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      COVID-19 and human resources for health: analysis of planning, policy responses and actions in Latin American and Caribbean countries

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          Abstract

          Background

          The COVID-19 pandemic led to worldwide health service disruptions, due mainly to insufficient staff availability. To gain insight into policy responses and engage with policy-makers, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a global approach to assess and measure the impact of COVID-19 on the health workforce. As part of this, WHO, together with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), supported an impact analysis of COVID-19 on health workers and policy responses, through country case studies in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

          Methods

          We sought to identify lessons learned from policies on human resources for health (HRH) during health emergencies, to improve HRH readiness. First, we performed a rapid literature review for information-gathering. Second, we used the WHO interim guidance and impact measurement framework for COVID-19 and HRH to systematically organize that information. Finally, we used the Health Labour Market Framework to guide the content analysis on COVID-19 response in eight LAC countries and identify lessons learned to improve HRH readiness.

          Results

          Planning and implementing the COVID-19 response required strengthening HRH governance and HRH data and information systems. The results suggest two main aspects for HRH governance crucial to enabling an agile response: (1) aligning objectives among ministries to define and produce regulation and policy actions; and (2) agreeing on the strategy for HRH management between the public and private sectors, and between central and local governments. We identified three areas for improvement: (a) HRH information systems; (b) methodologies to estimate HRH needs; and (c) teams to analyse information for decision-making. Three key actions were identified during countries monitored, reviewed, and updated their response stages: (i) strengthening response through primary health care; (ii); planning HRH needs to implement the vaccination plan; and (iii) securing long-term HRH availability.

          Conclusion

          Countries coordinated and articulated with different stakeholders to align objectives, allocate resources, and agree on policy actions to implement the COVID-19 response. Data and information for HRH preparedness and implementation were key in enabling an agile COVID-19 response and are key areas to explore for improved pandemic preparedness.

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          Most cited references15

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          Prevalence of depression, anxiety, and insomnia among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review and meta-analysis

          Highlights • At least one in five healthcare professionals report symptoms of depression and anxiety. • Almost four in 10 healthcare workers experience sleeping difficulties and/or insomnia. • Rates of anxiety and depression were higher for female healthcare workers and nursing staff. • Milder mood symptoms are common and screening should aim to identify mild and sub-threshold syndromes.
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            The prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression within front-line healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients: a systematic review and meta-regression

            Background Stress, anxiety, and depression are some of the most important research and practice challenges for psychologists, psychiatrists, and behavioral scientists. Due to the importance of issue and the lack of general statistics on these disorders among the Hospital staff treating the COVID-19 patients, this study aims to systematically review and determine the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression within front-line healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. Methods In this research work, the systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression approaches are used to approximate the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression within front-line healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients. The keywords of prevalence, anxiety, stress, depression, psychopathy, mental illness, mental disorder, doctor, physician, nurse, hospital staff, 2019-nCoV, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 and Coronaviruses were used for searching the SID, MagIran, IranMedex, IranDoc, ScienceDirect, Embase, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science (ISI) and Google Scholar databases. The search process was conducted in December 2019 to June 2020. In order to amalgamate and analyze the reported results within the collected studies, the random effects model is used. The heterogeneity of the studies is assessed using the I 2 index. Lastly, the data analysis is performed within the Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software. Results Of the 29 studies with a total sample size of 22,380, 21 papers have reported the prevalence of depression, 23 have reported the prevalence of anxiety, and 9 studies have reported the prevalence of stress. The prevalence of depression is 24.3% (18% CI 18.2–31.6%), the prevalence of anxiety is 25.8% (95% CI 20.5–31.9%), and the prevalence of stress is 45% (95% CI 24.3–67.5%) among the hospitals’ Hospital staff caring for the COVID-19 patients. According to the results of meta-regression analysis, with increasing the sample size, the prevalence of depression and anxiety decreased, and this was statistically significant (P < 0.05), however, the prevalence of stress increased with increasing the sample size, yet this was not statistically significant (P = 0.829). Conclusion The results of this study clearly demonstrate that the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression within front-line healthcare workers caring for COVID-19 patients is high. Therefore, the health policy-makers should take measures to control and prevent mental disorders in the Hospital staff.
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              Medical students and COVID-19: the need for pandemic preparedness

              The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted unprecedented global disruption. For medical schools, this has manifested as examination and curricular restructuring as well as significant changes to clinical attachments. With the available evidence suggesting that medical students’ mental health status is already poorer than that of the general population, with academic stress being a chief predictor, such changes are likely to have a significant effect on these students. In addition, there is an assumption that these students are an available resource in terms of volunteerism during a crisis. This conjecture should be questioned; however, as those engaging in such work without sufficient preparation are susceptible to moral trauma and adverse health outcomes. This, in conjunction with the likelihood of future pandemics, highlights the need for ‘pandemic preparedness’ to be embedded in the medical curriculum.
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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                bustamantej@who.int , juanapaola@gmail.com
                puertasb@paho.org
                hernandezd@who.intv
                sepulveh@paho.orgv
                Journal
                Hum Resour Health
                Hum Resour Health
                Human Resources for Health
                BioMed Central (London )
                1478-4491
                14 March 2023
                14 March 2023
                2023
                : 21
                : 21
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.3575.4, ISNI 0000000121633745, Health Labour Market Unit, Health Workforce Department, , Universal Health Coverage Cluster, World Health Organisation (WHO/UHC/HWF), ; 1211 Geneva, Switzerland
                [2 ]GRID grid.4437.4, ISNI 0000 0001 0505 4321, Human Resources for Health for the Sub-Regional Programme for the Caribbean, , Human Resources for Health Unit, Health Systems and Services Area, Office of the Assistant Director (PAHO/AD/HSS/HR), Pan American Health (PAHO/WHO), ; Washington, United States of America
                [3 ]GRID grid.3575.4, ISNI 0000000121633745, Health Labour Market Unit, WHO (WHO/UHC/HWF), ; Geneva, Switzerland
                [4 ]GRID grid.4437.4, ISNI 0000 0001 0505 4321, Human Resources for Health for the Sub-Regional Programme for South America, , Human Resources for Health Unit (PAHO/AD/HSS/HR), ; Washington, United States of America
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1665-8486
                Article
                795
                10.1186/s12960-023-00795-8
                10013275
                36918895
                fba52713-b874-4bd7-a4f3-23119f91f62c
                © The Author(s) 2023

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.

                History
                : 29 June 2022
                : 20 January 2023
                Categories
                Research
                Custom metadata
                © The Author(s) 2023

                Health & Social care
                health workers,health labour market,covid-19,emergency preparedness,working conditions,supply,demand

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