iHRIS

Why We Need Data on Frontline Health Workers

Dr. Kate TulenkoThe lack of data on frontline health workers, particularly community health workers, constrains training, service delivery, and decision-making in global health. To understand better why this data is critical, and what can be done to improve it, mPowering Frontline Health workers and the One Million Health Workers Campaign are conducting a series of interviews to hear from the experts.

This week, we interviewed Dr. Kate Tulenko, Vice President, Health Systems Innovation for IntraHealth International and Director of CapacityPlus, USAID’s flagship health workforce project. Dr. Tulenko previously coordinated the World Bank’s Africa Health Workforce Program and has served on expert panels for the World Health Organization, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the American Hospital Association, amongst others. Her latest book, Insourced, identifies the links between the US and global health worker shortage and offers affordable solutions. Follow her on twitter at @ktulenko. Read more »

Data for Decision-Making Series: Diana Frymus

Diana FrymusWe are joining the One Million Health Workers Campaign in a series of interviews, to hear from the experts why data on community health workers is so critical, and what needs to be done.

This week, we spoke with Diana Frymus, Health Systems Strengthening Advisor in the Office of HIV/AIDS at USAID in Washington, DC. She focuses on strengthening health systems to achieve HIV goals and sustain national HIV programs. Her focal areas of emphasis are on human resources for health, including CHWs, and quality improvement. She is the USAID co-chair of the PEPFAR HRH Technical Working Group and the Health Systems Global Technical Working Group on Supporting and Strengthening the Role of Community Health Workers in Health System Development. Read more »

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 »

Where Are the Health Workers?

Professor Kayode Odusote (consultant for IntraHealth International, right) discusses health worker distribution with Mbemba Traore (director of the human resources unit at the Guinea Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene, left). Read more »

iHRIS Champions in Ghana Share Success with Using Health Workforce Data

Gracey VaughnLike many of his fellow Ghanaians, Obeng Asomaning wanted to use his skills to help his country. As a new graduate with a degree in health service planning and management, he landed a job at the Ministry of Health’s Regional Health Office in Ashanti Region. Quickly he saw that the office was struggling to access information about the health workforce. How many midwives worked in the regional hospital? How many vacancies were there in Kwabre District? How many health workers will likely retire next year? The paper-based information system yielded no quick answers.

Answers to these kinds of questions are important because the country has a critical shortage of health workers. There are only 13.6 health workers for every 10,000 people, well below the minimum recommended threshold of 22.8 health workers per 10,000 population. To improve the population’s health outcomes, Ghana needs to make the most of the health workforce it currently has while working to increase their numbers. Read more »

Serious Fun: Health Workforce Planning and Management in Botswana

Health workforce management and planning is serious business, but it can be fun too! Health decisions-makers at the Botswana Ministry of Health recently cut loose during their annual Back-to-School Day. CapacityPlus’s Twaha Kabocho was in the country and captured the photo below. Read more »

Questions for Rosaline Hendricks, iHRIS Advisor in Namibia

This is an excerpt of a post that originally appeared on the iHRIS Blog.

Rosaline Hendricks is an advisor for the iHRIS software in Namibia. I recently interviewed her to find out about her work and what it's like to be a female working in IT. Read more »

Open Source Health Workforce Information Systems

This post was originally published on the Global Health Workforce Alliance Members’ Platform. CapacityPlus is the featured member in March. We encourage you to join and contribute to the discussion.

The World Health Organization recognizes a key component to achieving universal health coverage is “a sufficient capacity of well-trained, motivated health workers.” For many countries, successfully managing the distribution of their health workforce is reliant upon a human resources information system (HRIS). The better systems are developed with a user-centered approach and focus on data use. Good HRIS turn data into information that can inform the decision-making process. Read more »

A Conversation with a Nigerian Nurse and Administrator Who Uses iHRIS

This is an excerpt of a post that originally appeared on the iHRIS Blog.

Oluchukwu Ifele is a nurse by training, with a focus on nursing and midwifery. She’s now part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, where she supervises the clerical staff who use the open source iHRIS software to track licensure information for Nigerian-trained nurses and midwives. I recently interviewed her to find out more about her work and how she benefits from using iHRIS. Read more »

New Software Application Tracks Health Workforce Training

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

The globaAmanda Puckettl agenda is clear: universal health coverage. And as we heard at the Third Global Forum on Human Resources for Health, a strong, qualified health workforce is essential to achieving this goal.

But how do we create a strong global health workforce that can provide care to all seven billion of us? One of the keys is information—reliable, accurate information on health workers’ skills and qualifications.

Data on individual health workers’ training can be hard to come by. The information is often scattered in paper files, buried in obscure databases, or simply does not exist. To help address this challenge, IntraHealth’s iHRIS team in Uganda customized the open source iHRIS software to create iHRIS Train, a whole new application that captures and reports health worker training data. Read more »

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