Transforming Health Professionals’ Education by 2030

The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on the availability, distribution, and quality of human resources for health (HRH) and exacerbated existing health inequities between and within countries, between among levels of care, and between the public and private sectors, with low retention of personnel in rural and underserved areas and high rates of mobility and migration. In addition, the pandemic highlighted the chronic shortage and poor distribution of HRH in the Region, as well as the lack of sufficient investment in the production, training, and professional development of a fit-for-purpose health workforce in many countries.
Diverse policies and strategies approved by the Member States of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) address the need to strengthen the health workforce through education, research, and other investments. The new PAHO Policy on The Health Workforce 2030: Strengthening Human Resources for Health to Achieve Resilient Health Systems (CE 172/14) and its strategic lines of action emphasize   the importance of sufficient and sustained investment in education, including continuing education strategies and plans and competency-based education, as well as the organization of  interprofessional teams at the first level of care,  as part of the joint efforts  to strengthen the Region’s health workforce to build human capital,  boost health systems resilience, increase access to health services and promote regional integration. 
In this context, it is important to take stock of the changes that have occurred recently in the education of health professionals and to address the need for expanding the education process as well as the challenges it entails.  The education of the health workforce has continued to evolve before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, and thus, it’s necessary to identify current trends leading its transformation. The pandemic highlighted the need to improve health workers' education by broadening its contents and using innovative health information technologies.  There is a window of opportunity to promote timely discussions and joint solutions that re-examine and potentially redesign health professionals’ education in the Region.