Health Workforce Shortages: Do Global Healthcare Dollars Equate to Workforce Sense?
Date
2024-05-13
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing
Abstract
An adequate, skilled, and well-distributed workforce is essential to preserving the quality, accessibility, and sustainability of the global health system and efforts toward universal health coverage.1,2 Despite reduction of overall health workforce (HWF) shortage estimates to 10.2 million by 2030, from a previous estimate of 18 million, we are seeing HWF disparities more than double in the 47 countries identified in the World Health Organizationʼs (WHO) support and safeguard list.2 Midwives and their workforce equivalents contribute significantly to critical human resource pools needed to address maternal and infant health indicators worldwide, yet growth of jobs and educational programs continue to lag.2,3 Medical technology and foreign labor exchanges reflect migration patterns from low-to middle-income countries (LMICs) toward high-income countries (HICs) in North America and Western Europe, despite regulatory efforts and ethical guidelines regarding human resource trade.1,2 Natural disasters, conflict, and disease pandemics, such as COVID-19, further stress already compromised healthcare education, training, and workforce pools, in ways we have yet to fully understand.2,4 The responsibility for resolution to this crisis lies internationally, as the fluidity of medical technology and labor exchanges across international borders uniquely characterize the global workforce issues of our generation.1,5
Description
This is a non-final version of an article published in final form in Watson, Amanda DNP, CNM, APRN. Health Workforce Shortages: Do Global Healthcare Dollars Equate to Workforce Sense?. The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing 38(2):p 124-125, April/June 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/JPN.0000000000000811. The version of record is available at: https://doi.org/10.1097/JPN.0000000000000811. © 2024 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. This article will be embargoed until 05/13/2025.
Keywords
global, international, health workforce, midwifery, shortages, disparities
Citation
Watson, Amanda DNP, CNM, APRN. Health Workforce Shortages: Do Global Healthcare Dollars Equate to Workforce Sense?. The Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing 38(2):p 124-125, April/June 2024. | DOI: 10.1097/JPN.0000000000000811