Sarah Dwyer

Botswana Is Building a Strong Health System by Focusing on Health Workers

“I have a passion to help sick people,” says Oteng Gaopatwe, a nurse at Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital in Francistown, Botswana. “One thing I like most about my job is to see my clients satisfied, having a smile, and seeing all the people I have helped being relieved of their pain.”

Frontline health workers like Oteng are the backbone of health systems. In order to plan effectively for training, recruitment, and retention, countries need access to current, up-to-date information about their health workforce. Read more »

Why Nigeria’s Response to Ebola Succeeded

Sarah DwyerA man arrived by plane in Lagos on July 20. He fell ill at the airport and was taken to a hospital. Shortly afterward he was diagnosed with Ebola, the first case in Nigeria.

Lagos is an enormous city of 22 million, and public-sector doctors were on strike. The number of lives at risk was terrifying.

“If Ebola hits Lagos, we're in real trouble,” warned Laurie Garrett in Foreign Policy, and added that her colleague John Campbell predicted it “would instantly transform this situation into a worldwide crisis.”

Yet August 29 marked the last reported case of Ebola in the country, and the number of confirmed cases topped out at 20, with eight deaths. The incubation period for those who had contact with Ebola patients ended on October 2. After 42 days with no new cases, Nigeria will be officially free of Ebola. Read more »

Better, Stronger, and Thankful: HIV Peer Counselor in the Dominican Republic Shares Impact of His Work

Alfredo Felix is a peer counselor with the Department of HIV at Jaime Mota Regional Hospital in Barahona, Dominican Republic. “I’ve always felt motivated to work in the community to inform people,” he says. The area shares a border with Haiti and has a large immigrant population at risk for HIV.

Peer counselors like Alfredo play an important role in countering the effects of stigma, which can make it hard for people to seek information about HIV and follow through with treatment. Alfredo tells a story about someone he helped: Read more »

“I Made Some Changes”: A Nurse/Midwife’s Experience with Leadership and Management Training

Sarah DwyerThis post originally appeared on the Maternal Health Task Force blog as part of the “Supporting the Human in Human Resources” blog series cohosted by the Maternal Health Task Force and Jacaranda Health.

“Things were really a bit appalling.”

That’s what conditions at her rural health center felt like to Habiba Shaban Agong, a senior nursing officer and midwife in Uganda.

She says she loves her profession. “In midwifery I do a lot,” she adds proudly. “I help mothers in carrying out their pregnancies. During deliveries I help them to conduct live babies—to make a better future.” But it pained her that her facility wasn’t able to deliver the high quality of services the community deserved.

For starters, there weren’t nearly enough health workers to meet the demand. Each department had only “about one human resource working day and night,” Habiba says. “They get exhausted, and that can hinder service delivery.” Read more »

Greater Support for the DRC’s Social Service Workers Leads to Better Care for Children

This post originally appeared on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition blog.

A young boy—we’ll call him Mani—was living on the streets of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He had no one to look after him, nowhere to go. He was just nine years old.

Mani’s situation is not unique. One quarter of all Congolese youth under age 18 are considered to be orphans and/or vulnerable children, according to the most recent Demographic and Health Survey. And nine out of ten don’t receive adequate financial, emotional, or other types of support. Read more »

Empowered Health Workers Improve Health Care, One Facility at a Time

This post originally appeared on the Frontline Health Workers Coalition blog.

“What inspires me is when I see patieAgnes Masagawayi with clientnts critically ill and then recovering, laughing, smiling—I feel great,” says Agnes Masagwayi, a senior clinical health officer in Mbale District, Uganda. “I love my job with all my heart.”

But her health facility, she admits, was in “a bad state.” Running water was sporadic. Essential drugs ran out. Space for maternity care was so limited that many women delivered babies on the floor. Infection control was poor. And there weren’t nearly enough health workers to meet the demand. Read more »

Meet Eight Health Workers Who Love Their Jobs

This post originally appeared on VITAL, the blog of IntraHealth International.

“I love my job!” says one enthusiastic health worker in Laos. And he backs up his statement with a solid reason: “I like to save my patient’s life.”

Kenechanh Chanthapadith relates a typical day on the job, sharing an example about a woman who complained of abdominal pain. “I examined her and I found that she had an ectopic pregnancy,” he says. “I sent her immediately to Mahosot Hospital to get an operation. And she’s alive now!” Read more »

Health Workers: Key to Family Planning and Reproductive Health

“To talk about sexual and reproductive health, and not to talk about human resources for health—then the equation is not complete,” says Patrick Mugirwa, a program officer with Partners in Population and Development (PPD) Africa Regional Office. “So for PPD to have meaningful advocacy for sexual and reproductive health, of necessity human resources for health must be one of the major components we must advocate for.”

A CapacityPlus associate partner, PPD is an intergovernmental alliance that promotes South-South cooperation toward attainment of the global population and reproductive health agenda for sustainable development. Read more »

Motivated to Do More

Monica Watuvamu is already serving her community as a nurse and midwife at Kamuli Mission Hospital in Uganda. But she wants to do more.

“I’ve been actually going back to school,” she says, “to upgrade and improve my knowledge and skills.” The hospital is contributing to the costs, which is a big help. “I’ve been motivated, and I’m still motivated to help patients so that they get better.”

Working in the ultrasound unit, Monica recently discovered that a woman had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, which she knew to be an extremely dangerous and life-threatening condition. Monica moved quickly to get the woman into surgery, and a disaster was averted. “The following day,” she recalls, “all these people [at the hospital] were really happy that I managed to find it out and that the patient was helped.” Read more »

Improving Health Workforce Leadership and Management

To improve health services, Uganda is focusing on the people that provide quality care. In our new video, Ugandan health workers, managers, and leaders show how the country’s efforts are paying off—and how service delivery has improved. The following story highlights one aspect of this work.

Dr. WaniayeDr. John Baptist Waniaye was working as a medical officer when he realized he wanted to take on a new role. “I opted to go into management for health [because] I realized that there are gaps which when you’re a leader and a manager you can easily fix and make the environment very good for the health workers. And that is my drive—I want to see that health workers have what they need in order to offer their services and that our patients are happy.” Read more »

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