PMID- 15730555
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
LR  - 20240510
IS  - 1478-4491 (Electronic)
IS  - 1478-4491 (Linking)
VI  - 3
IP  - 1
DP  - 2005 Feb 24
TI  - The health workforce crisis in TB control: a report from high-burden countries.
PG  - 2
AB  - BACKGROUND: Human resources (HR) constraints have been reported as one of the 
      main barriers to achieving the 2005 global tuberculosis (TB) control targets in 
      18 of the 22 TB high-burden countries (HBCs); consequently we try to assess the 
      current HR available for TB control in HBCs. METHODS: A standard questionnaire 
      designed to collect information on staff numbers, skills, training activities and 
      current staff shortages at different health service levels was sent to national 
      TB control programme managers in all HBCs. RESULTS: Nineteen HBCs (86%) replied, 
      and 17 (77%) followed the questionnaire format to provide data. Complete 
      information on staff numbers at all service levels was available from nine 
      countries and data on skill levels and training were complete in six countries. 
      Data showed considerable variations in staff numbers, proportions of trained 
      staff, length of courses and quality of training activities. Eleven HBCs had 
      developed training materials, many used implementation guidelines for training 
      and only three used participatory educational methods. Two countries reported 
      shortages of staff at district health facility level, whereas 14 reported 
      shortages at central level. There was no apparent association between reported 
      staff numbers (and skills) and the country's TB burden or current case detection 
      rates (CDR). CONCLUSION: There were few readily available data on HR for TB 
      control in HBCs, particularly in the larger ones. The great variations in staff 
      numbers and the poor association between information on workforce, proportion of 
      trained staff, and length and quality of courses suggested a lack of valid 
      information and/or poor data reliability. There is urgent need to support HBCs to 
      develop a comprehensive HR strategy involving short-term and long-term HR 
      development plans and strengthening their HR planning and management 
      capabilities.
FAU - Figueroa-Munoz, Jose
AU  - Figueroa-Munoz J
AD  - Tuberculosis Strategy and Operations, Stop TB Department, World Health 
      Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. figueroamunozj@who.int.
FAU - Palmer, Karen
AU  - Palmer K
FAU - Poz, Mario R Dal
AU  - Poz MR
FAU - Blanc, Leopold
AU  - Blanc L
FAU - Bergstrom, Karin
AU  - Bergstrom K
FAU - Raviglione, Mario
AU  - Raviglione M
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20050224
PL  - England
TA  - Hum Resour Health
JT  - Human resources for health
JID - 101170535
PMC - PMC554980
EDAT- 2005/02/26 09:00
MHDA- 2005/02/26 09:01
PMCR- 2005/02/24
CRDT- 2005/02/26 09:00
PHST- 2004/08/31 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2005/02/24 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2005/02/26 09:01 [medline]
PHST- 2005/02/26 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2005/02/26 09:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2005/02/24 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - 1478-4491-3-2 [pii]
AID - 10.1186/1478-4491-3-2 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - Hum Resour Health. 2005 Feb 24;3(1):2. doi: 10.1186/1478-4491-3-2.