Health and care workforce planning tools

Overview

A rapid review of health and care workforce planning tools is published in collaboration with the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre on Health Workforce Planning & Research at Dalhousie University, Canada.

The objectives of this rapid review were to identify existing planning tools for the health and care workforce, map their strengths and limitations through a comprehensive review of published evidence including grey literature and consultations, and identify actionable and practical recommendations based on the findings from the review. Researchers employed a multipronged approach that first involved a thorough review of the literature, followed by consultation with human resources for health experts to identify additional tools and gather insights and learnings in health and care workforce planning.

The report identified nearly a hundred health and care workforce planning tools and approaches that could be organized into eight different categories based on established approaches (e.g., needs-based, workforce-to-population ratio, utilization-based) as well as emerging categories (qualitative, human resources for health management and administration) and those that cut across multiple categories (mixed approaches).

This rapid review will inform the development of new normative guidance for countries – a technical toolkit for health and care workforce planning tools and practical guidelines complementing and building on previous methods and work done by WHO – that can aid national planners and policy-makers in their efforts to educate, employ and retain a sustainable and fit-for-purpose workforce that can deliver on the ambitions of universal health coverage, health security and the Sustainable Development Goals.