Aware that the Council was interested in computerizing its registry information, Professor Odusote gave a demonstration of iHRIS Qualify to the Council’s Registrar during a meeting at the Obudu Ranch in Nigeria. The Registrar was impressed and felt iHRIS Qualify could meet the needs of the Council. She subsequently submitted a formal request for WAHO’s assistance with implementation.

As a first step, Professor Odusote, along with his Professional Officer, Dr. Gbenga Olorunda, traveled to Nigeria in early July to conduct a site survey to obtain information on the existing information systems used by the Council, collect feedback from Council staff on the ability of iHRIS Qualify to meet the Council’s needs and identify challenges to implementation. The team visited the four offices of the Council and conducted interviews with the Registrar, some of her Deputies, and the Heads of the various operational units. The interviews were based on a modified version of the HRIS Assessment tool created by the former Capacity Project.

The team found that the Council’s current processes are largely paper-based with some aspects computerized. Registration is handled manually and information is kept in 19 different physical registries. While there are two separate information systems to support indexing and some aspects of licensing, these systems are not linked, the information is not complete and there is limited verification process in place. In addition, both systems were developed by a local vendor, who has sole access to the development code and permission to download data. Also, the current systems have no reporting function, which means all statistical information is generated manually and then compiled using Excel.

Interviewees desired several changes to the current system. They want integration of the systems to improve accuracy and efficiency, online access to all records, and improved reporting functions. After viewing a demo of iHRIS Qualify, they were impressed. They suggested several customizations, such as online submission of applications by students and institutions, the ability to view previously saved passport photos for verification, and the ability to produce reports that meet specific needs of the Council.

The survey also revealed challenges to computerizing the registration process, including multiple locations with wide geographical spread, inadequate number of computers for the number of staff that need access to the Information system, large number of staff to train, the need to streamline and update the coding and numbering system, the need for improved maintenance of hardware, and 24/7 regular power supply to the computer system for online access.

The survey team recommended steps for the Council to undertake prior to iHRIS Qualify implementation. In the meantime, Professor Odusote is working with CapacityPlus’ developers to customize two appliances for the Council. He hopes to install them in the Council’s offices in Lagoa and Abuja as part of the first phase of the computerization of the Council’s registration functions before the end of September 2010.

Professor Odusote demonstrating iHRIS Qualify to the Council.

Screenshot of the customized iHRIS Qualify for the Council.

WAHO recently completed a pilot of iHRIS Manage in Ghana and is now supporting the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria to implement iHRIS Qualify.

A team of faculty and students from UDSM’s Computer Science Department have been working with the Tanzania Human Resource Capacity Project, an IntraHealth-led Capacity Project Associate Award, for the last year to customize and support the country’s iHRIS Manage software.

At the UDSM presentation, there were computers available for attendees to try the iHRIS Manage system. Literature about the software was distributed, including a user manual in Swahili created by the UDSM students.

Congratulations to the UDSM team!

In the first year, eight seniors from the department worked with THRP to customize the system, work with the implementing partners, develop user manuals and training materials, and, most important, build capacity for supporting iHRIS Manage in the country by training students as junior programmers. The students also participated in THRP HRIS meetings and contributed to workplan discussions.

The first group of students who participated in the program will graduate later this month. To create awareness of the program, the department held a workshop on June 19 for the outgoing students to share their experiences with incoming seniors.

The workshop included opening remarks from Dr. Mercy Mbise of UDSM, a senior systems analyst of the iHRIS Software requirements in Tanzania, and an introduction to the program from Dr. Juma Lungo, the coordinator of the program at UDSM. The outgoing students then gave a demonstration of the iHRIS Manage software, highlighting the modules they developed over the last year. Then there was time for discussion, followed by closing remarks from Mathayo Josephat, an ICT officer for the Christian Social Services Commission, which is implementing iHRIS Manage.

The event was a success and at least sixteen students expressed interest in joining the program and developing case studies that aim at further development/upgrading of the iHRIS Manage software. 

“I have been able to interface with the Ubuntu platform, install SSH (a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged) and use it for remote login and sharing files, install iHRIS Manage and Qualify… If we continue at this pace, am sure by the end of the six months I will be a consultant as far as the IT environment and HRIS are concerned.” – Barbara Nansamba

“It’s truly been a learning experience. What I’ve been exposed to in just two weeks would probably take an entire semester at the University.” – Barbara Wamala

“I have got experience in working with Linux, especially Ubuntu… I have also got knowledge about SSH for remote connection. Also tried to learn some programming languages like xml, object oriented PHP and javascript that were used in development of the system.” – Bridget Magoba

 “…I always look forward to coming to work. My interaction with iHRIS has given me an insight on how to better create and design large secure systems. I had never really interacted with Ubuntu but am getting to be a bit good at it.” – Norbert Mijumbi

“I have been exposed to a lot of things that I was never used to. I am basically happy with the way I am getting used to Linux Operating System.” – Stephen Ocaya

“IntraHealth for just two weeks has been a great experience for me. At IntraHealth I have already acquired good skills in Linux…  and I feel like a better computer programmer.” – Dennis Kibiye

Read more about the internship program here.

• Human resources for health information systems and allocation models
• Health labor market supply-demand dynamics
• Human resources for health analysis and planning methodologies.

The CapacityPlus HRIS team was excited about participating in this important meeting, in part because our paper, Using Routine Human Resources Information Systems to Manage, Measure, and Monitor the Health Workforce, was accepted as a presentation. iHRIS Developer and coauthor of the paper, Dr. Carl Leitner, planned to travel to Rio to present the paper, but unfortunately did not receive his Brazilian visa in time (visa processing times recently increased).

Fortunately, when it was announced during a conference session that Carl could not make it and our HRIS paper was going to be skipped, our former colleague from the Capacity Project, Dr. Danny de Vries, offered to present on Carl’s behalf. Danny is a research fellow on globalizing the health workforce at the University of Amsterdam’s Centre for Global Health and Inequality and was in attendance to present a paper he coauthored (Using the Wage Indicator Websurvey to Monitor Human Resources for Health, De Vries & Tijdens, 2010). With only 30 minutes to prepare for the presentation, Danny’s experience as lead evaluator on the Capacity Project’s Evaluation of Capacity Project’s Human Resources Information System Implementation in Swaziland, Uganda & Rwanda, along with a few quick emails back and forth with Carl were sufficient for the presentation to go smoothly.

Danny highlighted the importance and benefits of implementing a routine HRIS – one that is incorporated into the daily functions of an HR office – and gave an overview of our five-step HRIS Strengthening process. He then explained how HRIS fits into the larger context of a country’s overall health information system. Finally, he presented selected country results, including using data for improving strategic planning, workforce planning and monitoring, operations, and quality assurance.

Danny said the presentation went very well and he thought the audience was very interested. In contrast to a previous explanation of a stalled HRIS implementation in Argentina, Danny said the HRIS Strengthening program developed by the Capacity Project and supported by CapacityPlus came across as well developed and a fruitful source of data for economic modelers interested in health workforce projections. As mentioned by one of the attendees in regards to the difficulty in obtaining timely and accurate information, it is, “not the census, but after the census [that] is the challenge.” It was also noted that the new code of conduct for international recruitment approved by the World Health Organization should be leveraged to argue that each country needs to have an HRIS in place.

Following the presentation, Ms. D.G. Joseph, Chief Director of the Human Resources Development/Employee Wellness Program at South Africa’s Gauteng Provincial Government, approached Danny and requested information on how to develop an HRIS in Gauteng, where she manages over 10,000 health workers. “South Africa really needs this,” she said. Danny referred her to the Chapel Hill HRIS team, and follow-up contact has helped her receive instructions for downloading the iHRIS software and accessing the demos. We also put her in touch with our IntraHealth colleagues working for the Southern Africa Human Capacity Development Coalition. 

You can access the conference papers here.

UCP’s HRIS initiatives include supporting the country’s national implementation of the iHRIS software. iHRIS Qualify, licensure and certification software, is used by the four professional health councils, and iHRIS Manage, HR management software, is deployed  at the central Ministry of Health. Planned HRIS activities also include expanding iHRIS Manage to each of the country’s 80+ districts.

Until now, experience supporting the iHRIS software has been limited to UCP’s small HRIS team. As more installations are added (iHRIS Manage is now installed in 20 districts), UCP recognizes that more people are required to provide timely and reliable technical assistance to users throughout the country. To this end, UCP leadership reached out to the nearby Makerere University to create the internship program.

Six new interns, representing this year’s top graduates from Makerere University’s department of Computing and Information Technology, started at UCP on June 21. It is important to note that although the department produces over 400 graduates per year, it does not provide specific training in Open Source programming. With additional hands-on training that will be provided by the UCP internship program, some of these graduates can become experts that can adequately provide the necessary support for the iHRIS software and help ensure its sustainability after UCP ends.

The UCP HRIS team is supervising the interns. Tasks for the interns to address over the next six months include completing any outstanding data entry for the MOH and professional councils, cleaning and analyzing data, and training users in data analysis. In addition, the interns will assist with the iHRIS Manage rollout. So far, they have learned how to install the software and make customizations. Next week they will be shown how to upgrade the software to newer versions. Soon they will begin accompanying the UCP HRIS team to the district locations to install the software and perform any necessary upgrades.

This is the first known HRIS internship program for any of IntraHealth’s projects. As UCP learns from this first round of interns, hopefully their program will be scaled and modified by other countries and Capacity Project Associate Awards.

Carl will present on HRIS in Low-Resource Settings on July 21 at 5:20 pm. In his presentation, he will review the technical, political, and social obstacles to strengthening health workforce information in low-resource countries with infrastructure challenges. He will argue why an Open Source approach to solving health workforce challenges is ideal for these environments. He will then describe the iHRIS Suite of software —  iHRIS Manage, iHRIS Qualify, and iHRIS Plan – and how it was designed and developed to meet country needs while facing these challenges.

You can read the full accepted abstract here. 

Just recently, we received a hint this was happening via Launchpad, the site that hosts the iHRIS software code. From a few back and forth questions and answers, we learned that Rhett Davis, an IT specialist, is implementing iHRIS Manage at the behavioral health care organization he works for.

His organization, AmericanWork Inc., is located in the state of Georgia. It employees  about 300 workers spread over 24 locations, including outpatient mental health clinics, day programs, supervised sheltered apartments, and employment acquisition and retention services. 

Like many of the African countries implementing iHRIS, many of AmericanWork’s locations are in rural areas. There are other similarities too. “We have been using an undeveloped access database and paper records to manage our personnel,” says Rhett, “but as we have increased in size and complexity, this system no longer serves us very well.” With this in mind, Rhett started looking for a software solution that would allow his organization to track current and expected positions and salaries for budgeting, manage required training for different types of employees, and to be able to build, run, and save reports. Rhett describes finding iHRIS Manage online and being extremely impressed, “I have looked at a lot of HRIS and none of them had all of the elements I was looking for. iHRIS is a perfect fit as far as I can tell so far.”

To date, Rhett has set up a production site on a dedicated Ubuntu computer located in AmericanWork’s corporate headquarters office. He is currently customizing dropdown lists and tables and will soon enter all employee data.

While setting up the system, Rhett recognized a need in the software for his organization. He noted that several of the dropdown lists, specifically the facility type and position type, do not have a description field. “As I was setting these up, I considered that it would be very helpful to my HR director and others to have a description of each type when entering new positions or facilities, so they could better tell what types the new position or facility would best be assigned to.” Rhett relayed this new feature request to the HRIS team in Chapel Hill. The CapacityPlus iHRIS software developers said the description fields would be easy to add and plan to include them in the next release of the software.

“I am extremely excited about this software and this project,” says Rhett. “My office mates have begun to groan and roll their eyes, as I make them look at features or exclaim when I discover something else we will be able to do.  They will be more excited, I am sure, once we get it implemented and it starts making their jobs easier.” We’re also excited about this new iHRIS Manage implementation and hope other organizations will find out about the software, customize it for their needs, and provide feedback. We’ll keep you posted about what’s happening in Georgia.