Knowledge Sharing re Uganda HRIS and Retention Work

Drs. McQuide and Mukooyo (Chair, Stakeholder Leadership Group in Uganda) participated in a panel discussion at APHA on “Is it a human right for health workers to migrate from poor countries?” Dr. McQuide discussed elements of a national health worker registry system needed for effective policy making, including the involvement of key stakeholders from inception and the types of health worker policies that can be addressed with information from a registry system. Dr. Mukooyo discussed the preliminary results of the Capacity-assisted Ugandan retention study and the kinds of HR policies needed to improve retention that might derive from the study. Leonard Rubenstein from the Physicians for Human Rights discussed issues and questions around the human right to migrate in the context of a pubic health crisis. The discussion was very well attended by an audience of international health and development workers and prompted a lot of participation and questions. Participants expressed great appreciation for both the provision of actual country level data on retention and the recommendations as to what would improve health workers’ satisfaction and intent to stay in country.