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'The Global Health Workforce: Pathways to Health', Symposium and learning event: School of Nursing and Human Sciences DCU, 20 October 2011
front row: Enida Friel (OXFAM), Elaine Byrne (RCSI), Anne Matthews (DCU), Meghan O'Reilly (IFGH), Eilish McAuliffe (TCD)
The School of Nursing and Human Sciences at DCU recently co-hosted a one day symposium and learning event on the theme of 'The Global Health Workforce: Pathways to Health'. The event was co-hosted with the Irish Forum for Global Health (IFGH), and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, in association with Irish Aid. Health workers are the cornerstone of efforts to promote health and bring health services to those who need them, and more so in low income-countries where the needs are greatest. A country's health workforce includes formally trained health workers-doctors, nurses, midwives, non-physician clinicians and others-and also a range of community health workers and volunteers from community-based organisations (CBOs) and non-government organisations (NGOs) that are active in promoting community health. Much of the development programmes and research from Ireland over the last 10 years on the health workforce and on communities who promote health and deliver health care in resource poor settings has taken place with partners in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. This reflects the scale of the funding and country prioritisation by Irish Aid.
The other side of the coin during this period has been a massive scaling-up in recruitment of foreign health workers-primarily nurses and doctors-by Irish hospitals and other health service employers, much of it from the Philippines, India and Pakistan, and more recently from Africa. Ireland was also a key player in the development of a 'Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel', which was adopted by the World Health Assembly in 2010.
The aim of the symposium which took place in DCU on 20 October 2011 was to bring together people from all Irish institutions and NGOs working on the theme of the health workforce, as it impacts on developing countries, to consolidate the breadth of work that is being undertaken by Irish stakeholders in this area-including research and practice-so as to share lessons learned and generate new knowledge
The orgnaising committee invited submissions that summarise work being undertaken in this area and were delighted to receive over 40 submissions from practitioners and researchers from all over Ireland. Based on the topics of the high quality submissions we produced a working document around four core themes:
- Community responses
- Education, training and north-south partnerships
- Health worker retention, motivation and management strategies
- Ethical recruitment and migration of health workers
At the symposium over 60 people actively participated in discussions on these themes about how to progress and further strengthen our collective work and coollaborations. The symposium provided a strong grounding for the International Conference being held in February 2012 in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, on the same theme: the global health workforce. Anne Matthews, Director of Research at the School of Nursing and Human Sciences at DCU said that the School was delighted to co-host the event, which fits with its Population and Global health cluster of the School's research strategy Health4Life. The School has recently changed its name, which more accurately represents the School's activities in teaching and research, including new programmes in Psychology, 'Health and Society' and 'Homelessness prevention and intervention.
For further information about global health and the Irish Forum for Global Health (IFGH, co-host of the symposium), please see www.globalhealth.ie