6 Stories from World Health Worker Week
April 2–8, 2017 marked the fifth annual World Health Worker Week. This year, we ran a blog series highlighting the importance of health workers and the role that quality improvement activities can have in building strong health systems. In a conversation with Dr. Ram Shrestha, he recounts the amazing power that health workers have when responding during natural disasters or pandemics. In the stories from Botswana and Uganda, we get to meet two amazing female workers who are making a big difference in their communities. Finally, you have to read this emotional interview with front-line health workers caring for newborns with microcephaly amidst the Zika epidemic.
1. Maximizing the return on investment in the health workforce: The role of quality improvement
By: Lani Marquez
Health systems worldwide are challenged by a shortage of skilled health workers. A common theme among strategies to address the global human resources for health (HRH) crisis is how can we optimize the use of existing human resources to produce the best health care possible by reducing waste, inefficiency, and duplication. While in some settings providing more staff will go a long way to address poor outcomes, we know that simply adding personnel will not address the many problems rooted in inefficient and poorly designed service delivery systems. Read more.
2. Strengthening and sustaining community support for community health workers: A conversation with Dr. Ram Shrestha
By: Shayanne Martin, Rhea Bright, and Dr. Ram Shrestha
In the last few years, we’ve seen a number of global health events that have increased our reliance on community health workers (CHWs). Now that Test & Start HIV treatment guidelines call for all people living with HIV to begin treatment once diagnosed, CHWs are critical to bringing HIV services — such as testing, counseling and medication delivery — to the community. CHWs have also proven their value in overcoming recent global health threats. Read more.
3. Laying the groundwork for healthy communities
By: Thapelo Manale, Kesa Dikgole, and Cecil Haverkamp
Ms. Thalitha Tiro is a lively and energetic social worker, currently working as a Health Education Assistant (HEA) at the Julia Molefhe Clinic in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana. The introduction of HEAs in recent years is a reflection of Botswana’s determination to revitalize primary health care, returning it to the way it was in the years prior to the emergency response to HIV/AIDS, when facilities had a strong link to the community. Read more.
4. Empowering women health care workers through quality improvement
By: Taroub Faramand
Nothing gives me more pleasure than talking to my colleagues in the field and knowing that the health workers we trained are doing excellent work on their own without our support. I spoke with my colleague Joyce Draru from Uganda this morning and she told me that the quality improvement team at the Ivukula health center in Namutumba District in Eastern Uganda are still addressing the gender issues and gaps affecting their programs as an integral component of the quality improvement process. She also informed me that one of our star health workers in that facility is still leading gender integration in other facilities and scaling the approach to facilities that had not received any technical assistance from ASSIST. Read more.
5. It takes a village: Partnerships to strengthen the system of regulation of health professions in Cambodia
By: Alyson Smith and Silvia Holschneider
In Cambodia, each health profession is regulated by their respective independent Council — the Medical Council of Cambodia, the Dental Council of Cambodia, the Cambodian Midwives Council, the Cambodian Council of Nurses, and the Pharmacy Council of Cambodia. Since 2000, these councils have played an important quality and safety role through registration of qualified health professionals, making sure that they maintain registration, establish the codes and standards of professional practice and investigate complaints about matters relating to a health professional’s health, performance or professional conduct. Read more.
6. Health workers come face-to-face with Zika Congenital Syndrome
“We were not emotionally prepared for this.”
In this interview, health workers in El Salvador open their hearts and share their experience working with families affected by Zika — a virus that has shattered dreams, aspirations, and lives. In the background, we hear the alternating cries of newborns. Read more.
