Visit the CapacityPlus blog site to read my recent post about HRH and supply chain management.
http://www.capacityplus.org/human-resources-constraints-public-health-supply-chains
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
The health workforce is more than doctors and nurses...under recognized cadres need a voice too!
Visit the CapacityPlus blog site to read my recent post about HRH and supply chain management.
http://www.capacityplus.org/human-resources-constraints-public-health-supply-chains
Monday, October 18, 2010
Henry
I am two days from Fall Break - and I need a break or I'm going to fall down. The pace of grad school has really picked up the last few weeks and that balance of work, school and life is getting harder to achieve. For the most part, I've been able to stay positive and certainly motivated.
Last week I traveled to Washington, DC to meet with some of our partners at the World Bank and my CapacityPlus colleagues. I also attended a USAID DELIVER critical issues series on human resources for health and supply chain management. If this seems like a foreign language, stay tuned. My project blog on the meeting will be going live any day now!
As my schedule has ramped up, the temperatures have cooled down and Chapel Hill is slowly starting to turn from green to electric yellow, orange and red. Fall is by far my favorite season - I always savor those pumpkin lattes at Starbucks, pulling out my tall boots and that night you first need to get out the extra blanket. I am promising myself to slow down, take deep breaths and take it all in. Life is really that precious.
And speaking of life, I have the best news to share. My best friend Ben and his wife Ginny welcomed their adorable son Henry Arthur Marks yesterday. I am savoring every detail of the pictures and can't wait to meet this little man. Ben is my oldest and dearest friend - who is now a daddy! Congratulations to the proud, new parents! Vintage photos below! Henry photos to come!
Last week I traveled to Washington, DC to meet with some of our partners at the World Bank and my CapacityPlus colleagues. I also attended a USAID DELIVER critical issues series on human resources for health and supply chain management. If this seems like a foreign language, stay tuned. My project blog on the meeting will be going live any day now!
As my schedule has ramped up, the temperatures have cooled down and Chapel Hill is slowly starting to turn from green to electric yellow, orange and red. Fall is by far my favorite season - I always savor those pumpkin lattes at Starbucks, pulling out my tall boots and that night you first need to get out the extra blanket. I am promising myself to slow down, take deep breaths and take it all in. Life is really that precious.
And speaking of life, I have the best news to share. My best friend Ben and his wife Ginny welcomed their adorable son Henry Arthur Marks yesterday. I am savoring every detail of the pictures and can't wait to meet this little man. Ben is my oldest and dearest friend - who is now a daddy! Congratulations to the proud, new parents! Vintage photos below! Henry photos to come!
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Don't forget the mommas!
Check out this blog on maternal mortality that I co-wrote with my colleague Kate.
Saving Mothers’ Lives
October 2010 by Amanda Puckett and Kate Tulenko
Much literature has celebrated the recent World Health Organization report that maternal mortality declined by a third in the past decade. Though this downward trend is remarkable, the global public health community is concerned that the declaration will shift attention away from sustaining and increasing efforts to address maternal deaths throughout the world. Also important is decreasing maternal morbidity, which creates huge costs in terms of human suffering, health care expenditures, and lost productivity.
Health systems strengthening reduces maternal mortality
The headline The Top Three Things We’re Not Doing to Save Mother’s Lives recently caught our attention. CapacityPlus’s result areas—global leadership, policy and planning, education and training, workforce effectiveness, and evaluation and knowledge-sharing—are key pieces of the health systems strengthening puzzle needed to improve health outcomes for men, women, and children. Addressing the global health worker shortage, which is most critical in countries with higher maternal mortality rates, will strengthen health systems and improve more than just maternal outcomes.
The article claims that health systems strengthening isn’t “sexy”, which explains why it doesn’t get as much donor funding as other initiatives that target specific diseases. We beg to differ. There is no more attractive way to invest time and resources than ensuring a system functions at all levels so that health services are delivered at a high quality and effectively to populations. Strong systems enable the rest of those “sexy” services like antiretrovirals and immunizations to function at capacity.
Access to contraception and postabortion care
Birth spacing and unmet need for family planning are major concerns for women in many parts of the developing world, but barriers too often prevent women from obtaining access to contraception. These obstacles include logistics, money, access to a provider, and gender norms. Today, more than 200 million women around the world have an unmet desire to control their fertility, and this should not be ignored.
It is estimated that globally 20 million unsafe abortions occur each year, and account for 13% of maternal deaths as well as long-term morbidity for many women who suffer from such consequences as chronic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal occlusion, and secondary infertility. Improving access to both preventive contraception and emergency contraception has the double benefit of dramatically decreasing the number of abortions performed each year. In addition it is important to continue to expand and scale up primary-level postabortion care services that include family planning counseling and methods.
Back to the health system
What is striking about the elements needed to save mothers’ lives is that they require a strong health system. Access to contraception and postabortion care in countries where abortions are currently illegal demands a properly functioning health system. How can access to contraception be improved without a qualified health workforce and fully stocked and operational facilities?
Let’s focus this list even further. We suggest that the one thing we need to doing more of to save mothers’ lives is health systems strengthening.
http://www.capacityplus.org/saving-mothers-lives
Saving Mothers’ Lives
October 2010 by Amanda Puckett and Kate Tulenko
Much literature has celebrated the recent World Health Organization report that maternal mortality declined by a third in the past decade. Though this downward trend is remarkable, the global public health community is concerned that the declaration will shift attention away from sustaining and increasing efforts to address maternal deaths throughout the world. Also important is decreasing maternal morbidity, which creates huge costs in terms of human suffering, health care expenditures, and lost productivity.
Health systems strengthening reduces maternal mortality
The headline The Top Three Things We’re Not Doing to Save Mother’s Lives recently caught our attention. CapacityPlus’s result areas—global leadership, policy and planning, education and training, workforce effectiveness, and evaluation and knowledge-sharing—are key pieces of the health systems strengthening puzzle needed to improve health outcomes for men, women, and children. Addressing the global health worker shortage, which is most critical in countries with higher maternal mortality rates, will strengthen health systems and improve more than just maternal outcomes.
The article claims that health systems strengthening isn’t “sexy”, which explains why it doesn’t get as much donor funding as other initiatives that target specific diseases. We beg to differ. There is no more attractive way to invest time and resources than ensuring a system functions at all levels so that health services are delivered at a high quality and effectively to populations. Strong systems enable the rest of those “sexy” services like antiretrovirals and immunizations to function at capacity.
Access to contraception and postabortion care
Birth spacing and unmet need for family planning are major concerns for women in many parts of the developing world, but barriers too often prevent women from obtaining access to contraception. These obstacles include logistics, money, access to a provider, and gender norms. Today, more than 200 million women around the world have an unmet desire to control their fertility, and this should not be ignored.
It is estimated that globally 20 million unsafe abortions occur each year, and account for 13% of maternal deaths as well as long-term morbidity for many women who suffer from such consequences as chronic pain, pelvic inflammatory disease, tubal occlusion, and secondary infertility. Improving access to both preventive contraception and emergency contraception has the double benefit of dramatically decreasing the number of abortions performed each year. In addition it is important to continue to expand and scale up primary-level postabortion care services that include family planning counseling and methods.
Back to the health system
What is striking about the elements needed to save mothers’ lives is that they require a strong health system. Access to contraception and postabortion care in countries where abortions are currently illegal demands a properly functioning health system. How can access to contraception be improved without a qualified health workforce and fully stocked and operational facilities?
Let’s focus this list even further. We suggest that the one thing we need to doing more of to save mothers’ lives is health systems strengthening.
http://www.capacityplus.org/saving-mothers-lives
Sunday, October 3, 2010
GOAL
I looked up the word "goal" in the dictionary and many of the "definitions" were about sports or an end point of a race. I was looking for that perfect arrangement of words to describe the goal my project just reached - the GlobalGiving goal. The best "definition" was "the end to which an effort is directed" but this really doesn't touch the surface of what it means to have met the GlobalGiving goal for the Open Challenge. It is not the end but just the beginning of an exciting journey for someone in Malawi.
If you are an avid and faithful reader of my blog, you will recall my push for donations on GlobalGiving.org for IntraHealth's project in Malawi. We were raising money to fund tuition for health workers in Malwai - a country with many health-related challenges including a severe shortage of heath workers. As part of the challenge, we had to raise $4000 from 50 different donors to earn a permanent spot on the GlobalGiving site.
We did it. We raised $4585 from 71 different donors. We have earned a permanent spot on the GlobalGiving site to continue raising funds and grow the company's presence thru networks like those on GlobalGiving. But we have done something so much bigger that it makes me want to jump up and dance every time I think about it: WE HAVE ADDED A NEW HEALTH WORKER TO MALAWI'S HEALTH WORKFORCE.
Just think, someone's dream of going to school can now be realized. After graduation, this health worker will be posted to a clinic in Malawi and will help probably thousands of men, women and children during their career. This health worker will help save lives.
This might be one of the most tangible things I've done in my career and I'm so proud to have reached this GOAL with so many supportive colleagues, friend and family members. It means so much to me that people have listened to my countless pleas for this cause. I did not do this alone but I put my heart into promoting this project and I firmly believe in its success. Next up: follow our health worker on his/her journey and continue supporting them as they take on this great next step in entering Malawi's health worker education system and work force.
I love this quote and it has really rang true for me this week:
Monday, September 27, 2010
Jina langu ni Amanda...mimi ni mwanafunzi
Fall is finally arriving and it's been a busy few last weeks of summer. Many of my oldest friends are expecting - here are some pictures from some recent baby showers. I can't wait to meet Fairley's little girl and Benjamin's little boy. They are set to arrive next month!
Here are some fun shots of my public health friends and then some....
Today at lunch, my friends were talking about what they are thinking of doing next year. Some want to continue school - aiming for nursing degrees, other graduate programs and even PHD programs. I know I want to continue my education but I feel that I want more working knowledge under my belt before taking a beat to go back to school yet again. But what will I do after May? Stay at my wonderful company in North Carolina or move on to the unknown? Continue working for an NGO or embark employment under a donor or multilateral agency? I didn't have this question mark looming over my head after graduating from undergrad - I knew I was going to move to London and just figure it out there. It worked out fine but I can't just escape across the big pond for a "once in a lifetime" adventure at the age of 31. In all honesty, I don't want to go out and look for a new adventure - I want to settle into these comfortable shoes of my career that is global public health. I love it and it feels so good to know I love what I do (except maybe Stata).
This week some of my IntraHealth colleagues are in Kenya presenting the PNA results to the stakeholder groups. I am so envious. Not only do I want to be back in Kenya, I miss that team and I really like following thru on my work such as this awesome assessment. Soon I'll connect with my colleagues and hear about the next steps for the assessment!
Speaking of Kenya, let me introduce myself in Kiswahili.
Ninaitwa Amanda. Ninatoka Oxford, NC. Kwa sasa nina ka Chapel Hill, NC. Mimi mwanafunzi wa UNC-CH. Mama ni Linda. Sina kaka wala dada. Mbwa langu ni London. Ninasema Kiingereza, Kifaransa na Kiswahili (kidogo). Sisemi Kirusi! Ninakula chakula cha nafaka kwa chakula cha asubuhi na ninanywa kahawa. Kweli!
If you speak Kiswahili you'll probably laugh but if you don't, you'll think I'm one smart blogger! :)
Until next time....
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Italian canals and root canals
This week my dentist is in Italy. I know this because I have experienced the most intense toothache or any type of ache ever in my life. While my dentist has surely been enjoying gelato while gazing at architecture from Venetian canals, I have been in agony. But thank goodness another dentist in the office was available to see me not once, but twice this week! Though not as lovely as a gondola ride, I got my own "root" canal (a bit cheesy but I couldn't resist). Today I am sore, but very grateful to be on the road to tooth recovery!
This experience reminds me of how fortunate I am to live in a community with access to quality healthcare - which includes quality dental care. So many of my fellow global citizens are not so lucky. It is important for us to remember that our teeth are an important aspect of our health. From early childhood caries to advanced gum disease, if we do not take care of our teeth and gums and our children's teeth, our quality of life can be greatly affected. I learned this lesson first hand this week.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
A Quote
"The most common language is neither English nor Spanish nor Hindi. The most common language is silence - the language of the world's poor and marganilized women." (Indira Gandhi)
Did this strike a chord with you as it did with me? I have been focusing a lot more on gender and human rights in my public health studies lately. I have also been taking on some gender activities at work. It isn't an impossibility that I will will include gender as an aspect in my Masters paper next year. From compulsory steralizations to workplace violence to forced prostitution, women have stigmatized and denied a say in their reproductive health and their basic human rights for centuries. I know this subject is pretty dour but there are so many stories of hope and persaverence. Women around the world are truely amazing. If you live in the Triangle, check out Nicolas Kristoff at UNC on September 14th and at Meredith College on September 20th. Kristoff co-wrote "Half the Sky", which I have blogged about already. It is a wonderful book all about women, who "hold up half the sky".
Did this strike a chord with you as it did with me? I have been focusing a lot more on gender and human rights in my public health studies lately. I have also been taking on some gender activities at work. It isn't an impossibility that I will will include gender as an aspect in my Masters paper next year. From compulsory steralizations to workplace violence to forced prostitution, women have stigmatized and denied a say in their reproductive health and their basic human rights for centuries. I know this subject is pretty dour but there are so many stories of hope and persaverence. Women around the world are truely amazing. If you live in the Triangle, check out Nicolas Kristoff at UNC on September 14th and at Meredith College on September 20th. Kristoff co-wrote "Half the Sky", which I have blogged about already. It is a wonderful book all about women, who "hold up half the sky".
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