Improving the Health Workforce on a Global Scale

HRIS

The global nursing shortage is leading to understaffed hospitals and shuttered health clinics across the world.

Because of this dangerous shortage, patients are left without the critical care they need for survival. This shortage is particularly acute in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has nearly 25 percent of the world’s disease burden, but only 3 percent of the world’s health care workforce. 

Researchers from the Lillian Carter Center for Global Health & Social Responsibility are working with nurse leaders in Africa to assist countries in addressing their health care provider shortage.

In collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia Tech Research Institute, the Task Force for Global Health, and the Ministries of Health in Kenya and Zimbabwe, Lillian Carter Center researchers have developed a computerized system—the Human Resources Information System (HRIS)—that provides data on nurses and other health care providers with the ultimate goal of using the data to develop sound interventions for transforming the shrinking nursing workforce into a highly effective and efficient workforce.

“With readily available and accurate data, health managers are better able to train, deploy and manage their workforce to combat emerging epidemics like HIV/AIDS, improve maternal health and child survival, and provide health care for the population,” says Martha Rogers, MD, Director of the Lillian Carter Center and principal investigator for the project.

The HRIS initative has been recognized for its innovative approach to improving health care in developing countries. In February 2011, HRIS was one of six programs in the world to receive the Best Global Case Study Award in the World Health Organization’s Global Forum on Human Resources for Health competition.

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