Time to care

Current training models are recognised to be too rigid, inflexible and lengthy; they require updating and re-designing to equip health professionals with the skills they require for the future. There is also a need for national frameworks for numbers, skills and competencies to reduce in-country variation and ensure quality.

A positive working environment, high variety of work, and a sense of accomplishment are most relevant for driving employee satisfaction. Senior leaders recognise the importance of offering flexible working patterns and professional and career development. Providing support and recognition from immediate team members is also recognised as important.

Approaches to improving staff wellbeing require additional attention. The research identifies a range of actions for employers to support the mental and physical wellbeing of their workforce: offering programmes or services directed at prevention, promoting a culture of openness and transparency, and offering support to tackle specific problems for example counselling and return-to-work schemes.

A strong and visible leadership is important to manage personal and team development and promote a culture of inclusion, health promotion and staff wellbeing. Our survey responses and interviews show the importance of team collaboration and a ‘sense of belonging’ within organisations, and some organisations are learning from other industries such as the airline industry to address these issues.

Offering flexible career and job planning, improving opportunities and organisation of continuous professional development, and shaping a culture of transparency, feedback and participation are key initiatives to improve recruitment and retention. Initiatives to address recruitment in particular include driving stronger brand recognition, providing additional benefits and rewards (financial and non-financial), and improving on-boarding and early-career programmes. Addressing staff wellbeing and improving workforce management are key to achieving higher rates of retention.

If utilised to the full extent of its capability, e-rostering can effectively improve staff satisfaction and patient care. However, many organisations struggle to realise the full potential of e-rostering and continue to report unreliability of staff schedules. Reducing dependency on agency staff is recognised as a key ambition by all organisations; key measures include building, sustaining and optimising the use of the permanent and flexible workforce by shaping organisational culture and harnessing fit-for-purpose technological solutions.

Digital and cognitive technologies will disrupt the future of work in health care. Implementing new technologies such as robotics and Artificial Intelligence will improve efficiencies, co-ordinate services, and free time for professionals for hands-on patient care.

Health professionals of the future will require a strong competency for change, enabling them to adapt to new technologies, medical advancements, and changing system conditions. Individuals will also need to collaborate across professions and sectors to deliver value-based care, and be prepared to develop their learning through more innovative education methods, including cognitive analytics, online tools and virtual reality.

Cognitive computing technologies are now able to perform tasks once considered solely the domain of humans, but care delivery will require distinctively human capabilities. However, moving forward health care professionals will be increasingly augmented by fit-for-purpose technologies to improve productivity. Employers and employees need to be prepared to effectively divide tasks between humans and machines.

Health care will be delivered in new models of care, operating across sectors and shifting from funding models that pay for volume to systems that pay for value. These value-based care models will create a new paradigm in which care is delivered by an entirely co-ordinated community, requiring professionals and managers to collaborate in building infrastructure and sharing accountability.