The evolution of the national licensing system of health care professionals: a qualitative descriptive case study in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

Background: The introduction of a systematic framework for the licensing of health care professions, which is a crucial step in ensuring the quality of human resources for health (HRH), is still evolving in Lao People's Democraic Republic. The aim of this study was to review and document the evolution of Lao HRH policies and the development of its national licensing system.

Case Presentation: A qualitative descriptive case study methodology was applied to document and describe how Lao People's Democratic Republic laid the foundation for the development of a licensing system.

Strengthening the Engagement of Provinces in Health Workforce Planning and Management: A Case Study From Lao PDR.

The purpose of this health workforce plan is to provide guidance for the staffing of the Bolikhamxay. Province health services and the training of health service personnel to the year 2020. It must be stressed, however, that this plan is in its first iteration and does not provide all the solutions.

Measuring students' approaches to learning in different clinical rotations.

Background: Many studies have explored approaches to learning in medical school, mostly in the classroom setting. In the clinical setting, students face different conditions that may affect their learning. Understanding students' approaches to learning is important to improve learning in the clinical setting.

Negotiating norms, navigating care: findings from a qualitative study to assist in decreasing health inequity in cardiac rehabilitation.

Purpose: People from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CaLDBs) have lower rates of participation in cardiac rehabilitation (CR). Systematically evaluating barriers and facilitators to service delivery may decrease health inequalities. This study investigated approaches for promoting cultural competence in CR.

A review of the cultural competence view of cardiac rehabilitation.

Aims And Objectives: This paper describes cultural competence issues within the scientific and scholarly discourse surrounding cardiac rehabilitation (CR).

Background: CR is an important secondary prevention strategy, improving health-related outcomes and reducing the risks of subsequent cardiovascular events. Internationally, it is widely accepted as a discrete health service model and is endorsed by government and professional bodies.

A framework for evaluating the impact of the United Nations fellowship programmes.

The United Nations (UN) System's agencies have been criticized for not adequately assessing the impact of their training and fellowship programmes. Critics point out that beyond documentation of the number of fellows that underwent training, and their immediate reaction to the experience, it is necessary to ascertain that fellows are using what they have learned, and most importantly that their institution and country are benefiting from the significant investments made in the fellowship programmes.This paper presents an evaluation framework that was adopted by the 17th Meeting of the UN System Senior Fellowship Officers convened in London in 2008 in response to this challenge.

Alumni survey of Masters of Public Health (MPH) training at the Hanoi School of Public Health.

Background: 1) To elicit the opinions of the Public Health alumni of the MPH program; 2) To assess the applicability of the knowledge and skills acquired; 3) To identify the frequency of the public health competencies that the alumni performed.

Methods: We requested 187 graduates to complete a self-administered questionnaire and conducted in-depth interviews with 8 alumni as well as a focus group discussion with 14 alumni.

Results: In total 79.

The organisational response to patient complaints: a case study in Taiwan.

Purpose: To explore and evaluate how hospital staff respond to patient complaints.

Design/methodology/approach: A teaching hospital with 1,500 beds in Taiwan was purposefully chosen as a case study of hospital response to patients' complaints. Data was obtained through interviews with quality surveying managers (n = 53), government managers (n = 4), staff of non-government organizations (n = 3) and a senior social worker, as well as analysis of documents (September 2001-April 2002).

Public health job vacancies--who wants what, where?

This paper presents a snapshot of job vacancies in the public health workforce labour market. The analysis is based on 404 advertised public health jobs appearing in the press, and on-line job alerts over a 2-month period in mid 2003. The analysis reveals who was seeking employees, what formal qualifications and competencies were required, what salary and other conditions of employment were offered and where the vacant jobs were located.

Closing the gap: building the capacity of non-government organizations as advocates for health equity.

Seeking achievement of health equity has underpinned national government and global health policies for decades. However, major difficulties and challenges faced in the practice of achieving 'Health for All' has led to a recognition of the need to broaden the focus of efforts to improve health equity. Civil society groups have been identified as key stakeholders in attempts to achieve health equity, and the importance of strengthening their capacity to influence relevant government policy and practice has been highlighted.