Western Europe

This overview paper highlights the key messages and issues presented in the country reports submitted by national nurses’ associations (NNAs) at the 12th International Council of Nurses (ICN) Workforce Forum held in Copenhagen 25-26 September 2006. Participating NNAs submitted written reports on major agenda items: environmental scan; outsourcing; alliances; occupational health and safety; private sector for profit health enterprises; positive practice environments; and future options. [from introduction]

The main purpose of this chapter is thus to develop a dynamic and unified framework for describing and analysing the role of the health care manager in a changing Europe. The chapter also attempts to combine the construction of this theoretical model with its application, drawing on empirical work in different European countries to illustrate the challenges and opportunities arising from the various elements of health care reform. [from introduction]

The case studies contained in this volume provide a means of exchanging information on the challenges that countries face and the solutions that they are exploring. A companion volume by the European Observatory, Human resources for health in Europe, looked in detail at the key issues affecting the health workforce in Europe. It drew on a series of detailed case studies undertaken to assess the situation in a range of European countries. This volume brings those case studies together. [from foreword]

The volume contains studies from France, Germany, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Po

Health Systems in Transition (HiT) profiles are country-based reports that provide a detailed description of each health care system and of reform and policy initiatives in progress or under development. [publisher’s description] Each report contains a section on human resources for health including an overview of the situation and specific health workforce statistics.

This report presents an overview of the policy implications of the international migration of health workers in Europe, based on case studies conducted in five countries – Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom – and draws on information from other WHO European Region countries, such as Israel and Latvia. [from introduction]

This is a report of a Workshop organised by the WHO Regional Office for Europe, with the objectives of building the evidence base for Human Resources for Health (HRH) in Europe by identifying the key policy questions that policy makers face in HRH, agreeing upon an agenda for development of options, and undertaking further validation of the WHO HQ/HRH framework. The workshop allowed further exploration of the framework and validation for theEuropean region; and, with the participation of policy makers, enabled the identification of thekey HRH issues/policy questions for the region, and identification of initial priorities for building capacity and action.

This summary report provides information on nurse wages and the comparitive buying power of these wages in select countries in North America, Western Europe and Japan. The data are results from a survey of 10 National Nurses’ Associations. [from introduction]

The migration of medical professionals as a result of the expansion of the European Union is cause for concern. But there is a significant lack of information available about this phenomenon. This study did a search of secondary databases about the presence of european doctors working abroad and a survey of professional organisations and regulators in countries of the European Union. [from abstract]