TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementation of policy and management interventions to improve health and care workforce capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic response
T2 - a systematic review
AU - Cavalcante de Oliveira, Ana Paula
AU - Galante, Mariana Lopes
AU - Maia, Leila Senna
AU - Craveiro, Isabel
AU - da Silva, Alessandra Pereira
AU - Fronteira, Ines
AU - Chança, Raphael
AU - Cometto, Giorgio
AU - Ferrinho, Paulo
AU - Dal Poz, Mario
N1 - Funding Information:
Mathieu Boniol—Health Workforce Department, World Health Organization—WHO Geneva, Switzerland for helpful discussions and guidance. Project developed in response to WHO’s call 2021-016_UHC-HWF_WrkforceIntel published by the funder; grant registration number 2021/1175760-0—Purchase Order 20275943—Unit Reference HWF/HWP. Centro de Estudos, Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Saúde Colectiva (CEPESC) provided management/administrative support. Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia provides funds to Global Health and Tropical Medicine (GHTM), Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa (IHMT/UNL) (GHTM UID/04413/2020).
Funding Information:
Solidarity Fund, through a grant administered by the World Health Organization.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, BioMed Central Ltd., part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted pre-existing weaknesses in health and care systems and services and shortages of health and care workers (HCWs). As a result, policymakers needed to adopt measures to improve the health and care workforce (HCWF) capacity. This review aims to identify countries’ range of policies and management interventions implemented to improve HCWs’ capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic response, synthesize their evidence on effectiveness, and identify gaps in the evidence. Methods: The literature was searched in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, LILACS–BVS, WHO’s COVID-19 Research Database and the ILO, OECD and HSRM websites for literature and documents published between January 2020 and March 2022. Eligibility criteria were HCWs as participants and policy and management interventions aiming to improve HCWF capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic response. Risk of bias was assessed with Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools (CAT) and certainty of the evidence in presented outcomes with GRADE. Results: The searches retrieved 3378 documents. A total of 69 were included, but only 8 presented outcomes of interventions implemented. Most of the selected documents described at least one intervention implemented by countries at the organizational environment level to increase the flexibility and capacity of the HCWF to respond to the pandemic, followed by interventions to attract and retain HCWs in safe and decent working environments. There was a lack of studies addressing social protection, human resources for health information systems, and regarding the role of community health workers and other community-based providers. Regarding the risk of bias, most of documents were rated as medium or high quality (JBI’s CAT), while the evidence presented for the outcomes of interventions was classified as mostly low-certainty evidence (GRADE). Conclusions: Countries have implemented various interventions, some innovative, in response to the pandemic, and others had their processes started earlier and accelerated by the pandemic. The evidence regarding the impact and efficacy of the strategies used by countries during the pandemic still requires further research.
AB - Background: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted pre-existing weaknesses in health and care systems and services and shortages of health and care workers (HCWs). As a result, policymakers needed to adopt measures to improve the health and care workforce (HCWF) capacity. This review aims to identify countries’ range of policies and management interventions implemented to improve HCWs’ capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic response, synthesize their evidence on effectiveness, and identify gaps in the evidence. Methods: The literature was searched in PubMed, Embase, Scopus, LILACS–BVS, WHO’s COVID-19 Research Database and the ILO, OECD and HSRM websites for literature and documents published between January 2020 and March 2022. Eligibility criteria were HCWs as participants and policy and management interventions aiming to improve HCWF capacity to address the COVID-19 pandemic response. Risk of bias was assessed with Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Tools (CAT) and certainty of the evidence in presented outcomes with GRADE. Results: The searches retrieved 3378 documents. A total of 69 were included, but only 8 presented outcomes of interventions implemented. Most of the selected documents described at least one intervention implemented by countries at the organizational environment level to increase the flexibility and capacity of the HCWF to respond to the pandemic, followed by interventions to attract and retain HCWs in safe and decent working environments. There was a lack of studies addressing social protection, human resources for health information systems, and regarding the role of community health workers and other community-based providers. Regarding the risk of bias, most of documents were rated as medium or high quality (JBI’s CAT), while the evidence presented for the outcomes of interventions was classified as mostly low-certainty evidence (GRADE). Conclusions: Countries have implemented various interventions, some innovative, in response to the pandemic, and others had their processes started earlier and accelerated by the pandemic. The evidence regarding the impact and efficacy of the strategies used by countries during the pandemic still requires further research.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Health and care workforce capacity
KW - Health and care workforce interventions
KW - Health and care workforce policy
KW - SARS-CoV-2
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173629803&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/s12960-023-00856-y
DO - 10.1186/s12960-023-00856-y
M3 - Article
C2 - 37817165
AN - SCOPUS:85173629803
SN - 1478-4491
VL - 21
JO - Human resources for health
JF - Human resources for health
IS - 1
M1 - 80
ER -