The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the implications of chronic underinvestment in health workforce development,particularly in resource-constrained health systems.Inadequate health workforce diversity,insufficient train...The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the implications of chronic underinvestment in health workforce development,particularly in resource-constrained health systems.Inadequate health workforce diversity,insufficient training and remuneration,and limited support and protection reduce health system capacity to equitably maintain health service delivery while meeting urgent health emergency demands.Applying the Health Worker Life Cycle Approach provides a useful conceptual framework that adapts a health labour market approach to outline key areas and recommendations for health workforce investment-building,managing and optimising-to systematically meet the needs of health workers and the systems they support.It also emphasises the importance of protecting the workforce as a cross-cutting investment,which is especially important in a health crisis like COVID-19.While the global pandemic has spurred intermittent health workforce investments required to immediately respond to COVID-19,applying this‘lifecycle approach’to guide policy implementation and financing interventions is critical to centering health workers as stewards of health systems,thus strengthening resilience to public health threats,sustainably responding to community needs and providing more equitable,patient-centred care.展开更多
基金The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public,commercial or not-for-profit sectors.This article was made possible by the support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development(USAID)through the authors’employment with USAID(no award/grant number).
文摘The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the implications of chronic underinvestment in health workforce development,particularly in resource-constrained health systems.Inadequate health workforce diversity,insufficient training and remuneration,and limited support and protection reduce health system capacity to equitably maintain health service delivery while meeting urgent health emergency demands.Applying the Health Worker Life Cycle Approach provides a useful conceptual framework that adapts a health labour market approach to outline key areas and recommendations for health workforce investment-building,managing and optimising-to systematically meet the needs of health workers and the systems they support.It also emphasises the importance of protecting the workforce as a cross-cutting investment,which is especially important in a health crisis like COVID-19.While the global pandemic has spurred intermittent health workforce investments required to immediately respond to COVID-19,applying this‘lifecycle approach’to guide policy implementation and financing interventions is critical to centering health workers as stewards of health systems,thus strengthening resilience to public health threats,sustainably responding to community needs and providing more equitable,patient-centred care.
