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Human Resources for Health
Published in: Human Resources for Health 1/2017

Open Access 01-12-2017 | Research

The gap in human resources to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services at urban and rural primary care facilities in Mexico

Authors: Jacqueline Elizabeth Alcalde-Rabanal, Gustavo Nigenda, Till Bärnighausen, Héctor Eduardo Velasco-Mondragón, Blair Grant Darney

Published in: Human Resources for Health | Issue 1/2017

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Abstract

Background

The purpose of this study was to estimate the gap between the available and the ideal supply of human resources (physicians, nurses, and health promoters) to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services at urban and rural primary care facilities in Mexico.

Methods

We conducted a cross-sectional observational study using a convenience sample. We selected 20 primary health facilities in urban and rural areas in 10 states of Mexico. We calculated the available and the ideal supply of human resources in these facilities using estimates of time available, used, and required to deliver health prevention and promotion services. We performed descriptive statistics and bivariate hypothesis testing using Wilcoxon and Friedman tests. Finally, we conducted a sensitivity analysis to test whether the non-normal distribution of our time variables biased estimation of available and ideal supply of human resources.

Results

The comparison between available and ideal supply for urban and rural primary health care facilities reveals a low supply of physicians. On average, primary health care facilities are lacking five physicians when they were estimated with time used and nine if they were estimated with time required (P < 0.05). No difference was observed between available and ideal supply of nurses in either urban or rural primary health care facilities. There is a shortage of health promoters in urban primary health facilities (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

The available supply of physicians and health promoters is lower than the ideal supply to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services. Policies must address the level and distribution of human resources in primary health facilities.
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Metadata
Title
The gap in human resources to deliver the guaranteed package of prevention and health promotion services at urban and rural primary care facilities in Mexico
Authors
Jacqueline Elizabeth Alcalde-Rabanal
Gustavo Nigenda
Till Bärnighausen
Héctor Eduardo Velasco-Mondragón
Blair Grant Darney
Publication date
01-12-2017
Publisher
BioMed Central
Published in
Human Resources for Health / Issue 1/2017
Electronic ISSN: 1478-4491
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-017-0220-5

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