The following is a summary of “Barriers and strategies for primary health care workforce development: synthesis of evidence,” published in the March 2024 issue of Primary Care by Endalamaw et al.
Ensuring the adequacy and efficacy of the health workforce is paramount in mitigating the global burden of disease and mortality. However, achieving comprehensive health workforce development, encompassing availability, recruitment, retention, education, acceptability, motivation, burnout, role clarity, and performance, presents multifaceted challenges requiring tailored strategies. Despite the critical importance of addressing these challenges, the literature on barriers and strategies for holistic health workforce development at the primary healthcare level remains limited. Therefore, this scoping review aimed to elucidate the barriers and strategies pertinent to primary healthcare workforce development worldwide.
Utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews, the researchers conducted a comprehensive scoping review of reviews. Searches were conducted across Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, and EMBASE databases, yielding a total of 7,276 articles. After screening and inclusion, 69 relevant articles were analyzed. The identified barriers to health workforce development encompassed financial constraints, workload issues, inadequate training, ineffective teamwork, lack of support, unclear responsibilities, inequities, and shortages in healthcare technology. In contrast, effective strategies included ongoing support and supervision, community engagement, appropriate primary care settings, financial incentives, teamwork facilitation, and autonomous practice promotion.
Furthermore, effective leadership/governance, robust health financing, integration of health information and technology, and ensuring consistent resource availability were underscored as vital components of primary healthcare workforce development. Notably, continuous professional development, encompassing new cadre training, effective recruitment and retention mechanisms, optimal skill mix, and workplace wellness promotion, emerged as imperative for cultivating a resilient and well-trained primary healthcare workforce. In conclusion, this synthesis emphasizes the imperative of addressing multifaceted challenges and implementing tailored strategies to foster the development of a robust and proficient primary healthcare workforce globally.
Source: bmcprimcare.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12875-024-02336-1