scholarly journals Does the density of the health workforce predict adolescent health? A cross-sectional, multilevel study of 38 countries

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. e35-e43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira E Riehm ◽  
Eric Latimer ◽  
Amélie Quesnel-Vallée ◽  
Gonneke W J M Stevens ◽  
Geneviève Gariépy ◽  
...  
Author(s):  
Bernard Hope Taderera

The study of healthcare personnel migration in Ireland reports that most medical graduates plan to leave the country’s health system. It may be possible to address this challenge by understanding and addressing the reasons why young doctors plan to leave. Future studies should contribute to the retention of early career doctors in highincome countries such as Ireland. This will help reduce the migration of doctors from low- and middle-income countries in order to address the global health workforce crisis and its impact on the attainment of universal health coverage in all health systems.


Author(s):  
Kahler W. Stone ◽  
Kristina W. Kintziger ◽  
Meredith A. Jagger ◽  
Jennifer A. Horney

While the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline health care workers have been well described, the effects of the COVID-19 response on the U.S. public health workforce, which has been impacted by the prolonged public health response to the pandemic, has not been adequately characterized. A cross-sectional survey of public health professionals was conducted to assess mental and physical health, risk and protective factors for burnout, and short- and long-term career decisions during the pandemic response. The survey was completed online using the Qualtrics survey platform. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) were calculated. Among responses received from 23 August and 11 September 2020, 66.2% of public health workers reported burnout. Those with more work experience (1–4 vs. <1 years: prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08−3.36; 5–9 vs. <1 years: PR = 1.89, CI = 1.07−3.34) or working in academic settings (vs. practice: PR = 1.31, CI = 1.08–1.58) were most likely to report burnout. As of September 2020, 23.6% fewer respondents planned to remain in the U.S. public health workforce for three or more years compared to their retrospectively reported January 2020 plans. A large-scale public health emergency response places unsustainable burdens on an already underfunded and understaffed public health workforce. Pandemic-related burnout threatens the U.S. public health workforce’s future when many challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 response remain unaddressed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 175-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Rodriguez-Amado ◽  
◽  
Jose Moreno-Montoya ◽  
Jose Alvarez-Nemegyei ◽  
Maria Victoria Goycochea-Robles ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Nyaaba Adokiya ◽  
Francis Kronzu Cudjoe ◽  
Vida Nyagre Yakong

PurposeThis paper assessed factors affecting adolescent-friendly health services (AFHS), education and utilization among youth (10–19 years) in Kumbungu district, Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a cross-sectional design involving 416 adolescents from households using a random sampling technique. The authors collected data on sociodemographic characteristics, education and utilization of AFHS using a semi-structured questionnaire between June and September 2017. Logistic regression models were used to determine the factors associated with AFHS education and utilization.FindingsOf the 416 adolescents interviewed, 66% were between 15 and 19 years. Half (50%) of the adolescents received AFHS education, 54% utilized existing services and 85% knew about health challenges. Females (aOR = 0.64; p = 0.031) were less likely to receive AFHS education compared to males. Muslims (aOR = 0.21; p < 0.001) were less likely to utilize AFHS compared to Christians. Adolescents with primary (aOR = 6.65; p = 0.020), junor high school (JHS) (aOR = 10.66, p = 0.079) or senior high school (SHS) (aOR = 1.04; p = 0.954) education were more likely to utilize AFHSs compared to those with no education.Originality/valueThis study reports a moderate level of education and the utilization of adolescent health services. Sex, religion and education are the key predictors of AFHS education and utilization. This study contributes to the understanding of adolescent health services and the foundation for future studies. It may be used for the planning of adolescent health service programs in disadvantaged settings.


Author(s):  
Jackline Mokeira Selvester ◽  
Moses Otiati Esilaba ◽  
Oscar Omondi Donde

Background: Globally, due to low health care coverage, there have been continued efforts to ensure that there is increased accessibility to quality, affordable and equitable universal health care (UHC) services in most parts of developing countries, such as within Nakuru county in Kenya.Methods: The study focused on determining health workforce gaps in health care facilities that affect the implementation of UHC in Nakuru West Sub County. Cross-sectional study design was applied, data was collected using structured questionnaires, analyzed using statistical package for social sciences 23rd version and presented in charts for ease comparison.Results: The findings of this study indicated that there was shortage of HWCs. This implies that the staffing in the facilities located in Nakuru West Sub-County is inadequate for the implementation of the Kenyan government UHC and it was evident that the mostly affected sections were the nursing, public health officer (PHO), pharmacy, clinical officers and laboratory in that order. Most alarmingly, majority of the HCWs (58.2%) were not being appreciated for good work, despite the fact that they play a key role in the implementation of UHC.Conclusions: It is therefore imperative for the county government which is the arm of the Kenyan government to ensure that they recruit adequate health care workers in all cadres to serve the continuously rising population and HCWs should have adequate level of education, acceptable training skills and be well- motivated.


2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-335
Author(s):  
Md Humayun Kabir Talukder ◽  
BH Nazma Yasmeen ◽  
Rumana Nazneen ◽  
Md Zakir Hossain ◽  
Ishrat Jahan Chowdhury

Background : Community Health Workforce (CHW) development has a rich history in South East Asian Region (SEAR). The first Community Health Unit was established in Sri Lanka in 1926 and then practiced over many of the regional countries like, Thailand, Mayanmar and India. Community Health Workers are in the fore front workforce to bring about change through community health programmes to national levels. In Bangladesh, there are also different categories of health workforce serving in the health care delivery system.Objectives : To assess relevance and effectiveness of community health workforce (CHW) development system in Bangladesh.Methods : This cross sectional study was conducted from 1st November 2010-30th April 2011 by purposive sampling technique. Study population were directors, administrators, principals, teachers of different institutes/ organizations and community health workers working in different corners of Bangladesh. Study places were different divisional towns of Bangladesh. Previously developed questionnaire & checklist were used for the collection of data from the institutes/ organizations by data collectors. These data were edited, processed and was analysed by using SPSS soft ware and a small portion by manually. No strong ethical issues were involved in this activity.Results : Study revealed that all the respondents (100%) are in favour of production of CHW in Bangladesh through formal academic institutional or pre service education (61.4%) .Most of the respondents (56.8%) viewed that there are scopes of utilisation of produced CHW in rural areas and most of the respondents (63.6%) also viewed that terminal/marginalized/underprivileged peoples of hard to reach areas at least can be served by CHW. Regarding the competency of produced CHW few of the respondents (43.2%) viewed positively. Most of the respondents (86.4%) viewed that both govt. & non govt. sectors should produce CHW with a very good coordination and co-operation. Study revealed the institutional capacities or situations about physical facilities, ongoing course, audiovisual aids, library, manpower and assessment procedure.Conclusion : Study revealed that there is strong & logical relevance present for the production of CHW in Bangladesh. So the existing Human Resource for Health (HRH) policy is to be revised & revisited as a time felt need to develop more competent CHW for Bangladesh to serve the marginalized, terminal, people of remote, rural & hard to reach areas.Northern International Medical College Journal Vol.5(2) 2014: 332-335


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Dejene ◽  
Tegbar Yigzaw ◽  
Samuel Mengistu ◽  
Firew Ayalew ◽  
Manuel Kahsaye ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Health workforce regulation plays key roles in ensuring the availability of competent health workers and improving performance of the health system. In 2010, Ethiopia established a national authority aiming to ensure competence and ethics of health professionals. Subsequently, subnational regulators were established and regulatory frameworks were developed. Although there were anecdotal reports of implementation gaps, there was lack of empirical evidence to corroborate the reports. We conducted a national study to explore health professional regulation practices and gaps focusing on registration, licensing, ethics, scope of practice, and continuing professional development. Methods We conducted a mixed methods cross-sectional survey using structured interview with a national representative sample of health professionals and key informant interviews with health regulators and managers. We used two stage stratified cluster sampling to select health professionals. The quantitative data were subjected to descriptive and multivariable logistic regression analysis. We conducted thematic analysis of the qualitative data. Results We interviewed 554 health professionals in the quantitative survey. And 31 key informants participated in the qualitative part. Nearly one third of the respondents (32.5%) were not registered. Many of them (72.8%) did not renew their licenses. About one fifth of them (19.7%) did nothing against ethical breaches encountered during their clinical practices. Significant of them ever practiced beyond their scope limits (22.0%); and didn’t engage in CPD in the past 1 year (40.8%). Majority of them (97.8%) never identified their own CPD needs. Health regulators and managers stressed that regulatory bodies had shortage of skilled staff, budget and infrastructure to enforce regulation. Regulatory frameworks were not fully implemented. Conclusions Health professionals were not regulated well due to limited capacity of regulators. This might have affected quality of patient care. To ensure effective implementation of health professional regulation, legislations should be translated into actions. Draft guidelines, directives and tools should be finalized and endorsed. Capacity of the regulators and health facilities needs to be built. Reinstituting health professionals’ council and regulation enforcement strategies require attention. Future studies are recommended for assessing effects and costs of weak regulation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lana Lee ◽  
Krishna K. Upadhya ◽  
Pamela A. Matson ◽  
Hoover Adger ◽  
Maria E. Trent

Abstract Remarkable public health achievements to reduce infant and child mortality as well as improve the health and well-being of children worldwide have successfully resulted in increased survival and a growing population of young people aged 10–24 years. Population trends indicate that the current generation of 1.8 billion young people is the largest in history. However, there is a scarcity of dedicated resources available to effectively meet the health needs of adolescents and young adults worldwide. Growing recognition of the pivotal roles young people play in the cultures, societies, and countries in which they live has spurred an expanding global movement to address the needs of this special population. Building an effective global workforce of highly-skilled adolescent health professionals who understand the unique biological, psychological, behavioral, social, and environmental factors that affect the health of adolescents is a critical step in addressing the health needs of the growing cohort of young people. In this review, we aim to: 1) define a global assessment of the health needs for adolescents around the world; 2) describe examples of current training programs and requirements in adolescent medicine; 3) identify existing gaps and barriers to develop an effective adolescent health workforce; and 4) develop a call for targeted actions to build capacity of the adolescent health workforce, broaden culturally relevant research and evidence-based intervention strategies, and reinforce existing interdisciplinary global networks of youth advocates and adolescent health professionals to maximize the opportunities for training, research, and care delivery.


2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 389-395 ◽  
Author(s):  
Azam Baheiraei ◽  
Elham Khoori ◽  
Robert M. Weiler ◽  
Fazlollah Ahmadi ◽  
Abbas Rahimi Foroshani ◽  
...  

Abstract Background: Adolescent health concerns are an important source of information that should be considered when planning school and community health promotion policies, programs and services. Adolescence is a critical period of human development and the health concerns of adolescents can point to important issues that may be eclipsed by epidemiologic and other clinical sources of information. This study aimed to assess the health concerns of adolescents living in Tehran, Iran and to examine associations between selected demographics and the health concerns reported by participants. Methods: This study was a population-based cross-sectional survey in 2011. Data were collected from a stratified random cluster sample of 915 adolescents, aged 14–18 years, living in Tehran, using the Persian version of the Adolescent Health Concern Inventory (AHCI-P). The data were analyzed using the χ2, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests and logistic regression analysis. Results: The mean numbers of health concerns in girls and boys were 48 (±27.6) and 44.5 (±27.4) respectively. The highest ranking health concern subscale for both girls and boys was The Future, and “being successful” was endorsed as the most prominent concern in the subscale. Female (OR: 1.42, CI 95%: 1.08–1.87), mother’s educational level (OR: 2.23, CI 95%: 1.07–4.65) and living in northern (OR: 1.76, CI 95%: 1.13–2.74) and western (OR: 2.02, CI 95%: 1.30–3.16) regions of Tehran were significant predictors of a higher level of health concerns. Conclusion: Findings can be used to inform school and public health promotion policies, programs and supportive services designed to improve the overall health and well-being of adolescents.


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