling up priority health interventions in Tanzania: The human resources challenge
Kurowski C, Wyss K, Abdulla S, Mills A: Health Policy and Planning 22(3):113-127, 2007
Effective and often cheap interventions exist to achieve the MDGs by 2015. In Tanzania, one of the poorest countries of the world, we explored the human resources challenges of expanding the coverage of such priority interventions. Even in an optimistic scenario, human resource availability will limit the extent to which priority interventions can be expanded in Tanzania, and the government will not be able to avoid adjusting the globally set targets for service coverage and health outcomes to local realities and priorities.
Seeing red: training healthworkers to screen for anaemia in pregnancy
Anaemia affects around two billion people worldwide. Pregnant women and children are the major groups at risk. The World Health Organisation (WHO)recommends anaemia screening for all pregnant women and has developed a simple Haemoglobin Colour Scale test. Can this test be used reliably in regions with limited resources? How effective is the WHO-recommended training programme?
SERIOUS BRAIN DRAIN HITS MALAWI'S AILING HEALTH SECTOR
While Malawi's health sector is already hurt by shortages of drugs due to a constrained government budget, and a rising death toll because of HIV/AIDS, an exodus of medical personnel to richer western nations is threatening to cripple the already ailing sector.
Service delivery in Kenyan district hospitals: what can we learn from literature on mid-level managers?
Nzinga J, Mbaabu L and English M: Human Resources for Health 11(10), 26 February 2013
The authors of this study examined literature on the roles of mid-level managers to understand how they might influence service delivery quality in Kenyan hospitals. A total of 23 articles were finally included in the review from over 7,000 titles and abstracts initially identified. The most widely documented roles of mid-level managers were decision-making or problem-solving, strategist or negotiator and communicator. Others included being a therapist or motivator, goal setting or articulation and mentoring or coaching. In addition to these roles, the authors identified important personal attributes of a good manager, which included interpersonal skills, delegation and accountability, and honesty. Most studies included in the review concerned the roles that mid-level managers are expected to play in times of organisational change. The review highlights the possible significance of mid-level managers in achieving delivery of high-quality services in Kenyan public hospitals and strongly suggests that approaches to strengthen this level of management will be valuable. The findings from this review should also help inform empirical studies of the roles of mid-level managers in these settings.
Setting targets for human resources for eye health in sub-Saharan Africa: what evidence should be used?
Courtright P; Mathenge W; Kello A; Cook C; Kalua K; Lewallen S: Human Resources for Health14(1)11, 2016
With a global target set at reducing vision loss by 25% by the year 2019, sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 4.8 million blind persons will require human resources for eye health (HReH) that need to be available, appropriately skilled, supported, and productive. Targets for HReH are useful for planning, monitoring, and resource mobilization, but they need to be updated and informed by evidence of effectiveness and efficiency. Supporting evidence should take into consideration (1) ever-changing disease-specific issues including the epidemiology, the complexity of diagnosis and treatment, and the technology needed for diagnosis and treatment of each condition; (2) the changing demands for vision-related services of an increasingly urbanized population; and (3) interconnected health system issues that affect productivity and quality. The existing targets for HReH and some of the existing strategies such as task shifting of cataract surgery and trichiasis surgery, as well as the scope of eye care interventions for primary eye care workers, will need to be re-evaluated and re-defined against such evidence or supported by new evidence.
Sharing best practices through online communities of practice: A case study
Audaya T, Fried GP, Johnson P and Stilwell BJ: Human Resources for Health 8(25), 12 November 2010
This study looks at successful examples of health-focused online communities, like the Capacity Project’s Global Alliance for Pre-Service Education (GAPS), which provides an online forum to discuss issues related to teaching and acquiring competence in family planning in developing countries, and the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery's ongoing web-based community of practice (CoP), which reaches many participants in a range of settings. In the survey, GAPS members suggested that, instead of focusing solely on family planning competencies, GAPS should include professional competencies (e.g. communication, leadership, cultural sensitivity, teamwork and problem solving) that would enhance the resulting health care graduate's ability to operate in a complex health environment. Resources to support competency-based education in the academic setting must be sufficient and appropriately distributed. The study concludes that online CoPs are a useful interface for connecting developing country experiences. To sustain an online CoP, funds must come from an international organisation (e.g. the World Health Organization) or a university that can carry the long-term costs. Eventually, the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of GAPS rests on its transfer to the members themselves.