Key factors affecting the integration of interprofessional education into human resources for health reform: a Lao People's Democratic Republic case study.

Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) with a population of 6.8 million is a low middle-income country in Southeast Asia. Despite economic development, Lao PDR is still characterized by a weak health system. The Ministry of Health has launched health reforms to provide better health services and University of Health Sciences (UHS) plays an essential role in Human Resources for Health (HRH) reform. Especially, the importance of its role in training health professionals from entry-level to continuing education has been increased. In 2016, the UHS embedded an Interprofessional Education (IPE) concept into a pre-qualifying course, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and the Gunma University Centre for Research and Training on IPE. As a pilot study, some students from faculties of Medicine, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Nursing, and Medical Technology participated in a community-based IPE program. Results suggested that students participating in the IPE program showed more positive attitudes toward collaborative practice than students who did not participate in the IPE program. Based on the results, the UHS is planning to develop an IPE program for health workers. In this article, we describe the strategic international collaboration and discuss the keys to successful IPE planning and implementation in line with HRH reform.

Differences in preferences for rural job postings between nursing students and practicing nurses: evidence from a discrete choice experiment in Lao People's Democratic Republic.

BACKGROUND: A discrete choice experiment was conducted to investigate preferences for job characteristics among nursing students and practicing nurses to determine how these groups vary in their respective preferences and to understand whether differing policies may be appropriate for each group. METHODS: Participating students and workers were administered a discrete choice experiment that elicited preferences for attributes of potential job postings. Job attributes included salary, duration of service until promotion to permanent staff, duration of service until qualified for further study and scholarship, housing provision, transportation provision, and performance-based financial rewards. Mixed logit models were fit to the data to estimate stated preferences and willingness to pay for attributes. Finally, an interaction model was fit to formally investigate differences in preferences between nursing students and practicing nurses. RESULTS: Data were collected from 256 nursing students and 249 practicing nurses. For both groups, choice of job posting was strongly influenced by salary and direct promotion to permanent staff. As compared to nursing students, practicing nurses had significantly lower preference for housing allowance and housing provision as well as lower preference for provision of transportation for work and personal use. CONCLUSIONS: In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, nursing students and practicing nurses demonstrated important differences in their respective preferences for rural job posting attributes. This finding suggests that it may be important to differentiate between recruitment and retention policies when addressing human resources for health challenges in developing countries, such as Laos.