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.
Human Resources
Nursing and midwifery the champions in HIV/AIDS care in Southern Africa
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.
The great brain drain discussion
Some possible solutions to the brain drain include a greater investment in more research and policy study about the causes of the drain, educating policy makers about the causes, and a rethink of the nursing profession in relation to compensation. This is according to notes that summarize a 41-message discussion on the brain drain of health professionals from developing to developed countries. The discussion took place on the listserv HIF-net at WHO.
Further details: /newsletter/id/30119
Developing evidence-based ethical policies on the migration of health workers
Human Resources for Health 2003
It is estimated that in 2000 almost 175 million people, or 2.9% of the world's population, were living outside their country of birth, compared to 100 million, or 1.8% of the total population, in 1995. As the global labour market strengthens, it is increasingly highly skilled professionals who are migrating. Medical practitioners and nurses represent a small proportion of highly skilled workers who migrate, but the loss of health human resources for developing countries can mean that the capacity of the health system to deliver health care equitably is compromised.
The interface between health sector reform and human resources in health
Human Resources for Health 2003
The relationship between health sector reform and the human resources issues raised in that process has been highlighted in several studies. These studies have focused on how the new processes have modified the ways in which health workers interact with their workplace, but few of them have paid enough attention to the ways in which the workers have influenced the reforms. The impact of health sector reform has modified critical aspects of the health workforce, including labour conditions, degree of decentralization of management, required skills and the entire system of wages and incentives.
Chemists leaving SA by the hundreds as US group dispenses big bucks
Having difficulty getting an airline booking to the US? The problem may well be that you're standing in line with a small army of pharmacists and their families due to leave SA over the next few weeks. Behind this exodus is Albertson's, a $28bn/year turnover US retail pharmacy group with a staff of 200 000. One of their recruits, Cape Town pharmacist Keith Hughes, will be leaving behind a 20-year career to begin afresh in Delaware. As an "intern" Hughes can expect an immediate $2 000/month income boost.
Developing evidence-based ethical policies on the migration of health workers: conceptual and practical challenges
Human Resources for Health 2003
It is estimated that in 2000 almost 175 million people, or 2.9% of the world's population, were living outside their country of birth, compared to 100 million, or 1.8% of the total population, in 1995. As the global labour market strengthens, it is increasingly highly skilled professionals who are migrating. Medical practitioners and nurses represent a small proportion of highly skilled workers who migrate, but the loss of health human resources for developing countries can mean that the capacity of the health system to deliver health care equitably is compromised.
TB WORKFORCE CRISIS A MAJOR OBSTACLE TO GLOBAL TREATMENT SUCCESS
A growing "workforce crisis" is a serious obstacle to achieving targets for global tuberculosis control set for 2005 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Faster and more effective recruitment and training of TB health workers is needed to ensure vacancies in developing countries are filled quickly, says a draft report written by TB experts. Of the 22 high burden countries (HBCs) which account for 80% of the world's TB cases, 17 reported that their efforts to reach the 2005 targets are being hampered by staffing problems.
The first world's ROLE IN THE THIRD WORLD BRAIN DRAIN
We in the third world are rarely willing to admit to our "third worldliness." We aspire to first world standards, and the things we want more than anything else are hotels of international standard, a well reputed university, and, in particular, good medical and nursing schools. We are greatly gratified by the recognition of our graduates as being of international standard - "Our doctors and nurses are as good as any others" - but there are difficulties with this. As soon as a country produces graduates of an acceptable international standard then it is "fishing in the same pond" as first world countries for their services. It is inevitable that doctors and nurses will be attracted to countries where salaries or working conditions are seen as better, says this article in the British Medical Journal.