Search results

1 – 10 of 71
Article
Publication date: 27 December 2021

Barnabas Addi, Benjamin Doe and Eric Oduro-Ofori

Over the past two decades, Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) has been a pragmatic strategy towards universal Primary Health Care (PHC) in Ghana. However, the…

Abstract

Purpose

Over the past two decades, Community-Based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) has been a pragmatic strategy towards universal Primary Health Care (PHC) in Ghana. However, the ability and capacity of these facilities to deliver quality primary health care remain an illusion as they are still crumbling in myriad challenges. These challenges are translated to the poor-quality services provision and low community utilization of CHPS facilities. The study presents a comparative analysis of three communities in the Kassena-Nankana East Municipality, Ghana.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a mixed-method research design, the study gathered and analysed data from 110 households, three community health officers (CHOs) and three community leaders using semi-structured questionnaires and interview guides.

Findings

The findings indicated that the facilities do not have the requisite inputs such as drugs and supplies, logistics, appropriate health personnel, good infrastructure, funding support necessary to deliver quality and appropriate healthcare services that meet the health needs of the communities. For the CHPS to realize their full potentials as PHC facilities, it is required that the needed inputs such as logistics, drugs and appropriate staff are in place to facilitate the activities of CHOs.

Research limitations/implications

Due to the limited number of participants and selection of the study communities, the results may generalization. Also, the researchers acknowledged the inability to interview the district level health officials and the Kassena-Nankana Municipal Assembly during the field visits. This could have provided in-depth knowledge on the findings of this research as well as the validation of the results from the communities' perspective. Several attempts were made to contact and interview district-level authorities which proven futile due to the unavailability of targeted respondents. This resulted in limiting the studies at the community level. However, this limitation does not disprove the findings of this study.

Practical implications

The article implications for planning primary health care strategies include a keen assessment of community health needs and institutional management of primary health care facilities, equip PHC facilities with adequate resources such as drugs and appropriate staffing to provide the health needs of the communities.

Originality/value

The paper fulfils the gap in the literature by providing empirical data on how the challenges of primary health care facilities affected the provision of high quality service and how this can affect community’s use of the facilities.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 36 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 12 November 2021

Rejoice Wodomdedzi Foli and Livingstone Divine Caesar

This paper aims to examine the complexity of the relationship between human capital management (HCM) and the performance of community-based health planning and services (CHPS

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the complexity of the relationship between human capital management (HCM) and the performance of community-based health planning and services (CHPS) from an emerging market perspective. It further explores the mediating role of community orientation; institutional intervention and capability of resources in the hypothesized relationship between HCM and the performance of CHPS.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantitative data was collected (through a survey) from 210 health volunteers using a systematic random sampling technique. A 95% response rate was realized and the data was analyzed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical multiple regression.

Findings

HCM has a direct relationship with the performance of the CHPS model. It also emerged that institutional intervention and capability of resources partially mediate the relationship between HCM and CHPS performance; while community orientation fully mediates the same relationship.

Practical implications

Capacity building for staff must be wired into the workings of the CHPS model to yield the maximum impact. This points to the need for training packages that focus on building both social and cultural competence for staff working among locals under the CHPS model. Effective planning is, thus, needed to ensure a seamless allocation of adequate resources to boost performance. Also, community engagement is critical to the success of the CHPS model as it could serve as a platform for awareness creation among locals.

Originality/value

This paper introduces community orientation, institutional intervention and capability of resources as mediating variables to investigate the hypothesized relationships. It offers a developing country insight into how HCM-related factors might be impacting the performance of community-based health programs.

Abstract

Details

Mental Health Review Journal, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-9322

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2008

Isobel Freem and Keith Moore

This article attempts to describe the Scottish approach to integrated care, covering historical background, policy context, progress towards implementation and current issues.

Abstract

This article attempts to describe the Scottish approach to integrated care, covering historical background, policy context, progress towards implementation and current issues.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2013

Carol M. Sánchez and Alexandra S. Schmid

The paper uses a relational view of strategy framework to measure and assess the sustainable success of base of the pyramid (BoP) projects. The authors posit that the relational…

Abstract

Purpose

The paper uses a relational view of strategy framework to measure and assess the sustainable success of base of the pyramid (BoP) projects. The authors posit that the relational view is a powerful way to determine if a firm's project might lead to sustainable competitive advantage, because if partner resources combine to create relation‐specific capabilities and competences, they may provide sustainable value, and the paper applies this method of strategic analysis to selected BoP projects.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper separates the secondary data analysis from the primary data analysis and offers four propositions, based on the combined relational view and BoP criteria. The authors apply the relational view framework to two BoP projects from Michigan‐based organizations. Each case is analysed using the framework, and the authors discuss how the resources of each of the BoP project partners create value, how tailored and scalable the projects are, how BoP end user needs are addressed, what resources partners contribute, and if the relation‐specific combination of resources create project level capabilities that are sustainable.

Findings

The sustainable success of BoP projects may be best achieved when the BoP project partners contribute valuable resources and when those resources combine to create relation‐specific capabilities that create sustainable success. It reinforces the importance of scale, BoP user needs, and engaging BoP customers as partners.

Originality/value

This paper tries to help explain why some BoP projects successfully create a sustainable competitive advantage, by building on strategic themes and using a variation of the relational view framework to examine resources and capabilities of the organizations that partner to serve people at the BoP.

Details

South Asian Journal of Global Business Research, vol. 2 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2045-4457

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 May 2010

Judy Pate, Moira Fischbacher and Jane Mackinnon

The Scottish Parliament has recently formed Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), in which health and social care providers come together within a unified organisational…

Abstract

Purpose

The Scottish Parliament has recently formed Community Health Partnerships (CHPs), in which health and social care providers come together within a unified organisational framework. This paper aims to assess the extent to which employees identify with their profession and whether professional identity poses a significant barrier to multi‐disciplinary, inter‐organisational partnership.

Design/methodology/approach

The study adopted a mixed methodology approach. A survey of all CHP staff was conducted, four months after the CHP was created and obtained a 31 per cent response rate. Additionally, to obtain an in‐depth understanding of the partnership, 26 interviews were conducted with senior and middle level managers and professional representatives.

Findings

A strong professional identity in the health and social care context was evident while the partnership vision, in contrast, lacked clarity. Therefore under these circumstances individuals' sense of occupation has been heightened due to perceived attempts to erode their professional identity, and modifications to their sense of “self” have not been challenged by a strong partnership ethos.

Practical implications

Managers face a deep‐rooted cultural based challenge where individuals strongly identify with their profession rather than the ethos of the partnership, which impedes full integration. Managers have a “balancing act” of addressing structural and processual change within the integration agenda, without losing sight of the outcomes in terms of service delivery and improving health and wellbeing.

Originality/value

This paper examines the implications of a new major health policy change that aims to integrate health and social care. In addition, the study unravels the complex issue of professional identity in this context.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 24 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 October 2021

Georgina Robinson

This paper aims to evidence the perspectives of information professionals in the UK in relation to environmental sustainability and climate action to catalyse collaborative action.

1005

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to evidence the perspectives of information professionals in the UK in relation to environmental sustainability and climate action to catalyse collaborative action.

Design/methodology/approach

This study takes an interpretivist stance. Research into archive and record management literature was conducted to establish key themes on climate change within the information sector. These themes informed research questions included in a survey cascaded to UK archivists, conservators, records managers and cultural heritage professionals via national mailing lists. The results were then codified and analysed. The study had research ethics and data protection approval from University College London.

Findings

Using professional ethics as a framework, this paper argues that climate action can protect records from the impact of climate change, ensuring future access. The information professionals surveyed were motivated by duties to preservation and access to mitigate the impact of the information sector on the environment. However, sector-specific climate action, such as introducing passive storage conditions or decreasing collection sizes, is limited by insufficient resources, organisational hierarchies and cultures, sector support and a perceived conflict with the duty to preservation.

Originality/value

To date, there is a growing body of literature from other countries on archival practices and the natural environment. However, the UK in general and the records management sector in particular, have not yet fully engaged in the discussion. This study reviews these knowledge gaps for the UK information sector to appropriately respond to climate change.

Details

Records Management Journal, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0956-5698

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 7 August 2017

Lynda Cheshire

Based on a case study of the Logan Renewal Initiative (LRI) in Queensland Australia, this chapter examines the competing aims bound up in programmes of urban renewal and the way…

Abstract

Purpose

Based on a case study of the Logan Renewal Initiative (LRI) in Queensland Australia, this chapter examines the competing aims bound up in programmes of urban renewal and the way different stakeholder groups advocate for one component of the programme while seeking to prevent another.

Methodology/approach

A qualitative case study approach is used based on interview and documentary material to elicit the competing views and opinions of local residents, state and local governments, housing providers and other stakeholders around a renewal programme.

Findings

It is found that there are two competing agendas bound up within the LRI, with gentrification at the heart of each. One focuses on the virtues of the social housing reform agenda, but sees gentrification as an unintended and undesirable outcome that needs to be carefully managed. The other is a place-improvement ambition that sees gentrification as an effective policy mechanism, but one that will be undermined by any increases in the stock of social and affordable housing.

Social implications

The chapter emphasizes that programmes of renewal are rarely coherent policy tools, but are subject to change, contestation and negotiation as stakeholders compete to impose their own desired outcomes. In the case of the LRI, both outcomes will likely result in the marginalization of low-income groups unless their needs are placed at the forefront of its design.

Originality/value

The chapter engages critically with the widely held view that urban renewal is a means of gentrifying local neighbourhoods by showing how local conditions and circumstances render the relationship between renewal and gentrification far more complex that generally conceived.

Details

Social Housing and Urban Renewal
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78714-124-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 August 2022

Nana Nimo Appiah-Agyekum, Esinam Afi Kayi, Josephine Appiah-Agyekum, Joseph Gerald Tetteh Nyanyofio and Desmond Dzidzornu Otoo

Resources as well as the capacity to employ them judiciously may well be the key to the attainment of the SDGs and other related health goals through primary health care (PHC)…

Abstract

Purpose

Resources as well as the capacity to employ them judiciously may well be the key to the attainment of the SDGs and other related health goals through primary health care (PHC). Within this PHC framework, however, the source of resources for PHC as well as the systems for managing these associated resources remain unclear, complex and lack substantive integration systems of implementing ministries, departments and agencies (both local and international) in Ghana. These issues are addressed by this study.

Design/methodology/approach

The framework approach to thematic analysis was used to analyse qualitative data collected from key PHC managers in Ghana selected purposively from the national, regional and district levels. Data were collected through in-depth interviews specially designed in line with the study objectives. The study was also governed by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research which provided ethical clearance for the study.

Findings

As per Alma Ata's recommendation, PHC in its purest form is a resource dense activity with far-reaching implications on individuals and communities. Without adequate resources, PHC implementation remained merely on paper. Findings show that the key capacities required for PHC implementation were finance, human resource, technology and logistics. While significant cases of shortages and inadequacies were evident, management and maintenance of these capacities appeared to be another significant determinant of PHC implementation. Additionally, the poor allocation, distribution and sustainability of these capacities had a negative effect on PHC outcomes with more resources being concentrated in capital towns than in rural areas.

Research limitations/implications

This study has significant implications on the way PHC is seen, implemented and assessed not in Ghana but in other developing countries. In addition to examining the nature and extent of capacities required for PHC implementation, it gives significant pathways on how limited resources, when properly managed, may catalyse the attainment of the PHC goals. Subsequently, PHC implementation will profit from stakeholder attention and further research into practical ways of ensuring efficiency in the allocation, distribution and management of resources especially considering the limited resources available and the budding constraints associated with the dependency on external stakeholders for PHC implementation.

Originality/value

This study is part of a series on PHC implementation in Ghana. Quite apart from putting core implementation issues into perspective, it presents first-hand information on Ghana's PHC implementation journey and is thus relevant for researchers, students, practitioners and the wider public.

Details

Health Education, vol. 122 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0965-4283

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 October 2008

Sabine Hotho

The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion of the recursive relationship between the identity of a profession and the professional identity of individuals in the…

5089

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion of the recursive relationship between the identity of a profession and the professional identity of individuals in the context of change.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a pilot study into change in the NHS. It draws on structuration theory and insights from social identity theory (SIT) to propose that the relationship between the collective level of the profession and the individual level of the professional is recursive.

Findings

The data suggest that individual professionals use and rewrite scripts of their profession but also draw upon new scripts as they engage with local change. To that extent they contribute from the local level upwards to the changing identity of their profession. Further more detailed micro level studies are required.

Research limitations/implications

The argument is based on a limited data set and points towards the need for further microlevel studies which examine the recursive relationship between professionals' identity and the identity of a profession.

Practical implications

Further research can contribute to better understanding of local variance as professionals engage with change.

Originality/value

The paper fuses structuration theory and SIT and examines the agency/structure nexus in a specific change context.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 21 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

1 – 10 of 71