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Good managers and motivated personnel are crucial in fighting AIDS

Motivated and qualified health workers appear to be essential for fighting AIDS. In developing countries, there are insufficient health workers and they are often underqualified or not motivated enough to provide good health care.

On 12 January, Marjolein Dieleman obtained her doctorate at VU University Amsterdam. She works at the Royal Tropical Institute. Her research focused on the question of how human resource management (HRM) could be more effectively deployed to improve the way health workers perform their function in countries severely hit by the AIDS epidemic.
Dieleman: “The situation in the medical sector was already worrying, but HIV/AIDS has made things worse; now, even more use is being made of the limited facilities and manpower. In areas with many AIDS patients, health workers have to deal with increased workloads, the fear of becoming infected at work, and emotional exhaustion. As a result, they may avoid certain care tasks and any close contact with patients. HIV-positive health workers are also afraid of exclusion and so they keep their condition secret.”
Under such difficult circumstances, it is essential Human Resource Management (HRM) supports the health employees properly. HRM policy, however, is often implemented inconsistently or is seen purely as an administrative routine. Dieleman demonstrated that even slight adjustments to existing activities could produce improvements relatively easily. Training, more transparency and a bonus system can have a big effect on the motivation of healthcare workers. This, in turn, beneficially influences their functioning. Dieleman: “But watch out for ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions. In developing countries, one always has to take local conditions into account when tackling HRM.”