Optimising skill-mix in the primary health care workforce for the care of older Australians: a systematic review

Abstract

Australia has an ageing population resulting in demand for extensive and comprehensive care of chronic disease. This demand has required new thinking about primary health care workforce re-modelling to meet the health care needs of community dwelling older Australians. Sibbald and others have developed a model of skill-mix change to discuss workforce redesign. We conducted a systematic literature review to identify skill-mix changes needed in the primary health care workforce to successfully meet the health care needs of older Australians. Sibbald's concept that skill-mix changes could be obtained through task substitution, enhancement, delegation and innovation formed the conceptual framework for the review.The research reported in this paper is a project of the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, which is supported by a grant from the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing under the Primary Health Care Research, Evaluation and Development Strategy