This study uses 2018 national survey data to characterize the proportion of essential workers in the US overall and living in economically vulnerable households, defined as income <$40 000 or at ...least 1 member uninsured or older than age 65.
The importance of a sustainable health workforce is increasingly recognised. However, the building of a future health workforce that is responsive to diverse population needs and demographic and ...economic change remains insufficiently understood. There is a compelling argument to be made for a comprehensive research agenda to address the questions. With a focus on Europe and taking a health systems approach, we introduce an agenda linked to the 'Health Workforce Research' section of the European Public Health Association. Six major objectives for health workforce policy were identified: (1) to develop frameworks that align health systems/governance and health workforce policy/planning, (2) to explore the effects of changing skill mixes and competencies across sectors and occupational groups, (3) to map how education and health workforce governance can be better integrated, (4) to analyse the impact of health workforce mobility on health systems, (5) to optimise the use of international/EU, national and regional health workforce data and monitoring and (6) to build capacity for policy implementation. This article highlights critical knowledge gaps that currently hamper the opportunities of effectively responding to these challenges and advising policy-makers in different health systems. Closing these knowledge gaps is therefore an important step towards future health workforce governance and policy implementation. There is an urgent need for building health workforce research as an independent, interdisciplinary and multi-professional field. This requires dedicated research funding, new academic education programmes, comparative methodology and knowledge transfer and leadership that can help countries to build a people-centred health workforce.
This project addresses the contemporary challenges faced by the transportation workforce, influenced by demographic shifts, labor market fluctuations, and the growing demand for interdisciplinary ...skills. Using a case study of the southeastern United States, five main objectives guided the project: a) synthesizing the current state of workforce development practices, b) identifying key challenges in the transportation workforce, c) defining the term “workforce development” within this context, d) exploring potential roles of University Transportation Centers (UTCs) in tackling these challenges, and e) offering actionable recommendations for enhancing transportation workforce development. The research used findings from a literature review, stakeholder meetings, a survey of transportation professionals, and personal interviews with selected experts. The findings were integrated to derive conclusive results instead of independently interpreting each dataset. The study revealed that workforce development hinges on stakeholders, recruitment strategies, educational aspects, and diversity initiatives. The most pressing challenges involved changing labor market trends, demographic shifts, and the necessity for interdisciplinary skills. Workforce development was conceptualized as strategic measures for recruiting, retaining, educating, and training the present and future transportation labor force to meet identified challenges and needs. The UTCs’ potential contributions were identified in facilitating recruitment, inspiring interest in transportation careers, and creating resources for continuous education and training. Key recommendations involve interdisciplinary educational initiatives, specialized training, and resource development to assess and enhance existing training strategies.
Anne Marie Rafferty and Aisha Holloway discuss five ways to improve working conditions for the nursing profession, which will also have benefits for healthcare professionals more generally
Approximately 13% of the total UK workforce is employed in the health and care sector. Despite substantial workforce planning efforts, the effectiveness of this planning has been criticised. ...Education, training, and workforce plans have typically considered each health-care profession in isolation and have not adequately responded to changing health and care needs. The results are persistent vacancies, poor morale, and low retention. Areas of particular concern highlighted in this Health Policy paper include primary care, mental health, nursing, clinical and non-clinical support, and social care. Responses to workforce shortfalls have included a high reliance on foreign and temporary staff, small-scale changes in skill mix, and enhanced recruitment drives. Impending challenges for the UK health and care workforce include growing multimorbidity, an increasing shortfall in the supply of unpaid carers, and the relative decline of the attractiveness of the National Health Service (NHS) as an employer internationally. We argue that to secure a sustainable and fit-for-purpose health and care workforce, integrated workforce approaches need to be developed alongside reforms to education and training that reflect changes in roles and skill mix, as well as the trend towards multidisciplinary working. Enhancing career development opportunities, promoting staff wellbeing, and tackling discrimination in the NHS are all needed to improve recruitment, retention, and morale of staff. An urgent priority is to offer sufficient aftercare and support to staff who have been exposed to high-risk situations and traumatic experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to growing calls to recognise and reward health and care staff, growth in pay must at least keep pace with projected rises in average earnings, which in turn will require linking future NHS funding allocations to rises in pay. Through illustrative projections, we show that, to sustain annual growth in the workforce at approximately 2·4%, increases in NHS expenditure of 4% annually in real terms will be required. Above all, a radical long-term strategic vision is needed to ensure that the future NHS workforce is fit for purpose.
Between the 2009 Great Recession and the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US state and local governmental public health workforce lost 40,000 jobs. Tens of thousands of workers also left during ...the pandemic and continue to leave. As governmental health departments are now receiving multimillion-dollar, temporary federal investments to replenish their workforce, this review synthesizes the evidence regarding major challenges that preceded the pandemic and remain now. These include the lack of the field's ability to readily enumerate and define the governmental public health workforce as well as challenges with the recruitment and retention of public health workers. This review finds that many workforce-related challenges identified more than 20 years ago persist in the field today. Thus, it is critical that we look back to be able to then move forward to successfully rebuild the workforce and assure adequate capacity to protect the public's health and respond to public health emergencies.
The COVID-19 pandemic and other public health challenges have increased the need for longitudinal data quantifying the changes in the state public health workforce.
To characterize the state of ...governmental public health workforce among state health agency (SHA) staff across the United States and provide longitudinal comparisons to 2 prior fieldings of the survey.
State health agency leaders were invited to have their workforce to participate in PH WINS 2021. As in prior fieldings, participating agencies provided staff lists used to send e-mail invitations to employees to participate in this electronic survey.
State health agency staff.
PH WINS 2021 maintains the 4 primary domains from 2014 and 2017 (ie, workplace engagement, training needs assessment, emerging public health concepts, and demographics) and includes new questions related to the mental and emotional well-being; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on staff retention; and the workforce's awareness of and confidence in emerging public health concepts.
The percentage of SHA staff who self-identify as Black, Indigenous, and people of color increased from 30% (95% confidence interval CI: 29%-32%) to 35% (95% CI: 35%-37%) between 2014 and 2021. Staff younger than 31 years accounted for 11% (95% CI: 10%-12%) of the SHA workforce in 2021 compared with 8% in 2014 (95% CI: 8%-9%). From 2014 to 2021, staff who self-identify as a woman increased from 72% (95% CI: 71%-74%) to 76% (95% CI: 75%-77%). Overall, 22% (95% CI: 21%-23%) of the SHA workforce rated their mental health as poor/fair.
The 2021 PH WINS results represent unique and current perspectives on the SHA workforce and can inform future public health infrastructure investments, research, and field practice to ensure a strong public health system.
Purpose
The purpose of this study is use a bibliometric analysis to explore the relational nature of knowledge creation in WFM in operations. Companies live under constant pressure to find the best ...ways to plan their workforce, and the workforce emangement (WFM) is one of the biggest challenges faced by managers. Relevant research on WFM in operations has been published in a several range of journals that vary in their scope and readership, and thus the academic contribution to the topic remains largely fragmented.
Design/methodology/approach
To address this gap, this review aims to map research on WFM in operations to understand where it comes from and where it is going and, therefore, provides opportunities for future work. This study combined two bibliometric approaches with manual document coding to examine the literature corpus of WFM in operations to draw a holistic picture of its different aspects.
Findings
Content and thematic analysis of the seminal studies resulted in the extraction of three key research themes: workforce cross-training, planning workforce mixed methods and individual workforce characteristics. The findings of this study further highlight the gaps in the WFM in operations literature and raise some research questions that warrant further academic investigation in the future.
Originality/value
Likewise, this study has important implications for practitioners who are likely to benefit from a holistic understanding of the different aspects of WFM in operations.
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