Nurses are key players in health promotion and disease prevention and the backbone of health care systems worldwide. Nurses work on the front lines of disease prevention, health promotion, and health management and are often the unsung heroes in hea...lth care facilities and emergency response. Despite the critical role they play in health care, there is a nursing shortage across the world that will affect the delivery of competent nursing care. This fact sheet highlights key action points for targeted investment in the nursing workforce and calls on Member States to strengthen nursing within the context of their own country efforts. Suggestions for action and strategies for strengthening the nursing workforce in primary health care services are through investment in education, jobs, leadership, and service delivery are provided.
more
WHO Package of Essential NCD interventions will help to improve the coverage of appropriate services for people with NCDs services in primary care settings. The HEARTS technical package provides a s...trategic approach to improving cardiovascular health in countries in primary care settings.
more
Version 2, January 2016
The primary purpose of this document is to provide 3MDG stakeholders with some essential information on the MNCH core-indicators for 3MDG, which were derived from the 3MDG Logical Framework, Data Dictionary for Health S...ervice Indicators (2014 June, DoPH, MoH), A Guide for Monitoring and Evaluating Child Health Programmes (MEASURE Evaluation, September 2005) and Monitoring Emergency Obstetric Care (WHO/UNICEF/UNFPA/AMDD). Partners are strongly encouraged to integrate the MNCH indicators into their ongoing monitoring and evaluation (M&E) activities.
These indicators are designed to help Partners assess the current state of their activities, their progress towards achieving their targets, and contribution towards the national response. This guideline is designed to improve the quality and consistency of data collected at the township level, which will enhance the accuracy of conclusions drawn when the data are aggregated.
more
In sum, the goal is to understand the need to increase fiscal space for health as a prerequisite, but within the framework of efforts to transform the health system. These changes should foster equitable and efficient expenditures and create or strengthen comprehensive integrated health systems with... a first level of care capable of solving health problems and coordinating networks, based on a primary health care approach that offers not only curative care but also health promotion and disease prevention services.
more
The document, titled "Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases: Guidelines for Primary Health Care in Low-Resource Settings," provides the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations... for managing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic respiratory illnesses in low-resource healthcare settings. It outlines cost-effective interventions for early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention within primary healthcare, focusing on accessible methods for diabetes management, blood pressure control, dietary and lifestyle guidance, and essential medication use. The guidelines aim to support healthcare professionals in delivering effective NCD care where resources are limited, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing NCD complications.
more
The document, titled "Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases: Guidelines for Primary Health Care in Low-Resource Settings," provides the World Health Organization's (WHO) recommendations... for managing noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and chronic respiratory illnesses in low-resource healthcare settings. It outlines cost-effective interventions for early diagnosis, treatment, and prevention within primary healthcare, focusing on accessible methods for diabetes management, blood pressure control, dietary and lifestyle guidance, and essential medication use. The guidelines aim to support healthcare professionals in delivering effective NCD care where resources are limited, ultimately improving health outcomes and reducing NCD complications.
more
Humanitarian emergencies result in a breakdown of critical health-care services and often make vulnerable communities dependent on external agencies for care. In resource-constrained settings, this ...may occur against a backdrop of extreme poverty, malnutrition, insecurity, low literacy and poor infrastructure. Under these circumstances, providing food, water and shelter and limiting communicable disease outbreaks become primary concerns. Where effective and safe vaccines are available to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks, their potential deployment is a key consideration in meeting emergency health needs. Ethical considerations are crucial when deciding on vaccine deployment. Allocation of vaccines in short supply, target groups, delivery strategies, surveillance and research during acute humanitarian emergencies all involve ethical considerations that often arise from the tension between individual and common good. The authors lay out the ethical issues that policy-makers need to bear in mind when considering the deployment of mass vaccination during humanitarian emergencies, including beneficence (duty of care and the rule of rescue), non-maleficence, autonomy and consent, and distributive and procedural justice
more
This guidance will assist staff, students and caregivers in schools (including day care centres, pre-school, primary and secondary schools), higher... educational institutions (including universities, research institutes) and other educational institutions with how to address coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during different outbreak phases as defined in the Africa CDC Stepwise Response.
more
This guideline provides health policy-makers and decision-makers in health professional training institutions with advice on the rationale for health-care providers’ use of counselling skills to address sexual health concerns in a ...ribute-to-highlight medbox">primary health care setting
more
The new guidelines provide public health guidance on pharmacological agents for managing hyperglycaemia in type 1 and type 2 diabetes for use in primary health-care in low-resource settings. These g...uidelines update the recommendations for managing hyperglycaemia in the WHO Package of Essential NCD Interventions (WHO PEN) for primary care in low-resources settings, reviewing several newer oral agents as second- and third-line treatment: dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitors, sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors and thiazolidinediones. The guidelines also present recommendations on the selection of type of insulin (analogue versus human insulin) for adults with type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
more
This purpose of this guide is to inform robust evaluations of the WHO training package – a package aimed at personnel whose primary role in health-care facilities is environmental cleaning, hereaf...ter referred to as cleaners.
The WHO training package – Environmental cleaning and infection prevention and control in health-care facilities in low- and middle-income countries – was designed to improve the competencies of cleaners through a practical, educational approach for adult learners in low- and middle-income countries and comprises two volumes: trainer’s guide and modules and resources (1,2). An associated OpenWHO online course describes the essential preparations for trainers to deliver the WHO training package.
more
A training manual for the Community Health Workers.
The manual is being used to train primary health care providers on identification, first aid and referral of common blinding conditions in child...ren.
more
A Systematic Review, Country Case Studies, and Recommendations for Integration into National Health Systems
Alliance Report
Participation of community health workers (CHWs) in the provision of primary health ...dbox">care has been experienced all over the world for several decades, and there is an amount of evidence showing that they can add significantly to the efforts of improving the health of the population, particularly in those settings with the highest shortage of motivated and capable health professionals.
more
This manual is a guide to the assessment and management of children and adolescents
with developmental, behavioural and emotional problems. It has been written mainly for
primary care professional...s, especially primary care physicians and nurses, working in lowand
middle-income countries.
more
For health professionals located outside affected regions, online learning courses from BMJ Learning [http://learning.bmj.com/learning/module-intro/.html?moduleId=10058695] offer guidance on how to recognise who is most at risk and how to manage suspected cases of Ebola in ...highlight medbox">primary care.
more
Together we can Prevent and Control the World's Most Common Diseases
Objectives of the training manual
(1) To improve knowledge of NCD trends, burdens, as well as systems for management and monitoring of NCD services for Township Medical Officers (TMOs), Township Public Health Officers (TP...HOs), Medical Officers (MOs). The manual can also be used for training of Basic Health staff (BHS), TMOs, TPHOs and MOs,
(2) To equip trainers to train BHS to conduct PEN protocols at the primary care level health centers,
(3) To equip trainers to train in processes to conduct PEN scaling up monitoring , supervision and evaluation activities.
more
Policy Note #3: Myanmar Health Systems in Transition Policy Notes Series
A network of basic health facilities has been established in each of the 330 townships, covering both rural and urban areas. For the vast majority of Myanmar’s people, particularly the 70% who reside in rural areas, the ...township health system (THS) is the only government-funded source of preventive, promotive and curative services.
To achieve the national policy objective of progressing towards universal health coverage (UHC) through a primary health-care approach by 2030, the THS is critical to success. It is responsible for the bulk of health care delivery – particularly in rural areas – and is at the heart of national health development in Myanmar. However, if the THS is to be the backbone of health care provision, it currently suffers from a severe case of osteoporosis.
more
Haiti, one of the poorest countries in the world, was devastated by an earthquake in 2010. The disaster uncovered the realities of a non-existent mental health care system with only ten psychiatrists nationwide. Attempts were made to assess the incr...eased prevalence of mental illness, likely due to the trauma to which many were exposed. Several interventions were carried out with aims to integrate mental health into primary health care services. The interplay between socio-cultural beliefs and health (both mental and physical) in Haiti has been widely commented upon by both foreign aid and local caregivers. Observations frequently highlight barriers to the willingness of patients to seek care and to their acceptance of biomedicine over traditional Vodou beliefs. The perception of Haitian beliefs as barriers to the availability and acceptance of mental health care has intensified the difficulty in providing effective recommendations and interventions both before and after the earthquake. Argued in this review is the importance of considering the interactions between socio-cultural beliefs and mental health when developing models for the prevention, screening, classification and management of mental illness in Haiti. These interactions, especially relevant in mental health care and post-disaster contexts, need to be acknowledged in any healthcare setting. The successes and failures of Haiti’s situation provide an example for global consideration.
more
This manual is a resource for Health Counselors working in Family Physician Clinics (FPC) as part of the MANAS program. This program is for common mental disorders like depression and anxiety seen in primary health ...ttribute-to-highlight medbox">care facilitieslike the FPC; since depression is the commonest disorder within this group of stress related mental health problems, in the manual we refer to these problems simply as ‘Depression’. The aim of the MANAS program is to integrate the recognition and treatment of Depression into routine primary health care.In the MANAS program, a range of effective treatments will be provided for patients with Depression. These treatments are matched to the individual requirements of patients to both improve the effectiveness of the treatments and to use the limited resources efficiently.
more
The method, entitled “elicit-provide-elicit”, is a patient centred method which is adaptable to a range of clinical situations. Recent clinical trials show that the introduction of advanced communication skills based on this method in general practice allows ...medbox">primary care physicians to prescribe significantly less antibiotics while maintaining a high degree of patient satisfac-tion, without impacting patient recovery time and consultation times.
more