CapacityPlus

Scaling-Up a Statewide Health Workforce Information System to Improve Maternal and Child Health Services in Jharkhand, India

mnathe — Thu, 24 Aug 2017 14:07:31 +0000

Scaling-Up a Statewide Health Workforce Information System to Improve Maternal and Child Health Services in Jharkhand, India 2017 mnathe August 24, 2017

India faces critical human resources for health challenges in health systems strengthening, including shortages of key cadres such as doctors, specialists, nurses, and midwives, especially in rural and underserved areas. The state of Jharkhand had a very high number of rural vacancies and no data on the training status of health workers. And information on the health workforce is limited, fragmented, and generally not in a format that can be easily accessed, reviewed, and shared.

This brief outlines how IntraHealth International worked with the government of Jharkhand to pilot and then scale-up statewide a web-based human resources information system to improve access to skilled health workers and high-quality services. Jharkhand’s system customizes iHRIS, the world’s leading open source software for health workforce information systems, currently used by 24 countries.

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Countries India

Projects CapacityPlus

Topics HRIS Health Workforce & Systems

Publisher IntraHealth International

By Sunil Kumar, Manju Shukla, David Nelson, Meenakshi Jain

The Human Resources for Health Effort Index: A Tool to Assess and Inform Strategic Health Workforce Investments

intrahealth — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:03:09 +0000

The Human Resources for Health Effort Index: A Tool to Assess and Inform Strategic Health Workforce Investments 2017 intrahealth August 15, 2017

It’s tough to measure progress on an issue as big and complex as the health workforce. The HRH Effort Index helps.

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. Measures of professional health worker densities and distribution are purely numerical, unreliable, and do not represent the full spectrum of workers providing health services. To provide more information on the multi-dimensional characteristics of human resources for health, in 2013–2014, the global USAID-funded CapacityPlus project, led by IntraHealth International, developed and tested a 79-item HRH Effort Index modeled after the widely used Family Planning Effort Index.

The results of applying the index in Burkina Faso, Dominican Republic, Ghana, and Mali are detailed in this article published in Human Resources for Health.

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https://human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-017-02…

Countries Burkina Faso Ghana Mali

Projects CapacityPlus

Topics Measurement & Analytics Health Workforce & Systems

Series Human Resources for Health

By Alfredo L. Fort, Rachel Deussom, Randi Burlew, Kate Gilroy, David Nelson

Effort Index Tool Offers a Way to Measure Health Workforce Progress

intrahealth — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 18:38:01 +0000

Effort Index Tool Offers a Way to Measure Health Workforce Progress intrahealth August 15, 2017 August 15, 2017

National decision-makers in the health sector can now take stock of their health workforces and the systems that support them using the Human Resources for Health (HRH) Effort Index, a tool developed by IntraHealth International with support from the US Agency for International Development. Results from four countries where the index was applied are now available in Human Resources for Health.

The HRH Effort Index measures health workforce status and progress, provides information that can help leaders build consensus and prioritize strategic investments, and facilitates more accurate comparisons of the HRH situation across countries, regions, or districts.

Inspired by the widely used Family Planning Effort Index, the tool surveys knowledgeable informants through 50 questions organized by the seven key dimensions of HRH:

leadership and advocacy
policy and governance
finance
education and training
recruitment, distribution, and retention
human resources management
monitoring, evaluation, and information systems

Scores (on a ten-point scale) are then tallied by each dimension and overall.

Through the USAID CapacityPlus project, IntraHealth applied the HRH Effort Index in Burkina Faso, the Dominican Republic (both nationally and subnationally), Ghana, and Mali. While overall scores ranged from 4.8 to 5.5—around midrange—there were important variations across dimensions within countries. In general, recruitment, distribution, retention, and financing scored lower, while leadership and advocacy scored higher.

These scores provide countries and other stakeholders with a more comprehensive, qualitative understanding of the success of their health workforce strengthening efforts, and can serve as a benchmark for measuring future progress.

The World Health Organization’s Workforce 2030 global strategy and the 2016 High-Level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth’s recommendations on investing in the health workforce both underscore the need for better country-level HRH data, analytics, and data sharing. Applying and refining the HRH Effort Index in more countries could help fill this gap, offering countries more information and points of comparison to inform their future policies and decisions.

Resources

The Human Resources for Health Effort Index: A Tool to Assess and Inform Strategic Health Workforce Investments

Health Workforce & Systems Measurement and EvaluationPhotograph by Trevor Snapp for IntraHealth InternationalCapacityPlus

Estimating the Institutional Costs of Educating and Training Health Workers: Preservice Education Costing Methodology and Instruments

intrahealth — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 21:15:44 +0000

Estimating the Institutional Costs of Educating and Training Health Workers: Preservice Education Costing Methodology and Instruments 2015 intrahealth November 01, 2016

Through the CapacityPlus project, IntraHealth designed a costing study approach to: 1) estimate the financial costs to an educational institution and its associated clinical practice facilities of producing a graduate of a specific academic program; 2) identify the resource constraints to producing sufficient numbers of quality graduates; and 3) simulate the potential new unit cost to the educational institution and its associated clinical practice facilities if a scenario of interventions were introduced to increase the quantity and/or quality of graduates. The approach applies an Excel-based costing model and data collection instruments to analyze preservice education costing data derived from information about enrollment levels, curriculum data, school expenditures, payroll, and available infrastructure and equipment.

This document can be used by any individual or group that has an interest in estimating the cost of an educational program, including school leaders in both public and private educational institutions; representatives of national governmental organizations such as ministries of health or education; national technical agencies, regulatory bodies, or associations; international technical agencies; and donors and financing agencies interested in health workforce education. It is important to note that an expert in economics or costing is required to lead the study.

Preservice education costing methdology

Countries South Africa

Projects CapacityPlus

Publisher IntraHealth International

Conceptual and Practical Foundations of Gender and Human Resources for Health

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Conceptual and Practical Foundations of Gender and Human Resources for Health 2009 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Presents what the Capacity Project learned about various forms of gender discrimination and how they serve as barriers to health workforce participation, and offers global recommendations for future action through health workforce policy, planning, development and support.

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Projects CapacityPlus

Topics Gender Equality Health Workforce & Systems

By Constance Newman

"I'm a Health Worker"

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

"I'm a Health Worker" 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

This ongoing video series features interviews with health workers in low-resource countries and shows how the IntraHealth-led CapacityPlus project is helping them save even more lives.

http://www.capacityplus.org/imahealthworker/

Projects CapacityPlus

Foundations of Gender Equality in the Health Workforce

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Foundations of Gender Equality in the Health Workforce 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

This course is intended to expose the participant to basic concepts, issues, and standards related to gender equality in the health workforce.

Click to view resource [website] - English

Click to view resource [website] - French

http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/elearning/course/view.php?id=10

http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/elearning/course/view.php?id=12

Projects CapacityPlus

Topics eLearning Gender Equality Health Workforce & Systems

Publisher IntraHealth International

By Adam Gori, Constance Newman

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Toward Development of a Rural Retention Strategy in Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Understanding Health Worker Preferences 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Author: Jaskiewicz W, Phathammavong O, Vangkonevilay P, Paphassarang C, Phachanh IT, and Wurts L

Project: CapacityPlus

Description: This report presents the results of a discrete choice experiment (DCE), using CapacityPlus’s rural retention survey toolkit, in May 2011, which constitute an important input to the policy-making process toward development of a national strategy to increase health worker attraction and retention in rural and remote areas of Lao PDR.

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Countries Lao People's Democratic Republic

Projects CapacityPlus

Topics Health workforce development

Publisher IntraHealth International

Community Health Workers

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Community Health Workers 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Description: This brief presents an overview of issues related to community health workers and human resources for health along with suggested actions, key considerations, and resources.

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Projects CapacityPlus

Series Issue brief #5

Transforming the Health Worker Pipeline: Interventions to Eliminate Gender Discrimination in Preservice Education

Anonymous — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 19:02:47 +0000

Transforming the Health Worker Pipeline: Interventions to Eliminate Gender Discrimination in Preservice Education 2012 Anonymous (not verified) October 06, 2016

Authors: Ng C, Newman C, Pacqué-Margolis S with contributing authors Belatchew M, Frymus D, and George A

Description: This report describes the results of a systematic and expert review undertaken to identify practices that have the potential to counter forms of gender discrimination against students and faculty in preservice education institutions. Also see the related technical brief.

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Projects CapacityPlus

Topics Education & Performance Gender Equality Health Workforce & Systems

Publisher IntraHealth International