Development of an interactive model for planning the care workforce for Alberta: case study
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CASE STUDY
Open Access
Development of an interactive model for planning the care workforce for Alberta: case study Judy Bloom1, Stephen Duckett2* and Andrea Robertson3
Abstract Introduction: In common with other jurisdictions, Alberta faces challenges in ensuring a balance in health worker supply and demand. As the provider organization with province-wide responsibility, Alberta Health Services needed to develop a forecasting tool to inform its position on key workforce parameters, in the first instance focused on modeling the situation for Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses and health care aides. This case study describes the development of the model, highlighting the choices involved in model development. Case description: A workforce planning model was developed to test the effect of different assumptions (for instance about vacancy rates or retirement) and different policy choices (for example about the size of intakes into universities and colleges, different composition of the workforce). This case study describes the choices involved in designing the model. The workforce planning model was used as part of a consultation process and to develop six scenarios (based on different policy choices). Discussion and evaluation: The model outputs highlighted the problems with continuation of current workforce strategies and the impact of key policy choices on workforce parameters. Conclusions: Models which allow for transparency of the underlying assumptions, and the ability to assess the sensitivity of assumptions and the impact of policy choices are required for effective workforce planning.
Background Health services around the world face increasing challenges in matching the demand for needed skills with supply [1-3]. The creation of Alberta Health Services in May 2008 as the largest health care provider in Canada, a single entity responsible for providing hospital, continuing care services and public health throughout the Canadian province of Alberta (population 3.7 M) [4], caused a change in the focus of health workforce planning in the province. The new entity had a number of inherent advantages compared to the prior structures: Because of its size, Alberta Health Services was
able to create a specialist workforce planning * Correspondence: [email protected] 2 President and Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Health Services currently Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta and La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
function with the necessary expertise to undertake complex modeling; A new role, responsible for all health professions other than physicians, was created which provided provincial leadership in workforce innovation and role redesign, addressing a common barrier to the implementation of innovative workforce practices [5]; Replacing nine separate regional health authorities and three specialist provincial authorities, Alberta Health Services was able to articulate a single provider view o
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