Health workforce
Health systems can only function with health workers; improving health service coverage and realizing the right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is dependent on their availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality.

People

Khassoum Diallo

Coordinator – Data, Evidence and Knowledge

Mathieu Boniol

Statistician in the Data, Evidence and Knowledge Management team

Email: boniolm@who.int

Teena Kunjumen

Technical Officer – Evidence and Knowledge

Email: kunjument@who.int

Tapas Nair

Technical Officer in the Data, Evidence and Knowledge Management unit

Email: tnair@who.int

Régine Guin

Team assistant – Data, Evidence and Knowledge

Email: guinr@who.int

Events

Data and statistics

National and subnational data on the health workforce is a prerequisite for evidence-informed policy. Many countries and subnational authorities face challenges in reporting and publishing a full account of the human resources for health situation; the information is often dispersed across institutions, with incomparable infrastructure and capacity constraints (especially in data collection and utilization). Amid these challenges future health and social protection systems are evolving, demanding new, intelligent responses to drive efficiency and improve outcomes.

The WHO Health Workforce department is engaged in multiple efforts and partnerships to: improve minimum, interoperable data sets; enable national authorities to develop strategic intelligence on human resources for health; and inform health workforce projections in relation to population needs and health systems priorities.

New

Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) User Manual, 2nd edition
This manual is a revision of an earlier Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) user manual, which was prepared by Peter Shipp and published by WHO...

The National Health Workforce Accounts is a system by which countries progressively improve the availability, quality, and use of data on health workforce through monitoring of a set of indicators to support achievement of Universal Health Coverage, Sustainable Development Goals and other health objectives.

Technical documents

A nurse at an ICU for COVID-19 patients at the St. Orsola-Malpighi Polyclinic in Bologna, Italy.

The SDG agenda gives recognition to Universal Health Coverage as key to achieving all other health targets. SDG3c sets a target to "substantially increase health financing and the recruitment, development, training and retention of the health workforce in developing countries, especially in least developed countries and small island developing States."

The National Health Workforce Accounts is a system by which countries progressively improve the availability, quality, and use of data on health workforce through monitoring of a set of indicators to support achievement of Universal Health Coverage, Sustainable Development Goals and other health objectives.

External publications

Publications

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Assessing employment effects for the health and care workforce: a guiding framework

For policy makers, it is essential to assess the employment effects of policy interventions that increase and strengthen the health and care workforce....

Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN) User Manual, 2nd edition

The health workforce is the fulcrum on which health system performance relies. Human resources for health (HRH) is crucial to affordable, accessible and...

National health workforce accounts: a handbook, second edition

Several years have passed since the launch of the National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) in 2017. And following a global pandemic that disrupted healthcare...

The impact of COVID-19 on health and care workers: a closer look at deaths

WHO estimates that between 80 000 and 180 000 health and care workers could have died from COVID-19 in the period between January 2020 to May 2021, converging...

National health workforce accounts: better data and evidence on health workforce

National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) is a system by which countries progressively improve the availability, quality, and use of health workforce data...

National health workforce accounts: implementation guide

With the objective to accelerate progress towards universal health coverage, and to facilitate adoption of the Global strategy on human resources for health:...