Pilot Research to Develop a Nursing Digital Health Capability Framework in Chile

The Global Digital Health Strategy emphasizes digital health workforce development to reach a sustainable health system. In Chile, a digital health capability framework to support the transition towards digital health and workforce development is still missing. A survey will be applied at a national level. The Development of a Chilean Nursing Digital Health Capability Framework will identify the capabilities of nurses in digital health innovation and improve the quality and safety of healthcare nationwide.

Nationalisation of Health Workforce in Saudi Arabia’s Public and Private Sectors: A Review of Issues and Challenges

Presently, Saudi Arabia depends largely on expatriate health workforce for delivery of health services. This article provides an overview of Saudization policy introduced by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and analyses its underlying impact on health workforce in public and private sectors. It also examines key strategic initiatives undertaken by the government for health workforce development and challenges of replacing expatriates in the country as envisaged in the Vision 2030. There are concerns about low participation of females in nursing, mainly due to a poor image attached to the profession, and further exacerbated by religious and cultural factors. There is a strong need to adopt a health workforce development policy that integrates local culture, values and social ties. Government needs to follow a multipronged approach to change the mindset of citizens to take up health care jobs, particularly nursing and pharmacist professions.

Analysis of accreditation standards for undergraduate medical studies in Serbia through the lens of the National Health Workforce Accounts

Background Understanding the importance of educational accreditation standards for health workforce policymaking is needed more than ever, given the growth of physicians' shortage, circulation, cross-border care. The World Health Organization National Health Workforce Accounts (WHO-NHWA) for education and training could support medical education accreditation goals. Objective The aim of the study was to show the compliance of the Serbian national accreditation standards for undergraduate medical education with the WHO-NHWA indicators for accreditation of education and training of the health workforce. The study highlights the relevance of education accreditation to health workforce development.Methods Based on a review of the official documents, laws, and regulations for national accreditation of medical studies in Serbia, we described the current accreditation standards of the most prominent faculty of medicine in Serbia, the Faculty of Medicine University of Belgrade (FMUB), and compared them with the WHO-NHWA indicators on education and training. Results The national accreditation standards partly match the WHO-NHWA indicators for accreditation of education and training. National standards concentrate on education quality while overlooking social determinants of health and social accountability. Over the last nine years, the freshmen enrollment has a downward trend, and the average duration of a six-year undergraduate study of medicine was 7.2 ± 0.4 years.Conclusion Social accountability and social determinants must be priority standards in future accreditation. Health workforce organizations, civil society, and the community should participate in regulatory bodies for accreditation to establish the appropriate basis for socially accountable and interprofessional education. If applied at the institutional, local, and national levels, the WHO-NHWA indicator system can support medical studies' alignment with the strategy/plan of the health care and health workforce development.

Results and Recommendations From a National Public Health Workforce Development Systems Assessment Conducted in the United States

Multiple public health workforce development assessments report individual worker knowledge and skill-based training needs. These assessments do not capture practitioners’ in-depth perceptions of complex public health challenges and whether workforce development approaches address these issues. To address this gap, the Public Health Learning Network—a national coalition of 10 Regional Public Health Training Centers located at United States accredited schools of public health, their partners, and the National Network of Public Health Institutes—conducted a public health workforce development assessment using a two-phased mixed-method design to explore systems-level gaps and opportunities for improving workforce development effectiveness. Phase 1 included a content analysis of major public health workforce development reports and peer-reviewed literature. Phase 2 included primary qualitative data collection of key informant interviews and focus groups via conference call with 43 participants representing 41 public health organizations at the local, state, and national levels. Results included a wide range of challenges with an emphasis on major systems changes, the shift in public health’s role to more effectively build community collective capacity, limited staff capacity and capability, and the need for more flexible and integrated training funding. Public health workforce development approaches recommended to address these challenges included improving pedagogical approaches toward more integrated, multimodal training delivered over time; increasing workforce capacity to address complex challenges such as racism and housing; and facilitating public health workforce development system coordination and alignment. Public Health Learning Network’s workforce assessment also identified opportunities for conceptualizing the definition and delivery of training toward ongoing learning.