Western Europe

This paper reports on the design and implementation of a completely new pay system in the National Health Service (NHS) in England.Pay and pay systems are a critical element in any health sector human resource strategy. Changing a pay system can be one strategy to achieve or sustain organizational change. [from abstract]

The RCN commissioned a survey of 6,000 members in 2000 to explore nurses’ wellbeing and working lives. The results subsequently helped shape RCN policy and materials for members on topics such as bullying and harassment, violence, needlestick injury and employee-friendly working practices. Five years later, the RCN has commissioned a second survey looking at a similar range of issues. This report documents the findings of that survey, and describes differences between the 2000 and 2005 survey findings. [introduction]

In order to help improve Royal College of Nursing understanding of the employment experiences of internationally recruited nurses and UK trained black and minority ethnic (BME) nurses, the RCN commissioned a secondary analysis to draw together commentary and analysis from previous surveys.

In this second article in a series presenting data from a longitudinal cohort study about pharmacy careers, the authors discuss some key issues relating to the 2006 pharmacy graduate cohort's expected career choices and patterns of work. [adapted from author]

In light of pharmacy workforce shortages in Great Britain, the profession’s regulatory body commissioned a programme of longitudinal work to explore pharmacy career decision-making in relation to influences on career choice and intended career paths. Our objective was to gather data on career intentions that could be used to produce robust predictions about pharmacist supply. [from abstract]

In this discussion document, the Department of Health and Children identifies key development issues facing nursing and midwifery in the future. This is in order to establish a strong platform for the formulation of a strategic response to these issues. The document contains an insightful analysis of the challenges ahead and identifies a range of possible responses. [from preface]

The aim of the Code of Practice is to promote high standards of practice in the international recruitment and employment of healthcare professionals. This is underpinned by the principle that any international recruitment of healthcare professionals should not prejudice the healthcare systems of developing countries. Therefore a key component of the Code of Practice is to preclude the active recruitment of healthcare professionals from developing countries, unless there exists a government-to-government agreement to support recruitment activities. The Code of Practice also acknowledges the reality that the international movement of healthcare professionals is a long established practice that will continue.

The aim of this study was to establish whether a web-based package on the diagnosis of respiratory disease would be as effective and as acceptable to final year medical students as tutor-led methods of teaching the same material. [from abstract]

This is a comprehensive review of the Pharmacy Workforce in Northern Ireland undertaken between February and April 2001. It outlines themethodology and discusses the results obtained with regard to the areas of recruitment and retention, demand and models of deployment. [adapted from author]

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]

In the era of cost containment, managers are constantly pursuing increased organizational performance and productivity by aiming at the obvious target, i.e. the workforce. The health care sector, in which production processes are more complicated compared to other industries, is not an exception. In light of recent legislation in Greece in which efficiency improvement and achievement of specific performance targets are identified as undisputable health system goals, the purpose of this study was to develop a reliable and valid instrument for investigating the attitudes of Greek physicians, nurses and administrative personnel towards job-related aspects, and the extent to which these motivate them to improve performance and increase productivity.

This paper examines the policy options for the regulation of dual job holding by medical professionals in highly resource-constrained settings. It draws on the limited evidence available on this topic to assess a number of regulatory options in relation to the objectives of quality of care and access to services, as well as some of the policy constraints that can undermine implementation in resource-poor settings. [from abstract]

Demand for home care services has increased considerably, along with the growing complexity of cases and variability among resources and providers. Designing services that guarantee co-ordination and integration for providers and levels of care is of paramount importance. The aim of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a new case-management based, home care delivery model which has been implemented in Andalusia (Spain). [from abstract]

This presentation was part of the “Call to Action: Ensuring Global Human Resources for Health” conference. It discusses the problems of international recruitement, the motivation to emigrate, expectations and the experiences of migrating health workers. [from author’s description]

The NHS in Scotland is facing unprecedented change and is looking to transform existing models of health care. It also reinforces that improvements in healthcare will be achieved by new and more efficient ways of working, such as using the skills of nurses and allied health
professionals to take on more roles and give patients more choice. This document presents a generic framework to guide the development of new roles. It can be used to assist in the planning process to ensure that roles are needs led, meet governance requirements, are sustainable, as well as ensuring that the development is supported by the whole team thus ensuring its success.

In recent months, the debate over foreign workers in the UK has become more heated. While the government argues that more foreign workers will raise growth, protectionists insist that foreign workers are robbing British citizens of jobs. A different question is also asked: how can Africa develop if the brightest and best are leaving? The debate runs a serious risk of trivialising what is a complex set of issues. [from author]

The aims of the study were to develop a proactive and responsive system for analysing future workforce needs in pharmacy and to make recommendations on how future supply and demand could be managed. [from summary]

This paper examines the recent significant growth in international recruitment of qualified nurses to the United Kingdom. The paper examines trends in recruitment using data from the UK professional register of nurses, and discusses the reasons why employers recruit internationally, and why nurses are internationally mobile. [from abstract]

This good practice guide is intended as a practical guide for trust boards and managers to help them to use temporary nursing staff effectively. The guide comprises a narrative of the salient points in the use and management of temporary nursing staff and includes a number of good practice checklists. It also provides case studies drawn from study visits and the work of the Department of Health’s National Agency Staffing Project. [from preface]

Since 2000, [National Health Service] NHS workforce policy has focused on increasing the size of the health care workforce. However, as financial investment in the NHS slows down, expanding capacity by simply increasing workforce numbers is no longer viable. Instead, alternative approaches are needed to develop a sustainable workforce that is flexible enough in its work practices to manage the complex changes facing the NHS. ‘Grow-your-own’ workforce approaches have the potential to address some of these challenges. Drawing on the experiences of London NHS organisations, this paper explores the conditions required to embed grow-your-own approaches into mainstream NHS workforce development. [publisher’s description]

This Royal College of Nursing (RCN) publication is designed to assist you in your role as a mentor to pre-registration nursing and midwifery students. It outlines your responsibilities alongside those of the student, higher education institutions (HEIs) and placement providers. [introduction]

The present study reviews and analyses major known national guidelines and strategies for prevention and management of workplace violence. The purpose is to get a detailed picture of strategies recommended, a better knowledge on existing guidance for employers and employees. Another objective is to obtain information on the implementation processes and the impact of the reviewed guidelines. Identification of good practices as well as gaps shall serve as a basis for lessons learnt for the development of future guidance materials. The comparison of the guidelines will cover different aspects which can be summarized as background of the guidelines, strategies which are recommended, implementation and impact of guidelines and strategies.

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

This paper summarizes the outcome of a workshop to examine National Health Service workforce supply and demand. [from abstract]

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]

The Royal College of Nursing commissioned this report into the employment policy and practice implications of the rapid growth in the number of internationally recruited nurses working in the UK. [from summary]

This document is designed as a resource to support the 10 High Impact HR Changes as outlined in “A National Framework to Support Local Workforce Strategy Development.” These include: support and lead effective change management; develop effective recruitment, good induction and supportive management; develop shared service models and effective use of IT; manage temporary staffing costs; promote staff health and manage sickness absence; promote job and service re-design; develop and implement appraisal; involve staff and work in partnership to develop good employee relations; champion good people management practices; and provide effective training and development.

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.