Health Professional Education
The challenges confronting health care systems around the world are intertwined with the need to educate and train qualified professionals. As new hospitals are built this need becomes glaringly obvious. There is a global shortage across the health professions—not just physicians and nurses but also allied health professionals and skilled managers—resulting in heated competition for scarce human resources at the cross-town and cross-border level.
The workforce shortage is only part of the story. At the same time there is increased recognition that a reconsideration of how health professionals are trained is critical to creating the right kinds of professionals to meet community needs.
In our work around the globe we see these are the critical challenges to address in health professional education:
- Conceive, plan, and launch new schools and programs to train health professionals, to alleviate shortages
- Create programs with curricula that are not only learner-centered but also patient-centered and community-centered
- Foster the development of competencies and skill areas that prepare professionals to be leaders and team members within a system of care, such as quality management, use of information technology, research, communication, and evidence-based practice
- Create and enhance opportunities for professional development and leadership development for nurses and other non-physician workers
- Create new kinds of health care professionals who are critical thinkers and problem solvers and team members
