Reimaging Primary Health Care Workforce in Rural and Underserved Settings
This Discussion Paper starts at the local level and reimagines primary health care (PHC) and the PHC workforce from the perspective of people living in rural and underserved urban areas of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Drawing on resear...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/304851606975759118/Reimaging-Primary-Health-Care-Workforce-in-Rural-and-Underserved-Settings http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34906 |
| Summary: | This Discussion Paper starts at the
local level and reimagines primary health care (PHC) and the
PHC workforce from the perspective of people living in rural
and underserved urban areas of low- and middle-income
countries (LMICs). Drawing on research evidence and
successful examples, it presents a “start local” health
service delivery model, health system design framework, and
financing models intended to ensure high-quality local
comprehensive PHC is available and accessible to all. Core
PHC team members (community health workers, registered
nurses, specialist family physicians, and administrators)
and other health practitioners are generalists in their
disciplines, working together in collaborative practice as
the frontline providers of care that responds to the health
needs of the population they serve. The most successful
model of education and training for local comprehensive PHC
is socially accountable, immersive community-engaged
education woven into a facilitated education and training
pathway starting with recruiting local students from rural
and underserved communities. Successful attraction,
recruitment, and retention of PHC team members results from
the systematic approach of the Workforce Stability Framework
with the three main tasks of plan, recruit, and retain
supported by a long-term strategy and five conditions for
success. High-quality local comprehensive PHC is successful
in improving local population health when it is part of an
integrated health system that connects clusters of
autonomous local health service delivery organizations
through partnerships with regional referral centers and
other specialist service organizations that value the
expertise of local PHC providers. All levels of the health
system (local, regional, and national) are enhanced by
intersectoral collaboration with active participation of all
Partnership Pentagram members (policy makers, health
administrators, health professionals, academics, and
communities), underpinned by a local health needs, focused
national health strategy, up-front local investments in PHC
infrastructure and personnel, and funding models that reward
achieving health outcomes. |
|---|