Setting priorities for EU healthcare workforce IT skills competence improvement

A major challenge for healthcare quality improvement is the lack of IT skills and knowledge of healthcare workforce as well as their ambivalent attitudes towards IT. This paper identifies and prioritises actions needed to improve the IT skills of healthcare workforce across the EU. 46 experts, representing different fields of expertise in healthcare and geolocations systematically list and scored actions that would improve IT skills among healthcare workforce. The Child Health and Nutrition Research Initiative methodology was used for research priority-setting. The participants evaluated the actions using the following criteria: feasibility, effectiveness, deliverability, and maximum impact on IT skills improvement. The leading priority actions were related to appropriate training, integrating eHealth in curricula, involving healthcare workforce in the eHealth solution development, improving awareness of eHealth and learning arrangement. As the different professionals’ needs are prioritised, healthcare workforce should be actively and continuously included in the development of eHealth solutions

Actions to empower digital competences in healthcare workforce: a qualitative approach

While healthcare systems are taking advantage of the ICT to improve healthcare services, healthcare workforce needs additional competencies in order to continue the provision of the best achievable care. In this paper emphasis is given to an active research effort taken during the MEI2015 Conference. Based on hands-on group-work, participants identified the actions needed to boost the acquisition of IT competences by healthcare workforce and collaboratively indicated the most important actions. The leading priority actions were integration of IT into Curriculum, continuous IT/eHealth training at the work place, raising awareness of IT competences, participatory decisions for actions, match healthcare applications to users’ own context, inclusion of professionals in the development of eHealth projects. Interestingly, the proposed actions coupling the outcomes of another study following a different methodology, but also support the cooperation opportunities on IT skills for healthcare workforce. The latter formed a set of recommendations which were proposed within the CAMEI coordination and support action of EC-FP7

Moving Care to the Community: An International Perspective

Medical treatments that were once provided in hospital are being increasingly administered in the community. Within health systems, there is a renewed focus on delivering general health care in the community, freeing hospitals to provide more complex, specialised and emergency care. As the drive to shift specialised and non-specialised care out of hospital gathers momentum, there is a greater demand for a skilled and competent community nursing workforce to facilitate this shift at a local level. Nurses are essential in the delivery of continuous care as they often serve as an interface between acute and community care, focusing on prevention, self- management and providing support to transition patients smoothly across the health and social care services.Moving care to the community has been a UK-wide health and social care policy priority for more than a decade. However, progress has been slow and in some cases fragmented. In order to address the issue, it is important to first review where this shift has been implemented and which lessons can be learned from international experiences. The RCN is committed to working closely with its equivalent nursing organisations overseas to learn from international best practices and incorporate some of this learning to shape health and social care policy in the UK, and more specifically promote good nursing practice. This report will focus on system-wide or sector specific reforms in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Norway and Denmark as these countries have at one point or another addressed the need todeliver care outside of hospitals, either in patients' homes, GP clinics, community-basedcentres or care home settings

Foundation Focus (Issue 18): Workers in Europe: Mobility and Migration

[Excerpt] This issue of Foundation Focus looks at mobility and migration in the EU. It reviews the policy background and the practical issues that relate to movement between EU countries by EU citizens and into the EU from third countries. What is the extent of labour mobility within the EU? How can the fundamental rights of refugees and migrants from outside the EU be protected? How does intra-EU mobility impact on public services? What have social partners done to address the integration of third-country nationals and challenges for EU labour markets? What has already been learned about successful local integration policies for migrants? It draws on Eurofound’s extensive research findings in this area

Enhancing the Effectiveness of Social Dialogue Articulation in Europe (EESDA) Project No. VS/2017/0434 Social Dialogue Articulation and Effectiveness: Country Report for France

This report presents a country study analysing the articulation and effectiveness of social dialogue in France. The methodological approach relies on desk research and semi-structured interviews with social partners in France, aiming at obtaining deeper insights into how issues are articulated in French social dialogue, actors are interacting, and how social dialogue outcomes are achieved – and ultimately implemented. Following a brief historical background on the industrial relations system and the evolutions in the French context after a series of reforms, the report then provides both a cross-sectoral overview of social dialogue articulation and the interaction with European-level social dialogue. It also offers a sectoral perspective by looking at four sectors with a particular focus on four occupations within these sectors: commerce (sales agents), construction (construction workers), education (teachers) and healthcare (nurses). The research suggests a diversity of experiences both in cross-sectoral and sectoral social dialogue articulation and their effectiveness depending on the type of actor (e.g. trade unions, employer organisations, etc.) and on the sector of focus. The perceptions of social dialogue effectiveness are mixed in the face of continuous reforms over the last decades. Interactions with European-level social dialogue and social partners is considered as important (particularly in some sectors), but the intensity of the interaction is limited when it comes to involvement in the European Semester process

Social Innovation in Service Delivery: New Partners and Approaches

[Excerpt] This report presents the findings of a research project exploring the involvement of new partners – in particular, the social partners, civil society and people in vulnerable situations – in social innovation. For the purposes of the research, ‘social innovation’ is defined as new ideas (products, services and models) that simultaneously resolve societal challenges, meet social needs and create new social relationships among the groups concerned. Social innovation can involve such aspects as new participation in decision-making, services affecting the social situation of specific target groups (provided commercially or not) and changes in social care systems. It is part of cultural development and societal change. The research was carried out at EU level – focusing especially on the role of the European Social Fund (ESF) in social innovation – and in six Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Sweden. It examined the innovation and social partnership culture in each country, and analysed to what extent national-level policies have been triggered by EU policy. The research also includes three case studies carried out in Ireland, Slovenia and Sweden, presenting initiatives that the social partners, or those in vulnerable situations, have been involved in designing and implementing. The objective of this study is to inform, with an evidence-based approach, the policy debate on social innovation, and contribute to a better understanding of effective and sustainable processes. The study also aims to explore how social innovation can be most effectively supported in different phases: from initiation, through consistent delivery of good quality services, to identification of good practice

Knowledge and atittudes of healthcare professionals and their willingness to communicate about e-Health to patients: a cross-sectional study of Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto

In many countries, the implementation and dissemination of e-Health for healthcare systems are important aspects of projects and strategies, as they contribute to significantly improving the access to such a system. The aim of the study is to analyze nurses’ and doctors’ attitudes and knowledge on e-Health solutions as well as their willingness to communicate about e- Health to their patients. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development highlights that the spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness has great potential to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies. The relevance of the present study is to provide more data about the roles of doctors and nurses on promoting this action through digital health and also to characterise which factors can influence their action. The present study is a exploratory- descriptive case study with a quantitative aproach and a cross-sectional design. A questionnaire was applied to 131 doctors and nurses that have clinical activity on the External Consultation Service of Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Based on the results, opportunity shows to be the key factor that drives doctors’ and nurses’ e-Health competence (according to the Spearman's ρ coefficient). Data shows that 87,00% of the participants feel that is part of their role to promote digital literacy, however it was gauged that doctors and nurses feel that they don’t have enough time (32,10%) to be an actor on the promotion and induction of patient’s in the digital world. Since healthcare is a very personal and an unique experience for each person, for future research it would be ideal to obtain data through a mixed method approach by introducing interviews in order to have the most accurate information possible.Em muitos países, a implementação e divulgação da e-Saúde para os sistemas de saúde são aspetos importantes dos projetos e estratégias, uma vez que contribuem para melhorar significativamente o acesso a esse sistema. O objetivo do estudo é analisar as atitudes e conhecimentos de enfermeiros e médicos sobre soluções de e-Saúde, bem como a sua vontade de comunicar sobre e-Saúde aos seus pacientes. A Agenda para o Desenvolvimento Sustentável de 2030 salienta que a disseminação da tecnologia da informação e das comunicações e a interconectividade global tem um grande potencial para acelerar o progresso humano, para colmatar a divisão digital e para desenvolver sociedades do conhecimento. A relevância do presente estudo é proporcionar mais dados sobre os papéis dos médicos e enfermeiros na promoção desta ação através da saúde digital e também caracterizar quais os fatores que podem influenciar a sua ação. O presente estudo é um estudo de caso exploratório - descritivo, com uma abordagem quantitativa e uma conceção transversal. Foi aplicado um questionário a 131 médicos e enfermeiros que têm atividade clínica no Serviço de Consulta Externa do Centro Hospitalar Universitário do Porto. Com base nos resultados, a oportunidade demonstra ser o fator chave que impulsiona a competência de médicos e enfermeiros em e-Saúde (de acordo com o coeficiente de Spearman's ρ). Os dados demostram que 87,00% dos participantes sentem que faz parte do seu papel de promover a literacia digital, no entanto, foi aferido que médicos e enfermeiros sentem que não têm tempo suficiente (32,10%) para serem atores na promoção e indução de doentes no mundo digital. Dado que os cuidados de saúde são uma experiência muito pessoal e única para cada pessoa, para a investigação futura seria ideal obter dados através de uma abordagem de método misto, introduzindo entrevistas de modo a ter a informação mais precisa possível

More and Better Jobs in Home-Care Services

[Excerpt] This study examines recruitment and retention measures in community-based care and support services for adults with disabilities and health problems. It focuses on 10 EU Member States: Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. It examines 30 case studies from these countries, analysing initiatives that were successful either in creating more jobs in the provision of health and social care for adults in the community or in improving the quality of jobs, with the aim of both attracting new recruits and retaining existing staff