Several years have passed since the launch of the National Health Workforce Accounts (NHWA) in 2017. And following a global pandemic that disrupted healthcare services worldwide, it is an opportune time to reflect on the progress, priorities, gaps, and adaptations of the NHWA. The NHWA has witnessed unprecedented engagement from countries, partners, and all three levels of the World Health Organization, with focal points nominated by most Member States (90%). Thanks to collective efforts, there has been a significant improvement in the availability and quality of health workforce (HWF) data. Standardized measurement approaches, streamlined reporting mechanisms, and the involvement of multiple stakeholders from various sectors, including partner organizations, have played a vital role in this advancement. The data monitored and reported through NHWA has contributed to generating evidence on various policy issues, including HWF shortages, ageing, migration, and inequalities related to gender and subnational disparities. Furthermore, it has shed light on the significant contributions of the HWF in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. NHWA has also facilitated the development of key global products, such as the State of the World’s Nursing report, the State of the World’s Midwifery report, as well as several national and regional reports. Since 2017, the World Health Assembly has adopted a series of new resolutions highlighting HWF issues, such as the Strategic Directives on Nursing and Midwifery, the Working for Health Action Plan, and the Global Health and Care Worker Compact, to name a few. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a greater recognition of the role of the HWF for universal health coverage (UHC) and health security. The development of the Roadmap for building national workforce capacity to deliver the essential public health functions, initiatives on non-communicable diseases, community health workers (CHWs), primary health care (PHC), and traditional and complementary medicine, all recognized the centrality of the health and care workforce as well as the need for data and evidence to inform policies and planning. While ensuring continuity in the standardization of HWF statistics and maintaining the legacy of NHWA v1.0, this revision of NHWA incorporates necessary changes and adaptations to accommodate priority data needs for health and care workers (HCWs)-related new initiatives and challenges. The implementation of NHWA remains committed to core principles, which include a systems-strengthening approach, progressive implementation, multi-sectoral governance, and diversification of data sources. This revised version also provides more examples of NHWA data use.

A health workforce (HWF) of adequate size and skill mix, as well as required teachers and trainers, are critical to the attainment of any population health goal. This includes the achievement of universal health coverage and the health-related targets of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Yet countries globally are affected by health workforce challenges of a multifaceted nature, such as difficulties in the education and training, deployment, performance and retention of their health workforces.

This handbook is an essential resource which brings into focus key advances, challenges and lessons learned in strengthening human resources for health (HRH) data and evidence as a strategic objective of implementing the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health: Workforce 2030, the recommendations of the United Nations Secretary-General High-level Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth, and in the achievement of the WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work (2019–2023 (GPW 13) targets, for a measurable impact on population health and development. Divided into three parts, the handbook presents the complementarity between WHO Health Labour Market Analysis Guidebook and WHO handbook on national health workforce accounts (NHWA) system strengthening approach to improving the availability, quality, analysis, dissemination and use of health workforce data and evidence to inform decision-making and planning in countries. It also features the committed country efforts, catalysed by networks and partner investments, in strengthening HRH information systems and their growing success in implementing NHWA and other WHO normative tools. Contributed by the six technical working groups of the Global Health Workforce Network (GHWN) Data and Evidence hub, the handbook is aimed at HRH policy-makers and planners, to provide contemporary insight on data sources and information needs to address policy questions around health workforce development, and as part of the broader intersectoral agenda to strengthening health systems resilience.

This document provides a standard-based tool for health workforce planners and decision-makers developing an electronic system or modifying an existing health information system to count and document all health workers within national and subnational contexts. The minimum data set for health workforce registry provided in this document can be used by ministries of health to support the development of standardized health workforce information systems. The minimum data set allows standardization of data values within existing electronic human resources for health (HRH) information systems. When used appropriately by information systems designers and software developers, a functional electronic health workforce registry can be designed to enable health workforce data interoperability, i.e. the ability to exchange health workforce data between software applications and computer systems within broader sub-national or national health information systems. Through this approach, rapid aggregation and display of health workforce data for decision-making can be fully realized.

Nurses make up the largest segment of the health care profession, with 3 million registered nurses in the United States. Nurses work in a wide variety of settings, including hospitals, public health centers, schools, and homes, and provide a continuum of services, including direct patient care, health promotion, patient education, and coordination of care. They serve in leadership roles, are researchers, and work to improve health care policy. As the health care system undergoes transformation due in part to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the nursing profession is making a wide-reaching impact by providing and affecting quality, patient-centered, accessible, and affordable care. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released the report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, which made a series of recommendations pertaining to roles for nurses in the new health care landscape. This current report assesses progress made by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/AARP Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action and others in implementing the recommendations from the 2010 report and identifies areas that should be emphasized over the next 5 years to make further progress toward these goals.

The United States is rapidly transforming into one of the most racially and ethnically diverse nations in the world. Groups commonly referred to as minorities-including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives-are the fastest growing segments of the population and emerging as the nation's majority. Despite the rapid growth of racial and ethnic minority groups, their representation among the nation's health professionals has grown only modestly in the past 25 years. This alarming disparity has prompted the recent creation of initiatives to increase diversity in health professions. In the Nation's Compelling Interest considers the benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity, and identifies institutional and policy-level mechanisms to garner broad support among health professions leaders, community members, and other key stakeholders to implement these strategies. Assessing the potential benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity among health professionals will improve the access to and quality of healthcare for all Americans.

How are public health services in Europe organized and financed? With European health systems facing a plethora of challenges that can be addressed through public health interventions there is renewed interest in strengthening public health services. Yet there are enormous gaps in our knowledge. How many people work in public health? How much money is spent on public health? What does it actually achieve? None of these questions can be answered easily. This volume brings together current knowledge on the organization and financing of public health services in Europe. It is based on country reports on the organization and financing of public health services in nine European countries and an in-depth analysis of the involvement of public health services in addressing three contemporary public health challenges (alcohol obesity and antimicrobial resistance). The focus is on four core dimensions of public health services: organization financing the public health workforce and quality assurance. The questions the volume seeks to answer are: o How are public health services in Europe organized? Are there good practices that can be emulated? What policy options are available? o How much is spent on public health services? Where do resources come from? And what was the impact of the economic crisis? o What do we know about the public health workforce? How can it be strengthened? o How is the quality of public health services being assured? What should quality assurance systems for public health services look like? This study is the result of close collaboration between the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies and the WHO Regional Office for Europe Division of Health Systems and Public Health. It accompanies two other Observatory publications: Organization and financing of public health services in Europe: country reports and The role of public health organizations in addressing public health problems in Europe: the case of obesity alcohol and antimicrobial resistance.