General system’s theory posits that changing one part of a system will affect other parts of it. Healthcare systems are facing deep changes, but health workforce (HWF) planning methods are not necessarily evolving accordingly. In practical terms, this means that guaranteeing the presence of key professionals able to translate strategies of change into concrete new and effective models of care is problematic.
Purpose
To assess whether scholars and managers are indeed tackling key trends of change in healthcare systems when designing and adopting HWF planning tools.
Methods
A systematic literature review carried out according to the PRISMA methodology.
Results
21 articles were included in the final revision. Emerging themes include HWF planning approaches and methods, issues concerning data availability and management of professionals’ competencies. Recurrent contents suggest that HWF approaches are not completely anchored to the main trends of change of healthcare systems.
Practice implications
HWF strategies should follow the demand-, supply-, need-taxonomy and should shift from a “professional-centric” to a “job-centric” approach.
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