Transformative learning for health professional in the twenty-first century for the future health workforce

Abstract

Health systems globally are facing many challenges, including major constraints in their workforces: from staff shortages, inappropriate distribution, as well as poor workforce performance and management. One strategy that has been used is ‘task shifting’ to lower cadre professionals or local health workers. Involving local and community health workers (L/CHWs) has been shown to be effective in many countries. This chapter covers the issue of L/CHW training to meet public health needs. As L/CHWs are usually recruited locally with varying background, effective training is therefore very important to ensure that L/CHWs have adequate competency to carry out basic tasks and specific functions to support health professionals in health service delivery. The training programme may cover core public health knowledge and disciplines plus general work competency such as communication and leadership skills. In addition to pre-service training, there should be regular in-service activities to update knowledge and skills and post-training support must be available.