The challenge of moving towards the right to health for all —through the strategies for universal access to health and universal health coverage (universal health)— requires multiple conditions and actions. One of them is to have sufficient health workers, well distributed and with the skills and motivation needed for the transformation of health services and to provide comprehensive and quality responses to people and their

Objectives.

To identify the preferred specialties, salary perception and other factors that influence the choice of a career in primary care among last-year medical students or social service students in Central America.

Methods.

A cross-sectional, multicenter study using a survey that investigated demographic information, preferred specialty, salary perception, and other factors that influence the choice of a specialty.

The main objective of the Public Health Training Program on the Brazil-Uruguay Border was to strengthen local training capacities in public health through the development of skills and competencies together with health workers from four border areas.

Objective.

To evaluate the effectiveness of the strategy of skill mix of nurses and other health care professionals in primary health care.

High blood pressure (BP) is a highly prevalent modifiable cause of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and death. Accurate BP measurement is critical, given that a 5-mmHg measurement error may lead to incorrect hypertension status classification in 84 million individuals worldwide. This position statement summarizes procedures for optimizing observer performance in clinic BP measurement, with special attention given to low-tomiddle-income settings, where resource limitations, heavy workloads, time constraints, and lack of electrical power make measurement more challenging.

Objective.

This review describes the geographic and temporal distribution of, detection methods for, and other epidemiological features of published leptospirosis outbreaks, with the aim of informing efforts to standardize outbreak-reporting practices. 

Methods.

We conducted a systematic review of leptospirosis outbreaks reported in the scientific literature and ProMED during 1970–2012. Predefined criteria were used to identify and classify outbreaks and a standard form was used to extract information.

Objective.

To describe the impact of deficient cause-of-death records on trends in death by suicide and homicide, through imputation of missing information.

Methods.

Observational and descriptive study of temporal trends in recorded deaths from external causes in Argentina in the period 1997-2018. For imputation of intent, logistic models were adjusted on the basis of predictive variables from the Statistical Report on Deaths. Vital statistics and population projections were used as secondary sources.

Objective.

To determine the time pattern of adolescent fertility rates (AFRs) in the countries of the Region of the Americas, categorizing them to evaluate their mobility and differences, and to produce a forecast for 2023.

Objectives.

This study summarizes the findings of a training needs and priority assessment completed in Haiti. Its objective is to describe the characteristics of nursing and allied professions providing first level maternal health care and identify training needs and priorities to inform planning of Human Resources for Health interventions.