Health Workforce Policy

This course has been designed to provide those working in the health sector with tools and skills to understand, assess and formulate policies and strategies to get the most out of your workforce. We will talk about key workforces issues including: labor market, burnout, psychological safety, and workforces challenges. Individuals and country teams will learn from expert faculty as well as peers from other nations. During the course, all participants will create their draft country or organization strategic plan for improving health workforce coverage.

Health officials in all countries need to recruit and retain skilled health workers at all levels. This course will use a financial lens to achieve these goals while incorporating tools and skills to help create innovative strategies applicable to the public and private sectors.

• Learn how to effectively assess the human resource situation in your country/area;
• Examine the financing, education and labor market for effective health workforce strategies;
• Learn tools to develop human resources policies;
• Apply health workforce strategies to other system topics;
• Create own draft country-based Strategic Plan for Health Workforce.

The curriculum of the course includes the following:

• Financing Assessment for Human Resources
• Strategic Planning for Health Workforce Policy
• Labor Market Approach
• Leadership and Institutional Change
• Assessment of Impact
• Evaluation of Cost Effectiveness
• Application of Psychological Safety

This five-day in-person course is designed for individuals working in either the public or private sectors who are managing and/or developing strategies and policies for health workforce development. We are seeking experienced participants working in the health sector. Applicants from both government and non-governmental organizations will benefit from this course.

Additionally, we encourage participation by teams of participants who can work together in the course to develop draft strategic plans for their organizations or countries

This interactive course offers a blend of theory and practice geared to an audience focused on implementation. Included throughout the course are lectures, group work, case studies, problem sets, and preparation of group and individual case presentations. Facilitated discussion among participants is expected throughout the course. Participants are encouraged to have on hand their own country material and resources on health systems related to human resources development and management.

Dr. Diana Bowser has her primary academic appointment at Boston College as the Associate Dean for Research and Integrated Science at the Connell School of Nursing and is an adjunct associate professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health where she is the Course Director for Global Executive Courses within the International Health Systems Program. She has 20 years of experience in health system analysis related to health economics, health policy, and using econometric methods to evaluate health system changes in Latin America, Africa, and the United States. She has collaborated with Dr. Bossert on both research and training programs about decentralization. She has provided technical assistance and conducted research with funding from USAID, DFID, WHO, the Global Fund, Save the Children, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IADB, NIH, and the World Bank. She has worked closely with the following governments on these policy issues: Nigeria, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Ghana, Namibia, Swaziland, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Belize, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Ukraine, Kosovo, Bangladesh, and Malaysia.