A nurses' strike has shut down most of Swaziland's health care system, drawing attention to financial and technical shortcomings, and the problems besetting the nursing profession. "While we continue our strike action, doctors and orderlies will have to take care of patients," said the president of the Swaziland Nurses Association, Masitsela Mhlanga, at a press conference. Nurses are striking over the government's inability to pay salaries on time, back pay and salary increases.
Human Resources
Special allowances for SA health sector welcomed
The SA Medical Association (Sama) has joined political parties in extending praise and support for government's introduction of the special allowances for some health professionals in a bid to stem the brain drain. This follows a decision reached between unions and the government to allocate R500-million towards providing incentives to 33,000 full-time rural healthcare workers. Sama chairman Dr Kgosi Letlape said: "This is a step in the right direction in addressing the concerns that Sama has raised regarding the remuneration of doctors in the public sector, on numerous occasions."
Strategy to tax Zambian nurses abroad
Government is considering engaging countries where nurses have migrated to enter into a formal memorandum of understanding for fixed contracts. Health minister Brian Chituwo says government is working out modalities on how to retain and motivate nurses and other medical personnel that have left the country. The countries in question would be required to pay the Zambian government a certain amount of money which will be re - invested in training.
Brain drain now a gush in South Africa
A study by South Africa's Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) has confirmed earlier findings regarding the under reporting of emigration by highly skilled South Africans to major consuming countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, with the flow up to four times higher than the official figures of Statistics South Africa. Releasing the study, entitled "Flight of the Flamingos, the Study on Mobility of Research and Development (R&D) workers" in Cape Town, the HSRC said a key finding was that, although emigration figures of highly skilled researchers remain high, the greatest mobility of high-level skills is now within the country.
HIV/AIDS, Equity and health sector personnel in southern Africa
In the health sector, HIV/AIDS increases the demand for care, the level and complexity of work and the risk of infection, whilst also placing a strain on resources. These burdens exacerbate problems of sickness, absenteeism and workload, increasing losses of health workers. The stress and fear lowers health worker morale and adds to factors pushing them out of low-income countries and into the international labour market. This paper, produced by EQUINET, discusses the implications for health personnel of the HIV epidemic, and health sector responses to it, in southern Africa, using Malawi as a case study. The paper first covers the context of health sector organisations in southern Africa, and then in Malawi.
Impact of HIV on the health workforce
The devastating impact of HIV/AIDS on the general population in Africa is now well recognised but the extent to which it affects the health workforce is less understood and appreciated. Recently two researchers from the Support for Analysis and Research in Africa (SARA) project, under the oversight of the Academy for Educational Development (AED), looked at the dual impact of HIV/AIDS on the health workforce and on health care systems. The result is a streaming video, produced by the World Bank, which records a discussion of the findings of this research with the SARA researchers, Dr. Stephen Kinoti, a former professor of paediatrics at the University of Nairobi, and Oscar Picazo, a senior health economist on leave from the World Bank's Africa region. The video includes a discussion of the real and perceived risks health care workers face with the pandemic and human resource factors that influence the supply of services, costs and data.
Monitoring geographical imbalance in the health workforce: snapshots from three developing countries
The problem of geographical imbalance among human resources for health (HRH) across countries in the developing world holds important implications at the local, national and international levels, in terms of constraints for the effective deployment, management and retention of HRH, and ultimately for the equitable delivery of health services. This is according to a study that investigated the uses of demographic census data for monitoring geographical imbalance in the health workforce for three developing countries, as a basis for formulation of evidence-based health policy options.
Nursing and midwifery the champions in HIV/AIDS care in Southern Africa
Commissioned by the SADC (Southern African Development Community) AIDS Network of Nurses and Midwives (SANNAM) in collaboration with UNAIDS, this report summarises the results of a month of field research in five countries in Southern Africa – Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Zambia. It highlights the fact that, among health professionals, nurses and midwives shoulder most of the care, treatment and support responsibilities for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Southern Africa. It also stresses the limited resources and constraints under which they deliver care.
Towards a global health workforce strategy
A new book on human resources for health issues
The papers presented in the book cover the main dimensions of HRD in health: planning and managing the workforce, education and training, incentives and working conditions, managing the performance of personnel and policies needed to ensure that investments in human resources produce the benefits to which the investing populations are entitled. Authors write from diverse professional, regional and cultural perspectives, and yet there is a high degree of consistency in their diagnosis of problems and proposals for strategies to address them. They all agree on the multidimensionality of problems and on the need for solutions that take into account all dimensions. They also agree that if problems tend to be similar in nature, they take forms that are time and context-determined.
Risks to healthcare workers in developing countries
Health care workers are a crucial resource in the health care systems of developing nations. In many countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, workers are at high risk for preventable, life-threatening occupational infections. Yet the protection of health care workers in these countries is largely neglected in national priorities for health care and by the international organisations that fund health care initiatives.