Health Workforce Sample Clauses

Health Workforce. The Cook Islands currently has 1.46 physicians and 8.58 nurses per 1,000 population, or a total of ≈10 medical/nursing staff per 1,000 people. The OECD average for practising physicians is 2.7 per 1,000 population (from an overall range of ≈2.5 to >5).33 Though the number of physicians is lower than high income comparator countries (e.g. New Zealand, with 3.4), it does compare favourably to WHO recommendations estimating at least 2.5 medical staff (physicians, nurses and midwives) per 1,000 people are necessary to provide adequate primary care coverage.34 It should be noted, however, that the distribution of physicians is heavily weighted towards Rarotonga (and to a lesser extent, Aitutaki), and the medical cadre is disproportionately dependent on registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and general practitioners rather than employees at higher levels of practice. The Cook Islands Health Workforce Plan (2016-2025) is in operation and highlighted the need for Continuing Medical Education strengthening for all levels of practice within the health workforce. The Plan states that the focus of staff development should be on the expansion of the number of specialists in most disciplines including paediatrics, building nurse practitioner workforce on all islands, and increasing the number of nursing, dental and clinical support workforce. At present, the majority of Cook Islands practitioners are trained in New Zealand, Australia or Fiji, along with smaller proportions who received training in the Philippines and Myanmar. With the launch of the Bachelor of Nursing Pacific Programme (delivered in the Cook Islands in cooperation with Whitireia Polytechnic in New Zealand and the University of the South Pacific in Fiji), and further remote trainings such as SPC’s Data for Decision-Making course becoming more feasible, an increasing share of service providers will receive their training in country. This need was reinforced during TMO staff and stakeholder consultations. If CME funding is taken up at the level proposed, this would cost approximately NZ$1.6m in 2025. Funding for human resource development is included in the current health strategy as a major cost component, but recruiting and retaining staff is a perennial challenge given relatively low pay, high caseloads, and challenging practice environments.