- Funding Programme
- Year
- 2022
Support to improve the distribution of healthcare professionals and develop a competence assessment framework for healthcare workers in Lithuania
The support focused on two workstreams. Firstly, on improving the continuous professional development (CPD) model that currently exists for healthcare professionals, by ensuring that their choice of training actually meets their professional development needs. Secondly, it aimed at identifying different policy options to tackling the shortages of healthcare professionals in the remote areas of the country.
Context
Lithuanian healthcare professionals have access to multiple programmes and trainings as a part of their continuous professional development (CPD). However, this process entailed a rather formal evaluation, which is conducted regularly but without a qualitative assessment to evaluate its effectiveness in the daily practice.
The other challenge concerned the unequal distribution of healthcare professionals throughout the country, which has resulted in a shortage of specific healthcare profiles in some areas. In fact, Lithuania was the second country with the highest number of doctors per thousand inhabitants in the EU. However, their biggest concentration is in Vilnius and Kaunas districts.
Support delivered
Concerning the CPD part, the provider conducted an analysis of the system, to determine its shortcomings and how these could be overcome to meet the actual needs of healthcare professionals and line managers. The support then included a review of international best practices in the area of skills assessment, monitoring and development in the healthcare sector, to provide replicable examples of professional development models in which professionals and line managers are also involved in the process. A model to identify, monitor and manage the skills of healthcare professionals was then proposed to the Lithuanian authorities, based on the feedback and the findings of the previous activities. Such a model included also a pilot study design and a roadmap to test the newly-developed model.
The second work stream provided the Ministry of health with a strategy that built on a desk-review research of successfully implemented talent attraction measures for the healthcare workforce as well as on the results of the international exchanges grathered through ad hoc workshops. Also in this, a pilot study design and an implementation roadmap was developed, to test the effectiveness of at least some of the proposed recommendations foreseen in the Strategy in specific selected areas.
Results achieved
Thanks to the support provided, the Lithuanian authorities are equipped with an enhanced professional development model for the healthcare workforce. In particular, such a model is now designed to include and incorporate feedback provided by managers and employees themselves, to better match the provision of the trainings with the actual needs.
Moreover, the Ministry of health now possess a set of policies, including the design to pilot them, to draw healthcare professionals to underserved regions, simultaneously bolstering the overall count of healthcare professionals. This is then expected to improve both the quality and accessibility of healthcare services nationwide.
More about the project
You can read the documents related to the project here: