Health professionals’ education and training

Health professionals’ education and training

Education and training play a key role in the European context of health workforce shortages, maldistribution and skill mismatches. Moreover, since many countries are trying to innovate their health systems by strengthening primary care and care integration education and training are paramount in the implementation of supportive skill-mix innovations. Clearly, the composition of the health workforce and the competencies, skills and knowledge of the individual professions depend on education and training. Inadequate training will result in and inadequate health workforce and poor health system performance. 

Three educational trends strengthening the health workforce are visible: 

  • interprofessional education;
  • competency-based education;
  • the academization of health professions. 

Educational and training reforms are drivers of the development of new roles and enhancing interprofessional collaboration. Improved linkages between education and workforce planning can serve as a vehicle for scaling up the implementation of skill-mix innovations by increasing the number of students with the new skills and competencies to meet the patients’ needs.

In the context of the European Observatory’s work programme we have particularly analyzed the following aspects:

  • Health Professional education (with a focus on doctors and nurses) including basic and (post) graduate education or specialization;
  • Creating conditions for lifelong learning and continuous professional development;
  • Cross-border collaboration in health workforce development;
  • Cross-border training experiences of health professionals;
  • Training for skill-mix innovations in primary and chronic care (forthcoming).

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