Cervical cancer control and prevention in Malawi: need for policy improvement

Introduction: Malawi has the highest incidents of cervical cancer followed by Mozambique and Comoros thus according to the 2014 Africa cervical cancer multi indicator incidence and mortality score card. Despite having an established cervical cancer prevention program, there is low screening coverage. Studies have been carried out to determine socio-cultural and economical barriers to cervical cancer prevention services utilization and very few have concentrated on health system and policy related barriers to cervical cancer prevention and control. The paper presents finding on a qualitative study which carried out to determine the suitability of the national sexual and reproductive health and rights [SRHR] in mitigating challenges in cervical cancer control and prevention. Methods: a desk review of the Malawi National Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights [SRHR] policy 2009 was done with an aim of understanding its context, goal and objectives. Analysis of the policy history provided insight into the conditions that led to the policy. Policies from countries within the region were referred in the review. Government officials were interviewed to solicit information on the policy. Results: Malawi does not have a standalone policy on cervical cancer; however, cervical cancer is covered under reproductive cancer theme in the SRHR. Unlike some policies within the region, the Malawian SRHR policy does not mention the age at which the women should be screened, the frequency and who is to do the screening. The policy does not stipulate policy implications on the ministry of health, the SRH programs and health service providers on cervical cancer. Furthermore the policy does not include HPV vaccination as a key component of cervical cancer control and prevention. Conclusion: the policy does not reflect fairly the best attempt to reduce the incidence and mortality of cervical cancer as such we recommend that the Reproductive Health Directorate to consider developing a standalone policy on cervical cancer control and prevention.Pan African Medical Journal 2015; 2

The financial losses from the migration of nurses from Malawi

Abstract Background The migration of health professionals trained in Africa to developed nations has compromised health systems in the African region. The financial losses from the investment in training due to the migration from the developing nations are hardly known. Methods The cost of training a health professional was estimated by including fees for primary, secondary and tertiary education. Accepted derivation of formula as used in economic analysis was used to estimate the lost investment. Results The total cost of training an enrolled nurse-midwife from primary school through nurse-midwifery training in Malawi was estimated as US$9,329.53. For a degree nurse-midwife, the total cost was US$ 31,726.26. For each enrolled nurse-midwife that migrates out of Malawi, the country loses between US$71,081.76 and US$ 7.5 million at bank interest rates of 7% and 25% per annum for 30 years respectively. For a degree nurse-midwife, the lost investment ranges from US$241,508 to US$ 25.6 million at 7% and 25% interest rate per annum for 30 years respectively. Conclusion Developing countries are losing significant amounts of money through lost investment of health care professionals who emigrate. There is need to quantify the amount of remittances that developing nations get in return from those who migrate

Measuring and managing the work environment of the mid-level provider – the neglected human resource

BACKGROUND: Much has been written in the past decade about the health workforce crisis that is crippling health service delivery in many middle-income and low-income countries. Countries having lost most of their highly qualified health care professionals to migration increasingly rely on mid-level providers as the mainstay for health services delivery. Mid-level providers are health workers who perform tasks conventionally associated with more highly trained and internationally mobile workers. Their training usually has lower entry requirements and is for shorter periods (usually two to four years). Our study aimed to explore a neglected but crucial aspect of human resources for health in Africa: the provision of a work environment that will promote motivation and performance of mid-level providers. This paper explores the work environment of mid-level providers in Malawi, and contributes to the validation of an instrument to measure the work environment of mid-level providers in low-income countries. METHODS: Three districts were purposively sampled from each of the three geographical regions in Malawi. A total of 34 health facilities from the three districts were included in the study. All staff in each of the facilities were included in the sampling frame. A total of 153 staff members consented to be interviewed. Participants completed measures of perceptions of work environment, burnout and job satisfaction. FINDINGS: The Healthcare Provider Work Index, derived through Principal Components Analysis and Rasch Analysis of our modification of an existing questionnaire, constituted four subscales, measuring: (1) levels of staffing and resources; (2) management support; (3) workplace relationships; and (4) control over practice. Multivariate analysis indicated that scores on the Work Index significantly predicted key variables concerning motivation and attrition such as emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, satisfaction with the profession and plans to leave the current post within 12 months. Additionally, the findings show that mid-level medical staff (i.e. clinical officers and medical assistants) are significantly less satisfied than mid-level nurses (i.e. enrolled nurses) with their work environments, particularly their workplace relationships. They also experience significantly greater levels of dissatisfaction with their jobs and with their profession. CONCLUSION: The Healthcare Provider Work Index identifies factors salient to improving job satisfaction and work performance among mid-level cadres in resource-poor settings. The extent to which these results can be generalized beyond the current sample must be established. The poor motivational environment in which clinical officers and medical assistants work in comparison to that of nurses is of concern, as these staff members are increasingly being asked to take on leadership roles and greater levels of clinical responsibility. More research on mid-level providers is needed, as they are the mainstay of health service delivery in many low-income countries. This paper contributes to a methodology for exploring the work environment of mid-level providers in low-income countries and identifies several areas needing further research

Prevention of cervical cancer in HIV seropositive women from developing countries:a systematic review protocol

Data extraction form. This form will be used to extract relevant data such as exposure and outcome and statistics from the included studies. (DOCX 18 kb

Comparing the Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave of Different Categories of Health Workers in Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa.

Job satisfaction is an important determinant of health worker motivation, retention, and performance, all of which are critical to improving the functioning of health systems in low- and middle-income countries. A number of small-scale surveys have measured the job satisfaction and intention to leave of individual health worker cadres in different settings, but there are few multi-country and multi-cadre comparative studies. The objective of this study was to compare the job satisfaction and intention to leave of different categories of health workers in Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa. We undertook a cross-sectional survey of a stratified cluster sample of 2,220 health workers, 564 from Tanzania, 939 from Malawi, and 717 from South Africa. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire, which included demographic information, a 10-item job satisfaction scale, and one question on intention to leave. Multiple regression was used to identify significant predictors of job satisfaction and intention to leave. There were statistically significant differences in job satisfaction and intention to leave between the three countries. Approximately 52.1% of health workers in South Africa were satisfied with their jobs compared to 71% from Malawi and 82.6% from Tanzania (χ2=140.3, p<0.001). 18.8% of health workers in Tanzania and 26.5% in Malawi indicated that they were actively seeking employment elsewhere, compared to 41.4% in South Africa (χ2=83.5, p<0.001). The country differences were confirmed by multiple regression. The study also confirmed that job satisfaction is statistically related to intention to leave. We have shown differences in the levels of job satisfaction and intention to leave between different groups of health workers from Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa. Our results caution against generalising about the effectiveness of interventions in different contexts and highlight the need for less standardised and more targeted HRH strategies than has been practised to date

Retention of health workers in Malawi: perspectives of health workers and district management

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Shortage of human resources is a major problem facing Malawi, where more than 50% of the population lives in rural areas. Most of the district health services are provided by clinical health officers specially trained to provide services that would normally be provided by fully qualified doctors or specialists. As this cadre and the cadre of enrolled nurses are the mainstay of the Malawian health service at the district level, it is important that they are supported and motivated to deliver a good standard of service to the population. This study explores how these cadres are managed and motivated and the impact this has on their performance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A quantitative survey measured health workers' job satisfaction, perceptions of the work environment and sense of justice in the workplace, and was reported elsewhere. It emerged that health workers were particularly dissatisfied with what they perceived as unfair access to continuous education and career advancement opportunities, as well as inadequate supervision. These issues and their contribution to demotivation, from the perspective of both management and health workers, were further explored by means of qualitative techniques.</p> <p>Focus group discussions were held with health workers, and key-informant interviews were conducted with members of district health management teams and human resource officers in the Ministry of Health. The focus groups used convenience sampling that included all the different cadres of health workers available and willing to participate on the day the research team visited the health facility. The interviews targeted district health management teams in three districts and the human resources personnel in the Ministry of Health, also sampling those who were available and agreed to participate.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results showed that health workers consider continuous education and career progression strategies to be inadequate. Standard human resource management practices such as performance appraisal and the provision of job descriptions were not present in many cases. Health workers felt that they were inadequately supervised, with no feedback on performance. In contrast to health workers, managers did not perceive these human resources management deficiencies in the system as having an impact on motivation.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>A strong human resource management function operating at the district level is likely to improve worker motivation and performance.</p

How are health professionals earning their living in Malawi?

BACKGROUND: The migration of health professionals from southern Africa to developed nations is negatively affecting the delivery of health care services in the source countries. Oftentimes however, it is the reasons for the out-migration that have been described in the literature. The work and domestic situations of those health professionals continuing to serve in their posts have not been adequately studied. METHODS: The present study utilized a qualitative data collection and analysis method. This was achieved through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with health professionals and administrators to determine the challenges they face and the coping systems they resort to and the perceptions towards those coping methods. RESULTS: Health professionals identified the following as some of the challenges there faced: inequitable and poor remuneration, overwhelming responsibilities with limited resources, lack of a stimulating work environment, inadequate supervision, poor access to continued professionals training, limited career progression, lack of transparent recruitment and discriminatory remuneration. When asked what kept them still working in Malawi when the pressures to emigrate were there, the following were some of the ways the health professionals mentioned as useful for earning extra income to support their families: working in rural areas where life was perceived to be cheaper, working closer to home village so as to run farms, stealing drugs from health facilities, having more than one job, running small to medium scale businesses. Health professionals would also minimize expenditure by missing meals and walking to work. CONCLUSION: Many health professionals in Malawi experience overly challenging environments. In order to survive some are involved in ethically and legally questionable activities such as receiving "gifts" from patients and pilfering drugs. The efforts by the Malawi government and the international community to retain health workers in Malawi are recognized. There is however need to evaluate of these human resources-retaining measures are having the desired effects

Health systems challenges in cervical cancer prevention program in Malawi

Background: Cervical cancer remains the leading cause of cancer death among women in sub-Saharan Africa. In Malawi, very few women have undergone screening and the incidence of cervical cancer is on the increase as is the case in most developing countries. We aimed at exploring and documenting health system gaps responsible for the poor performance of the cervical cancer prevention program in Malawi. Design: The study was carried out in 14 randomly selected districts of the 29 districts of Malawi. All cervical cancer service providers in these districts were invited to participate. Two semi-structured questionnaires were used, one for the district cervical cancer coordinators and the other for the service providers. The themes of both questionnaires were based on World Health Organization (WHO) health system frameworks. A checklist was also developed to audit medical supplies and equipment in the cervical cancer screening facilities. The two questionnaires together with the medical supplies and equipment checklist were piloted in Chikwawa district before being used as data collection tools in the study. Quantitative data were analyzed using STATA and qualitative in NVIVO. Results: Forty-one service providers from 21 health facilities and 9 district coordinators participated in the study. Our findings show numerous health system challenges mainly in areas of health workforce and essential medical products and technologies. Seven out of the 21 health facilities provided both screening and treatment. Results showed challenges in the management of the cervical cancer program at district level; inadequate service providers who are poorly supervised; lack of basic equipment and stock-outs of basic medical supplies in some health facilities; and inadequate funding of the program. In most of the health facilities, services providers were not aware of the policy which govern their work and that they did not have standards and guidelines for cervical cancer screening and treatment. Conclusion: Numerous health system challenges are prevailing in the cervical cancer prevention program in Malawi. These challenges need to be addressed if the health system is to improve on the coverage of cervical cancer screening and treatment

What is required to retain registered nurses in the public health sector in Malawi?

Western recruiting agencies and countries has been blamed for the \'brain drain\' of medical doctors and nurses from developing countries. The increasing demand for skilled human resources and better remuneration of the developed countries coupled with the poor work environment and low remuneration of the developing countries militate against the retention of skilled human resources in the developing countries. Health professionals in the developing countries are also leaving the public sector in search for better remuneration in the private sector including non-governmental organizations within their countries. The massive loss of health professionals from the developing countries to developed countries has sometimes resulted in the developed countries of the world being blamed for the phenomenon. This questionnaire study was carried out in order to deter mine factors that may facilitate the poor retention of registered nurses in the Malawian public health sector. The results indicate that poor salaries, heavy workloads, lack of promotional opportunities and poorly resourced and equipped health facilities are a de-motivating factor for registered nurses and could resulting loss from the public sector. We argue that while western nations have a role to play in ensuring retention of skilled health workers in developing countries, developing country governments also have a part to play in improving the work environment and remuneration of their employees. Malawi Medical Journal Vol.16(2) 2005: 30-3