Addressing Development Vision 2025: Appropriate Training Models for Human Resources for Health

Abstract

Appropriately trained Human Resources for Health (HRH) are key inputs in the realisation of high quality livelihood, the first attribute of Tanzania‟s Development Vision 2025. Within this attribute elements related to HRH include: access to quality primary health care for all, reduction in infant and maternal mortality rates by three quarters of the current level, and access to quality reproductive health services. For effectiveness, training of this HRH needs to be tailor-made to facilitate a comprehensive understanding of the primary causes of ill health which are responsible for, among others: the high infant and maternal mortality rates, persistent infectious diseases like cholera and tuberculosis, parasitic diseases including malaria and hookworm, non infectious health problems like drugs addiction, occupational health problems, alcoholism, and newer but fatal viral infections like HIV/AIDS. The current teaching of health care professionals based on the germ theory holds bacteria, viruses, and parasites as the primary causes of ill health are misleading in the context of underdeveloped countries. A fatal historical chain in this theory still predominate training and practice in the underdeveloped countries, and this has contributed in locking up these countries in a vicious circle of ill health. There is a need, therefore, for theory that must inform professionals that, the health problems in the underdeveloped countries, including Tanzania, are primarily caused by cultural and socio-economic factors. This paper suggests a vicious circle of ill health model as the appropriate model for training of HRH.