Health workforce planning and service expansion during an economic crisis: A case study of the national breast screening programme in Ireland

A new mathematical model for determining optimal workforce planning of pilots in an airline company

This study aims to model a workforce-planning problem of pilot roles which include captain and first officer in an airline company and to make an efficient plan having maximal utilization of minimum workforce requirements. To tackle this problem, a mixed integer programming based a new mathematical model is proposed. The model considers different conditions such as employing pilots with different skill types, resignations, retirements, holidays of pilots, transitions between different skills regarding needs of the demands during the planning horizon. The application of the proposed approach is investigated using a case study with real-world data from an airline company in Turkey. The results show that a company can use transitions instead of new employment and this is a more suitable medium-term production and human resource planning decision.

Hospital Volunteering Experiences Suggest that New Policies are Needed to Promote their Integration in Daily Care: Findings from a Qualitative Study

OBJECTIVE

To explore Hospital Volunteers' (HVs) motivations and experiences, as well as the strategies they adopt to overcome challenging situations during volunteering and the needs they perceive.

METHODS

Eleven Italian HVs were purposively approached between January and July 2016, using face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using the descriptive phenomenological approach.

RESULTS

Hospital volunteering emerged as a complex experience characterised by five themes: (a) becoming a volunteer; (b) developing skills; (c) experiencing conflicting emotions; (d) overcoming role difficulties by enacting different resources and strategies; and (e) addressing emerging needs.

CONCLUSIONS

According to the findings, hospital policies aimed at promoting volunteer integration in daily care are needed and should be based on (a) a shared vision between the hospital and the volunteer associations regarding the HVs' role and skills; (b) the development of integrated models of care combining different workforces (i.e. professionals and volunteer staff); (c) appropriate training of HVs at baseline; (d) individualised continuous education pathways aimed at supporting HVs both emotionally and in the development of the required skills; and (e) tailored education that is directed to health-care staff aimed at helping them to value the service provided by HVs.

Where health workforce governance research meets health services management

A deficit of one million healthcare workers forecasted in the European Union by 2020 turns the ‘universal truth’ that there is ‘no health without a workforce’ into the perhaps biggest challenge for future healthcare systems and services management. We argue that effective healthcare management needs systematic connections with health workforce macro- and meso-levels of governance. We seek to explore the overlaps and the benefits of closer connections using health workforce planning, recruitment and retention and the changes in the skills mix and competencies of the health workforce as three illustrative examples. Two major areas of management intervention are emerging: (1) changes in the composition of the skills and competencies in the health workforce guided by a needs-based services management approach rather than by professional interests and (2) changes in the management of workplace and career conditions. Furthermore, an integrated governance approach is needed that connects innovations at the organizational level of services management with health workforce policy and systems-based governance interventions.