Understanding COVID-19 Impacts on the Health Workforce: AI-Assisted Open-Source Media Content Analysis.

Background: To investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health workforce, we aimed to develop a framework that synergizes natural language processing (NLP) techniques and human-generated analysis to reduce, organize, classify, and analyze a vast volume of publicly available news articles to complement scientific literature and support strategic policy dialogue, advocacy, and decision-making.

Objective: This study aimed to explore the possibility of systematically scanning intelligence from media that are usually not captured or best gathered through structured academic channels and inform on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health workforce, contributing factors to the pervasiveness of the impacts, and policy responses, as depicted in publicly available news articles. Our focus was to investigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and, concurrently, assess the feasibility of gathering health workforce insights from open sources rapidly.

A novel approach to estimate the impact of health workforce investments on health outcomes through increased coverage of HIV, TB and malaria services.

Background: Globally, HIV, TB and malaria account for an estimated three million deaths annually. The Global Fund partnered with the World Health Organization to assist countries with health workforce planning in these areas through the development of an integrated health workforce investment impact tool. Our study illustrates the development of a user-friendly tool (with two MS Excel calculator subcomponents) that computes associations between human resources for health (HRH) investment inputs and reduced morbidity and mortality from HIV, TB, and malaria via increased coverage of effective treatment services.

The roles and involvement of global health partners in the health workforce: an exploratory analysis.

Development partners and global health initiatives are important actors in financing health systems in many countries. Despite the importance of the health workforce to the attainment of global health targets, the contribution of global health initiatives to health workforce strengthening is unclear. A 2020 milestone in the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health is that "all bilateral and multilateral agencies have participated in efforts to strengthen health workforce assessments and information exchange in countries.

Planetary health benefits from strengthening health workforce education on the social determinants of health.

Social inequalities are perpetuating unhealthy living and working conditions and behaviours. These causes are commonly called 'the social determinants of health'. Social inequalities are also impacting climate change and vice-versa, which, is causing profound negative impacts on planetary health.

Health workforce governance for compassionate and respectful care: a framework for research, policy and practice.

The progressive realisation of universal health coverage requires that health services are not only available and accessible, but also that they are rendered to the population in an acceptable, compassionate and respectful manner to deliver quality of care. Health workers' competencies play a central role in the provision of compassionate and respectful care (CRC); but health workers' behaviour is also influenced by the policy and governance environment in which they operate. The identification of relevant policy levers to enhance CRC therefore calls for actions that enable health workers to optimise their roles and fulfil their responsibilities.

Digital Education for Health Professionals: An Evidence Map, Conceptual Framework, and Research Agenda.

Background: Health professions education has undergone major changes with the advent and adoption of digital technologies worldwide.

Objective: This study aims to map the existing evidence and identify gaps and research priorities to enable robust and relevant research in digital health professions education.

Methods: We searched for systematic reviews on the digital education of practicing and student health care professionals.

Increasing access to health workers in rural and remote areas: what do stakeholders' value and find feasible and acceptable?

Background: The primary aim of this study is to assess stakeholders' views of the acceptability and feasibility of policy options and outcome indicators presented in the 2010 World Health Organization (WHO) global policy recommendations on increasing access to health workers in remote and rural areas through improved retention.

Methods: A survey on the acceptability, feasibility of recruitment and retention policy options, and the importance of their outcome indicators was developed. It followed a cross-sectional approach targeting health workers in rural and remote settings as well as policy- and decision-makers involved in the development of recruitment and retention policies for such areas.

Correction to: Are the Global Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery 2016-2020 being implemented in countries? Findings from a cross-sectional analysis.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Health Professions Digital Education on Antibiotic Management: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis by the Digital Health Education Collaboration.

Background: Inappropriate antibiotic prescription is one of the key contributors to antibiotic resistance, which is managed with a range of interventions including education.

Objective: We aimed to summarize evidence on the effectiveness of digital education of antibiotic management compared to traditional education for improving health care professionals' knowledge, skills, attitudes, and clinical practice.

Methods: Seven electronic databases and two trial registries were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and cluster RCTs published between January 1, 1990, and September 20, 2018.

Are the Global Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery 2016-2020 being implemented in countries? Findings from a cross-sectional analysis.

Background: Nurses and midwives are the largest component of the health workforce in many countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) together with its partners facilitates the joint development of strategic policy guidance for countries to support the optimization of their nursing and midwifery workforce. The Global Strategic Directions for Strengthening Nursing and Midwifery 2016-2020 (SDNM) is a global policy guidance tool that provides a framework for Member States, the WHO and its partners to adapt, develop, implement and evaluate nursing and midwifery policy interventions in Member States.

Stakeholders' perceptions of policy options to support the integration of community health workers in health systems.

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are an important component of the health workforce in many countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has developed a guideline to support the integration of CHWs into health systems. This study assesses stakeholders' valuation of outcomes of interest, acceptability and feasibility of policy options considered for the CHW guideline development.

Health policy and system support to optimise community health worker programmes: an abridged WHO guideline.

Optimising community health worker (CHW) programmes requires evidence-based policies on their education, deployment, and management. This guideline aims to inform efforts by planners, policy makers, and managers to improve CHW programmes as part of an integrated approach to strengthen primary health care and health systems. The development of this guideline followed the standard WHO approach to developing global guidelines.