Canada's Health Human Resource Challenges: What is the Fate of Our Healthcare Heroes?

Abstract

Each year, the Canadian health education system graduates thousands of health professionals who have the best intentions of practising to their full scope of knowledge and skills to help improve the patient care experience in this country. However, a recent research study points to the fact that members of the healthcare team may be practising in a challenging environment in which only a limited number of their skills are actually being used. The Michener Institute for Applied Health Sciences believes that these issues, which include increased role specialization, limited scopes of practice, rapidly advancing technology, and challenges transitioning from hospital to community settings, have broader health education and health system implications that need to be addressed by policy makers, educators, and healthcare system leaders in order to enhance health professional education as well as patient care.