Is there a golden recipe? A scoping review of public health workforce development

Olga Gershuni*, Katarzyna Czabanowska, Genc Burazeri, Anna Cichowska Myrup, Martin Krayer Von Krauss

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal(Systematic) Review article peer-review

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Abstract

Background: This study intended to design a suitable and comprehensive approach for a public health workforce development plan with the ultimate goal of meeting the health objectives in different European Region countries. Methods: We performed a scoping review, including an accurate and exhaustive country-specific hand-search process, mapping the key concepts and practices used in public health workforce development based on the available evidence worldwide. Results: We identified nine comparative measures, based on common features from a scoping literature review, for the assessment of public health workforce development plans available in selected countries. This list of nine comparative measures includes: (i) Alignment between the 10 Essential Public Health Operations (EPHOs) or core public health functions and organizational resources and public health priority areas; (ii) Regulations and Norms; (iii) Capacity Assessment; (iv) Datasets and Databases; (v) Workforce Development Strategies, Planning and Management; (vi) Education, Training, Core Competencies and Models; (vii) Licensing, Accreditation and Credentialing; (viii) Forecasting Strategies for Enumerating and Quotas and (ix) Ethical and Professional Codes of Conduct. These measures are essential to develop, sustain and modernize the public health workforce effectively. Conclusion: We propose a well-balanced set of measures for countries aiming to improve or develop their public health workforce based on instruments that are successfully used and applied in a wide range of countries with different public health systems. However, the implementation should be tailored and adopted according to the specific country context and available recourses.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)401-408
Number of pages8
JournalEuropean Journal of Public Health
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2019

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