Title:
Optimising Performance of Maternal and Neonatal Healthcare Workers at the Primary Care Level in Ghana
Authors:
Mensah, Hannah Adjei
Place:
Amsterdam
Publisher:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute [etc.]
Year:
2017
PAGE:
xii, 52
Language:
En
Subject:
Maternal Health – Lessons Learned
Keywords:
Performance, Performance management, Primary care, Midwives
Abstract:
INTRODUCTION: Ghana is among the 57 countries shown by the World Health Organisation to be experiencing health workforce crisis. The population is growing at a faster rate against limited number of health workers. Performance of the few workforce providing Maternal and Neonatal care services at the primary care level have not been optimised. OBJECTIVES: The objective of the study was to explore effective interventions that improve performance of maternal and neonatal health workers at the primary level in Ghana and propose recommendations to improve performance to relevant stakeholders. METHODOLOGY: A review of published literature on health worker performance in Lower and Middle Income Countries and Ghana was conducted. The Technical Working Group of the Global Health Workforce Alliance framework was adapted and used to aid analysis of findings. FINDINGS: Factors influencing performance included poor governance of the health system, political and socio-cultural factors and poor human resources for health (HRH) management. Poor performance management systems included lack of supportive supervision and performance appraisal systems, limited in-service training and absence of recognition systems. Most interventions I found in literature concentrated on health facility level. That is mainly on management systems which looked at performance management, recognition systems and quality improvement. However, they were poorly documented and often had flawed implementation. Culture, gender and age seem important determinants to influence performance. Nonetheless, I did not discover any interventions to address these factors. CONCLUSION: At the primary level, facility managers play a crucial role in improving health worker performance. Their capacity need to be equipped and better resources must be allocated to them as well as increasing their decision space to better improve health worker performance. RECOMMENDATION: Performance is influenced by various determinants at various levels therefore multifaceted actions at the different levels are important.
Organization:
KIT - Royal Tropical Institute
,
VU - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Institute:
KIT (Royal Tropical Institute)
Country:
Ghana
Region:
West Africa
Training:
Master of Science in Public Health
Category:
Research
Right:
© 2017 Mensah
Document type:
Thesis/dissertation
File:
V66jxNIZon_20180404152143962.pdf