Panel on health workforce scale up in developing countries: New U.S. initiatives

Weak healthcare infrastructure and insufficient numbers of health workers have been identified as key barriers to achieving global health targets and rolling back the pandemics of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. To this end, many countries of Sub Saharan Africa are planning and executing initiatives to strengthen their health systems. Botswana, one of the wealthiest countries of Southern Africa, has recently established its first residency program.

Until now, all Batswana physicians were trained abroad and historically, a large proportion of these physicians returned to work in Botswana. However, with the mounting strain HIV is placing on Botswana's health system, more and more young physicians are staying abroad to work. Further, Botswana's HIV prevalence of approximately 30%, is rapidly increasing the need for physicians and other health professionals.

The new residency program is based in Gaborone at Princess Marina Hospital. This presentation will discuss the results of a questionnaire given to the 2007 intern class at Princess Marina Hospital. The questionnaire aims to assess the training needs of the new interns as well as to investigate factors that will make them more likely to stay in Botswana. The results of this questionnaire can be used to help develop the residency program to meet the needs of Botswana's future physicians.