The WHO funded Human Resources for Health Minimum Data Set (HRH MDS) was undertaken by the WHO Collaboration Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development, Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery and Health, University of Technology, Sydney (WHO CC UTS) in collaboration with WHO HQ, WHO WPRO and SEARO.
The aim of the project is to support member States and areas in designing effective and efficient HRH management information systems to generate, process, report on and apply essential HRH data to health planning. This will help to address the inconsistent and incomplete health workforce data.
This project has involved the development and production of a minimum dataset (MDS) and fact sheets to support the establishment and management of HRH information systems. Improved data collection and data reliability and validity will result in improved HRH trend and forecasting analyses, address both national and cross-border HRH issues, and enable cross-country comparisons to be made. These tools, once piloted, will be refined to provide a means of data-sharing between countries and to enable cross-country comparisons of HRH data.
Phase I of this project focused on the nursing and midwifery health workforce. Three fact sheets were developed: 1) Why Human Resources for Heath is important; 2) Using the WHO HRH MDS and 3) The WHO HRH MDS tool.
The first phase of the project was carried out in consultation with individuals from the Western Pacific and South East Asian Region and the project Steering Committee. A group of Core Partners was established in May 2006, with the remit of obtaining agreement on the types of data needed to make informed decisions about Human Resources for Health (HRH) within the South East Asian and Western Pacific regions. The membership included a range of perspectives including government, policy, regulation, education, workforce, employment, funding, information technology, management and researchers.
Face-to-face consultations on drafts took place through presentations and discussion groups at the following international and regional meetings: WHO Collaborating Centre - Resourcing Global Health Conference Glasgow June 7-9th 2006; South Pacific Chief Nurses Alliance Meeting and South Pacific Nursing Forum Samoa; September 6-8th 2006; and WP/SEAR Regional Regulatory Meeting Nursing Regional Meeting, New Zealand September 18th -20th 2006. The Phase I MDS fact sheets were produced in 2007 and presented at the South Pacific Chief Nursing Alliance Meeting in Sydney in 2008.