Digital education for building health workforce capacity
Overview
Building health workforce capacity in countries requires major barriers to be overcome in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, universal health coverage, and other health targets proposed in the WHO Thirteenth General Programme of Work (GPW13).
Global health mandates and resolutions have consistently emphasized the need for health workforce strengthening through lifelong learning opportunities. A thematic analysis of recent global health-related international resolutions (including United Nations General Assembly resolutions, World Health Assembly resolutions and other intergovernmental organizational strategies and workforce related strategies) reveals an urgent need to address global health workforce challenges to deliver better health services performance and outcomes. These concerns are presented under key themes and sub-themes that provide a framework for policy directives on digital education (also known as e-learning) to address health workers’ issues. This broad array of educational needs differs by setting. Some relevant examples include the need to increase student enrolment, improve learning outcomes, deliver education to health workers in remote areas, strengthen the competency of educators and enable lifelong learning.
Digital education has the potential to improve the competencies and satisfaction of health professionals. However, the effectiveness of digital methods depends upon the manner of implementation. Published studies that point to the benefits of digital health education have been found to have variable evidence quality and limited generalizability. Effectiveness of digital health education and outcomes vary widely depending on the learning objectives, modality (e.g. mobile phones, online digital education, virtual reality, serious gaming and gamification), delivery mode (e.g. fully digital or blended), instructional method (e.g. simulations, direct instruction), assessment methods (i.e. use of validated or non-validated instruments), learning pedagogies (e.g. digital problem-based learning or digital team-based learning), study population (e.g. nurses, allied health professionals, doctors), and the topic, discipline and health condition being taught (e.g. smoking cessation, diabetes management, domestic violence, antibiotic management, dermatology, child health, elderly care). The phenomenon of the digital divide is also important from an implementation perspective as it exists both within and between countries, and may be a significant barrier for students, limiting equal access to digital education. Further research, rigorous evaluations, audits, investments and collaborations are required to optimize approaches for the effective use of digital education.
