Pokhrel, Priyanka, Liang, Zhanming, and Taylor, Judy (2024) Efforts Implemented for Developing Health Management Workforce in the Asia Pacific: A scoping review. Asia Pacific Journal of Health Management, 19 (2). i2827.

Preview

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. Download (333kB) | Preview

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: A strong and effective health management workforce (HMW) is essential to underpin the comprehensive health care services provided by health care organizations. The fast-growing nature of healthcare systems suggests the required competencies for HMW continue to evolve. Hence, an up to date understanding of management competency requirements is important to the productivity and sustainability of the healthcare system. Before any investment in management competency development, understanding the current health service management workforce development strategies is one of the key steps. There has been no integrated review on the development efforts for HMW in the Asia Pacific region. The objective of this scoping review is to identify and confirm the key strategies that have been used in developing the health management workforce in the Asia Pacific region.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A scoping review of the literature was conducted between May and August 2022 using the following databases: Medline, Ovid Emcare, CINAHL, Scopus, and Web of Science, to retrieve original research articles demonstrating development efforts for HMW in the Asia Pacific regions. The review was guided by the PRISMA-ScR (2018) checklist [23].

RESULTS: The scoping review identified four different development strategies for HMW in Asia Pacific region: i) Organisational informal professional development programs, ii) Competency assessment and identification of gaps in knowledge and skills of HMW, iii) Confirming competencies and developing competency framework and iv) Formal education and training. Among these four development strategies, organisational informal professional development programs and competency assessment and the identification of gaps in knowledge and skills of HMW were the main strategies implemented for HMW in the Asia Pacific region. The review also highlighted a relatively low level of government or system level development strategies for HMW in the Asia Pacific region.

CONCLUSION: The review concluded that the existing development strategies and efforts for HMW are not evenly implemented within the Asia Pacific region. Political will and policy direction are important and plays a vital role in the competency development of HMW. It is also critical to provide multilevel commitment from system and organisational level together with identifying and addressing the bottlenecks in the development strategies by considering organisation types, management levels and positions, practical training methods, motivation of participants, and other contextual factors.

Item ID:	86773
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	2204-3136
Keywords:	Asia Pacific region, Health management workforce, Management development
Copyright Information:	This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Date Deposited:	19 Aug 2025 05:14
Downloads:	Total: 1 Last 12 Months: 1
	More Statistics