Health Workers

Preventing AIDS Deaths Need Not Be a Fight: A Health Systems Approach

In the Washington Post article “Rage, panic in AIDS fight,” David Brown alleges that the goal of health systems strengthening is “hard-to-define.” In fact, it is not.

Whatever the disease or health sector priority—be it HIV/AIDS, malaria, family planning, labor and delivery, or pneumonia—six components of the health system must be functioning and integrated in order for health impacts to be maximized. These components are:

  • Service delivery
  • Medical products, vaccines, and technology
  • Financing
  • Health information systems
  • Leadership and governance
  • The health workforce—arguably most important of all.

Good News about Training More Health Workers—But Will They Be Absorbed?

Amid the continuing health workforce crisis, I think it’s important to acknowledge the positive steps that have occurred. In terms of donor support, one such area involves commitments to provide funding and support at the country level to train new health workers.

Training new health workers: two positive steps
For example, in 2008 the Japan International Cooperation Agency announced a major program to train some 100,000 local health workers to tackle one of Africa’s most serious problems, the unacceptably high mortality and sickness rate among pregnant women, new mothers, and their children. Read more »

Bottlenecks: Addressing the AIDS Epidemic through Increasing Human Resources for Health

This post was originally published on the IntraHealth International blog.

Nola Bower-SmithIn a world where over 33 million people are living with AIDS it is imperative to address the human resources for health (HRH) crisis. The critical questions and solutions generated by this discussion are a step towards a world without AIDS.

I had the opportunity to attend a panel at the International AIDS Conference in Vienna that focused on strategies for the HRH crisis. The panelists agreed that HRH is a critical problem, but one without an easy or quick solution. The lack of human resources, especially in areas most affected by HIV and AIDS, has made combating the disease a challenging and complex problem. Read more »

Reflections on Health Workers at AIDS 2010

Sarah DwyerThe main hallway at the AIDS 2010 conference is a barrage of banners, notices, and signs—yet a few things jump out and demand to be noticed. One large photo shows an erect penis with a bejeweled hand grasping its base. Posters ask, “Will you be spanked between sessions?”

These got my attention. AIDS activists are good at such tactics, and they need to be—it’s a matter of life and death.

Death and dying are what many health workers confront every day, noted Yogan Pillay of South Africa’s National Department of Health. Showing some sobering data, he pointed out that “if we don’t take care of health workers, they will not take care of patients.” And in a session on supporting health workers to deliver care, Masamine Jimba of the University of Tokyo described how the Japanese character for “busy” literally means “losing heart.” Read more »

A World of Difference: Global Health on I Street and in India

As the daughter of a diplomat, my life has been characterized by an endless cascade of people, places, opportunities, experiences, and contrasts. The theme of my past two summers has been global health, but my current internship working in monitoring and evaluation at CapacityPlus is almost the antithesis of my volunteer work in a rural eye hospital in India last year.

Two very different summers
Although I shiver in the hyperactively air-conditioned Washington DC office, I enjoy my own cubicle complete with a laptop and phone and big swirling chair, and I appreciate immensely the opportunity to interact with colleagues who’ve led incredible lives. I take lots of notes, work on compiling an indicator compendium to measure the state of human resources for health, and am starting to learn how global health is affected on a policy level. Read more »

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