Human: Solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare

Author(s):  
Mark Britnell

The central argument of this book is that over the next decade we are heading towards a global workforce shortage in healthcare that will harm patients, citizens, and societies. Knowing what we know, we cannot simply watch this happen; Mark Britnell believes it is possible to make good this gap by orchestrating our policies and practice in a more innovative, concerted, and collaborative way. In doing so, productivity will improve in a key section of the economy and national wealth will increase, helping individual prosperity, families, communities, and social cohesion. He looks at specific countries such as Japan, Brazil, and the Netherlands to illustrate how health systems can improve worldwide if we learn from each other. He argues for gender equality for healthcare workers, increased support for them, and more sophisticated thinking on the relationship between humans and technology.

Author(s):  
Mark Britnell

In this chapter Mark Britnell brings together his ideas for solving the global workforce shortage in healthcare. He argues for a total reimagination of how we conduct healthcare and construct healthcare systems to avoid the coming global workforce shortage in healthcare that will harm patients, citizens, and societies. He argues for a more innovative, concerted, and collaborative approach to policies and practice. This way productivity will improve in a key section of the economy and national wealth will increase, helping individual prosperity, families, communities, and social cohesion. He is careful to point out that solving the global workforce crisis in healthcare is a complex problem, but that it can be solved.


2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (Supplement_3) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract Background This workshop is dedicated to the WHO International Year of Health and Care Workers in 2021 in recognition of their commitment during the COVID-19 pandemic. During the first wave of the pandemic healthcare workers were lionised, yet societies' and health policymakers' appreciation of their new ‘heroes' was decreasing when corona fatigue was increasing. Health systems and policymakers have not fully understood the new emergent threats during the COVID-19 pandemic. Health workforce protection and pandemic preparedness are not limited to individual healthcare workers, but strongly impact in health system resilience. Objectives This workshop sets the focus on the protection and preparedness of healthcare workers for global public health emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to identify strengths and weaknesses of health workforce policy during COVID-19 and to highlight the need for a health system and governance approach. The following major questions will be addressed: How can the protection and pandemic preparedness of healthcare workers be improved? How can the capacities of the health workforce be used and governed more effectively during a pandemic? What policy priorities can be identified to support the health and wellbeing of healthcare workers and prevent infection and deaths, as well as post-COVID fatigue, burn-out and job leaves? How can we build back better and more equitable, including strengthening gender equality and establishing solidarity-based health workforce migration policy? Results The workshop introduces novel results drawn from four European comparative studies. A number of important policy recommendations are emerging from the research, which include among others: (1) improve attention to the complex health and social needs of healthcare workers, (2) implement comprehensive surveillance and monitoring systems, (3) establish European health workforce governance to mitigate shortages and inequality between countries and globally, and (4) take action to implement gender equality policies and to better protect female healthcare workers. Conclusions The workshop will stimulate critical debate and improve knowledge exchange across countries and between researchers. It will contribute to creating resilience of the health workforce and health systems and to build back better after COVID-19 in a fair and equitable manner. Key messages Health systems must be accountable for the protection and preparedness of healthcare workers. Action is needed to develop a health workforce surveillance system on national and EU level.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-15
Author(s):  
Umit Cetin ◽  
Celia Jenkins ◽  
Suavi AYDIN

This interview with Martin van Bruinessen records his personal and intellectual engagement with Alevis in Turkey and the Netherlands for over fifty years. Initially, his interest was in Anatolian Alevi culture and he began exploring the religious dimension of Alevism in the 1970s at a time when Alevis were more preoccupied with left-wing politics. He charts the emergence of Alevism studies since the 1980s and links it to the religious resurgence and reinvention of diverse ethno-religious Alevi identities associated with urbanised and diasporic communities. He further examines the relationship between Kurdish and Alevi movements and Alevism and Islam.


Think India ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 186-192
Author(s):  
Dr. Oinam Ranjit Singh ◽  
Dr. Nushar Bargayary

The Bodo of the North Eastern region of India have their own kinship system to maintain social relationship since ancient periods. Kinship is the expression of social relationship. Kinship may be defined as connection or relationships between persons based on marriage or blood. In each and every society of the world, social relationship is considered to be the more important than the biological bond. The relationship is not socially recognized, it fall outside the realm of kinship. Since kinship is considered as universal, it plays a vital role in the socialization of individuals and the maintenance of social cohesion of the group. Thus, kinship is considered to be the study of the sum total of these relations. The kinship of the Bodo is bilateral. The kin related through the father is known as Bahagi in Bodo whereas the kin to the mother is called Kurma. The nature of social relationships, the kinship terms, kinship behaviours and prescriptive and proscriptive rules are the important themes of the present study.


Author(s):  
Rev George Handzo ◽  
Rev Brian Hughes

Gomez and her colleagues have presented a helpful study of the relationship of the chaplains in her health system to physicians which highlights several barriers to a well-integrated relationship and thus to more optimal patient care. We have seen these same barriers as we have consulted with health systems nationally and have also identified many best practices that mediate or even eliminate many of these barriers. This commentary describes some of what we have seen as chaplain-generated causes of those barriers and effective strategies that have been employed to overcome them. We also provide some resources for chaplains who wish to institute some of these best practices themselves.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1207
Author(s):  
Misato Uehara ◽  
Makoto Fujii ◽  
Kazuki Kobayashi

Research on stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been dominated by the cases of healthcare workers, students, patients, and their stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the relationship between the amount of stress change under the COVID-19 pandemic and demographic factors (age, sex, occupation, etc.) in residents of a large city and a rural area of Japan. A total of 1331 valid responses were received in June 2020 from residents of Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagano registered with a private research firm. We were able to identify 15 statistically significant variables out of 36 explanatory variables, which explained the significant increase in stress compared to the pre-pandemic period. Multiple-factor analysis showed that the relationship with people is a more significant explanatory variable for the level of increase in stress than the difference in environment between big cities (Tokyo, Osaka) and rural areas (Nagano), the type of housing, and the decrease in income compared to the pre-pandemic period.


Urban Studies ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 004209802110060
Author(s):  
Christophe Leclerc ◽  
Maarten Vink ◽  
Hans Schmeets

Whereas the so-called ‘citizenship premium’ in the labour market has been widely studied, we know little about how naturalisation affects immigrants’ lives beyond work and income. Focusing on the Netherlands, this paper analyses the relationship between citizenship acquisition and immigrant residential mobility, in particular the propensity of immigrants to move away from areas with high concentrations of migrants. We draw on register data from Statistics Netherlands ( N = 234,912). We argue that possessing Dutch citizenship reduces spatial stratification by diminishing the risk of housing market discrimination, thereby facilitating mobility outside of migrant-concentrated areas. Our findings show that naturalised immigrants are 50% more likely to move out of concentrated neighbourhoods, all else constant. The effect of naturalisation is especially relevant for renting without housing benefits and for home ownership, and for mid-risk immigrants who earn around the median income and hold permanent jobs, whose applications face strong scrutiny from landlords, rental agencies and mortgage lenders.


Author(s):  
Sean J. Johnson ◽  
Sarah Benson ◽  
Andrew Scholey ◽  
Chris Alford ◽  
Joris C. Verster

The relationship between risk-taking behavior, alcohol consumption and negative alcohol-related consequences is well known. The current analyses were conducted to investigate whether alcohol mixed with energy drink (AMED) is related to risk-taking behavior and if there is a relationship between the amount of energy drink mixed with alcohol consumed, risk-taking behavior and negative alcohol-related consequences. Data from N = 1276 AMED consuming students from the Netherlands, UK and Australia who completed the same survey were evaluated. The analysis revealed that, compared to AMED occasions, on alcohol only (AO) occasions significantly more alcohol was consumed and significantly more negative alcohol-related consequences were reported. On both AO and AMED occasions, there was a strong and positive relationship between amount of alcohol consumed, level of risk-taking behavior and number of reported negative alcohol-related consequences. In contrast, the level of risk-taking behavior was not clearly related to energy drink consumption. Across risk-taking levels, differences in the amount of energy drink consumed on AMED occasions did not exceed one 250 mL serving of energy drink. When correcting for the amount of alcohol consumed, there were no statistically significant differences in the number of energy drinks consumed on AMED occasions between the risk-taking groups. In conclusion, alcohol consumption is clearly related to risk-taking behavior and experiencing negative alcohol-related consequences. In contrast, energy drink intake was not related to level of risk-taking behavior and only weakly related to the number of experienced negative alcohol-related consequences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. e004360
Author(s):  
Dumisani MacDonald Hompashe ◽  
Ulf-G Gerdtham ◽  
Carmen S Christian ◽  
Anja Smith ◽  
Ronelle Burger

Introduction Universal Health Coverage is not only about access to health services but also about access to high-quality care, since poor experiences may deter patients from accessing care. Evidence shows that quality of care drives health outcomes, yet little is known about non-clinical dimensions of care, and patients’ experience thereof relative to satisfaction with visits. This paper investigates the role of non-clinical dimensions of care in patient satisfaction. Methods Our study describes the interactions of informed and non-informed patients with primary healthcare workers at 39 public healthcare facilities in two metropolitan centres in two South African provinces. Our analysis included 1357 interactions using standardised patients (for informed patients) and patients’ exit interviews (for non-informed patients). The data were combined for three types of visits: contraception, hypertension and tuberculosis. We describe how satisfaction with care was related to patients’ experiences of non-clinical dimensions. Results We show that when real patients (RPs) reported being satisfied (vs dissatisfied) with a visit, it was associated with a 30% increase in the probability that a patient is greeted at the facilities. Likewise, when the RPs reported being satisfied (vs dissatisfied) with the visit, it was correlated with a 15% increase in the prospect that patients are pleased with healthcare workers’ explanations of health conditions. Conclusion Informed patients are better equipped to assess health-systems responsiveness in healthcare provision. Insights into responsiveness could guide broader efforts aimed at targeted education and empowerment of primary healthcare users to strengthen health systems and shape expectations for appropriate care and conduct.


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