Iinternational experience in health workforce planning

Abstract

It has been globally recognized that effective management of human resources for health HRH is a key element in ensuring the quality of care. Health workforce planning (WFP) plays an important role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals in the field of health. Global communities and international organizations, such as the UN and WHO, have been developing various tools and programs to support the implementation processes of joint WFP to be adopted and used by governments around the globe. The main tool of WFP is modeling. A number of models have been developed to support WFP decision making. Such projects as The National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) and the European Joint Action Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting (JAHWPF and SEPEN) serve primarily to obtain reliable and comprehensive data for WFP and involve countries in joint activities in this direction, as well as to form homogeneous terminology and methodological approaches. This review describes a theoretical approach to the WFP and offers the implementation path based on the international practice.