Faculty Bibliography

In conflict or post-conflict situations, health system reconstruction becomes a critical component of ensuring stability. The purpose of this study was to determine the priorities for health system reconstruction among Iraqi physicians residing in the northern region of the country. A convenience sample of practicing male and female physicians residing in the Kurdish region completed a 13-item survey about health system reconstruction. A total of 1001 practitioners completed the survey with gender breakdown of 29% female and 71% male, all working in different specialty areas. Significant differences between the providers based on gender (p=0.001), specialty (p=0.001) and geographic location (p=0.004) were found to affect the responses of the participants. This study demonstrates that input from healthcare professionals is important for health system reconstruction, but that gender, geography and medical specialty make the process complex.

BACKGROUND: Research evaluating community health worker (CHW) programs inherently involves these natural community leaders in the research process, and often represents community-based participatory research (CBPR). Interpreting the results of CHW intervention studies and replicating their findings requires knowledge of how CHWs are selected and trained. METHODS: A summative content analysis was performed to evaluate the description of CHW selection and training in the existing literature. First-level coding focused on contextual information about CHW programs. Second-level coding identified themes related to the selection and training of CHWs. RESULTS: There was inconsistent reporting of selection and training processes for CHWs in the existing literature. Common selection criteria included personal qualities desired of CHWs. Training processes for CHWs were more frequently reported. Wide variation in the length and content of CHW training exists in the reviewed studies. A conceptual model is presented for the role development of CHWs based on the results of this review, which is intended to guide future reporting of CHW programs in the intervention literature. CONCLUSIONS: Consistent reporting of CHW selection and training will allow consumers of intervention research to better interpret study findings. A standard approach to reporting selection and training processes will also more effectively guide the design and implementation of future CHW programs. All community-based researchers must find a balance between describing the research process and reporting more traditional scientific content. The current conceptual model provides a guide for standard reporting in the CHW literature.

The nurse-to-population ratio (NPOP) is a standard indicator used to indicate a country's health care human resources capacity for responding to its disease burden. This study sought to explore if socioeconomic development indicators could predict the NPOP in a country. Mexico served as the case example for this exploratory study, with the final five variables selected based on findings from a qualitative study analyzing the development of nursing human resources in the country. Multiple linear regression showed that two variables proved significant predictors of the NPOP and the model itself explained 70% of the variance (r( 2) = .7; p = .0000). The findings have multiple implications for nursing human resources policy in Mexico and at a global level as governments attempt to build human capital to respond to population health needs.