Human Resources for Health-Related Challenges to Ensuring Quality Newborn Care in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review

26 February, 2021

Here is a new paper in Global Health: Science and Practice. Key messages, extract and a comment from me below.

CITATION: Nancy Bolan, Karen D. Cowgill, Karen Walker, Lily Kak, Theresa Shaver, Sarah Moxon and Ornella Lincetto

Global Health: Science and Practice February 2021, https://doi.org/10.9745/GHSP-D-20-00362

KEY MESSAGES

We mapped the evidence of human resources for health (HRH)-related challenges to providing quality facility-based newborn care into 10 categories:

1. Lack of HRH data and monitoring

2. Poor health worker (HW) preservice education

3. Lack of HW access to evidence-based guidelines, continuing education, and continuing professional development

4. Insufficient and inequitable distribution of HWs and heavy workload

5. Poor retention, absenteeism, and rotation of experienced staff

6. Poor work environment, including low salary

7. Limited and poor supervision

8. Low morale, motivation, and attitude, and job dissatisfaction

9. Weaknesses of policy, regulations, management, leadership, governance, and funding

10. Structural and contextual barriers

- Mapping the evidence provided useful insight to inform recently published World Health Organization strategies to systematically address the challenges and strengthen HRH for newborn care globally and nationally.

- The thematic analysis process also underscored the complicated interactions between different types of HRH challenges.

- Findings support new strategies for action to address these challenges.

SELECTED EXTRACT

Access to relevant, up-to-date guidelines, protocols, and continuing education and continuing professional development opportunities for nurses and midwives is often difficult or impossible, especially in rural areas.

COMMENT: It is an indictment of the global health community that access to relevant, up-to-date guidelines continues to be, in 2021, such a major barrier to the delivery of quality health care. As HIFA has been arguing for many years, there is an urgent need for increased political and financial commitment to address this global challenge.

Best wishes, Neil

Let's build a future where children are no longer dying for lack of healthcare information - Join CHIFA (Child Healthcare Information For All): http://www.hifa.org/forums/chifa-child-health-and-rights

CHIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is the coordinator of the HIFA campaign (Healthcare Information For All) and assistant moderator of the CHIFA forum. Twitter: @hifa_org FB: facebook.com/HIFAdotORG neil@hifa.org