Five Ways to Solve the Healthcare Workforce Crisis

Health systems aren't machines. They are made of people. -Nina Larsson

I attended Healthcare Workforce Canada’s Symposium in Vancouver last week.  Thank you to the Canadian Medical Association for sponsoring my registration.

The Symposium offered two days of jam-packed learning. Here I humbly offer my own take-aways as a lay-person patient. We all know the healthcare workforce is suffering.

Here’s what to do about it, according to the speakers at the Symposium.

1.    Build the workforce around the needs of the patients.

We don’t actually ask the patients. -Cris Scotter

How do you find out patients’ needs?  You go out and ask them. That’s done by climbing down from the ivory tower and participating in community-led outreach and public engagement.

Allow patients to tell you about their own health care journey so you understand what patients need. Stop cramming patients into models of care that you created, because it simply isn’t working.

 

2.    Integrate Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Whose values shape the system? -Nina Larsson

I’m not going to put my own settler commentary on this point.

There are Elders, Knowledge Keepers and members in Indigenous communities who can give guidance to the needs of their people, which would benefit all the people.

 

3.    Fund preventative health care once and for all.

Mindsets are the hardest part of health care. -Åsa Olsson

I’ve been hearing about preventative health care since I took health care admin in 1990.  That’s a long time with no progress in funding wellness, appreciating and compensating family physicians, integrating nurse practitioners and other team members in primary care, acknowledging the importance of psychosocial supports and the social determinants of health...I could go on and on.

The ’system’ (e.g. people who are decision makers) have the evidence and they know what to do. But they don’t do it.

Why do they keep building bricks and mortar acute care hospitals instead of affordable housing?  Why give millions to IT projects instead of ensuring people are lifted out of poverty? 

Why that’s because health care is political, and politicians cater to their rich friends, not the people. 

Health care is political. Pressure the politicians to do the right thing (instead of, as Cris Scotter said, "Doing the wrong thing righter.").

4.    Flatten the hierarchy to create interprofessional teams.

If we are putting patients in the middle, health care can’t be a competition of kings and queens. -Symposium participant

Health professionals have to put egos aside to start playing nicely in the sandbox. This starts by introducing the notion of interprofessional teams (including patients on those teams please) in university. Allow all professionals to work to full scope of practice.

Health care is more than doctors and nurses. The so-called allied health professionals, like social workers, pharmacists and registered psychiatric nurses – among many others - can alleviate pressure and contribute to safer patient care. If only they were allowed to.

5.    Commit to nurturing safe health care environments for both staff and patients.  

How do we connect with people?  It is with kindness, compassion and curiosity. -Conor MacPhee

Safe means different things to different people. I was at a table with a family physician – safe to her meant being alleviated of the responsibility of running a business and the pressure of bringing in income to focus on clinical care. Safe to ED staff at a local hospital meant being safe from the threat of weapons. Safe to patients who are equity-deserving means being cared for by health professionals who (literally and figuratively) speak their language. Safe to me means being shown compassion in health care and being offered a warm blanket.

From the Symposium, it was clear that we know what root of the problems underpinning the health workforce crisis are. If I, Sue Robins, a person with a degree in Shakespeare and art history, can identify the solutions from a two-day conference, then I know those in power know what to do.

The next step is to roll up our sleeves, do rabble rousing and lean on our influence and platforms to get to work.  If you are protecting the status quo, you part of the problem.  

It is time to be brave and speak up.

My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. -Audre Lorde

*note: this summary was not written by AI. It was written by a person sitting at her kitchen table in her pajamas at 7 am on a Saturday morning.