Recruitment and retention of health professionals across Europe: A literature review and multiple case study research.

Many European countries are faced with health workforce shortages and the need to develop effective recruitment and retention (R&R) strategies. Yet comparative studies on R&R in Europe are scarce. This paper provides an overview of the measures in place to improve the R&R of health professionals across Europe and offers further insight into the evidence base for R&R; the interaction between policy and organisational levels in driving R&R outcomes; the facilitators and barriers throughout these process; and good practices in the R&R of health professionals across Europe. The study adopted a multi-method approach combining an extensive literature review and multiple-case study research. 64 publications were included in the review and 34 R&R interventions from 20 European countries were included in the multiple-case study. We found a consistent lack of evidence about the effectiveness of R&R interventions. Most interventions are not explicitly part of a coherent package of measures but they tend to involve multiple actors from policy and organisational levels, sometimes in complex configurations. A list of good practices for R&R interventions was identified, including context-sensitivity when implementing and transferring interventions to different organisations and countries. While single R&R interventions on their own have little impact, bundles of interventions are more effective. Interventions backed by political and executive commitment benefit from a strong support base and involvement of relevant stakeholders.

Health professional mobility in a changing Europe: new dynamics, mobile individuals and diverse responses: volume II

Health professional mobility in Europe has become a fast-moving target for policy-makers. It is evolving rapidly in direction and magnitude as a consequence of fundamental change caused by European Union (EU) enlargement and the financial and economic crisis. Health professional mobility changes the numbers of health professionals in countries and the skill-mix of the workforce, with consequences for health-system performance. Countries must factor in mobility if they are forecasting and planning their workforce requirements. To this end they need clarity on mobility trends and the mobile workforce, and effective interventions for retaining domestic and integrating foreign-trained health workers. Health professional mobility remains an unfinished agenda in Europe, at a time when the repercussions of the financial crisis continue to have an impact on the European health workforce and its patterns of mobility. This book sheds new light on health professional mobility in this changing Europe. It is the second volume of the PROMeTHEUS project, following the previously published country case study volume. The 14 thematic chapters in this book are grouped in three parts: the changing dynamics of health professional mobility; the mobile individual; policy responses in a changing Europe. The book goes well beyond situation analysis as it presents practical tools such as a yardstick for registry methodology, a typology of mobile individuals, qualitative tools for studying the motivation of the workforce and a set of concrete policy responses at EU, national and organizational level including bilateral agreements, codes and workplace responses.

Perspectives on the enablers of e-heath adoption: an international interview study of leading practitioners.

Studies examining the application of information technology to the delivery of health-care services often highlight the anticipated benefits. In consequence, the benefits of health-care information technology adoption, often referred to as 'e-health', are widely reported yet there is limited empirical evidence as to how such benefits can be realized. Design and implementation guidelines have been considered from a socio-technical perspective and there is support for the successful application of these principles. There are also some global surveys on the topic, but these often report only statistical data and lack richness of content. This study draws on existing literature to examine whether the principles of health-care information technology adoption are currently applied in practice. The paper presents a timely international analysis of the drivers, critical enablers and successful deployment strategies for e-health from the perspective of leading practitioners. The study considers the adoption of e-health in 15 countries. A qualitative research design was used and semistructured interviews were conducted with 38 thought leaders with expertise in health-care information systems and technology. The study presents a comparative analysis of the lessons learned from implementing, integrating and embedding e-health in practice, and presents a four-phase approach from the perspective of practitioners for the accelerated deployment of e-health systems: (i) develop a strategic approach, (ii) engage the workforce, (iii) capitalize on information technology and (iv) partner with the patient/citizen.