Deployment of Workforce in Global Health: What are the Priorities for China?

Abstract

BackgroundChina has increasingly emerged as an important player in global health. However, compared to the developed countries, China still lacks the sufficient human resources for global health engagement with limited necessary qualified capacity. The priorities for the deployment of Chinese workforce in global health engagement remains unclear. This study aims to identify the priorities of the deployment of Chinese global health workforce by exploring the core competencies for Chinese global health workforce, factors influencing the deployment and the approach of deployment. MethodA total of 148 key stakeholders from 10 provinces in China conducting global health program during the recent 3 years were selected as the study sample. A structured questionnaire was developed to collect the data on four aspects, including the general information, core competencies, factors influencing deployment, and the deployment way. The questionnaire was distributed to the respondents through an online survey tool. All original data was exported to Microsoft Excel 2010 to calculate the frequency and percentage of every option. The descriptive analysis was made on the priorities of deployment of Chinese global health workforce. ResultsMore than half of respondents 51.4% (76/148) regarded “communication” as the most important competency of Chinese global health workforce while a large portion of Chinese Embassies 50.0% (6/12) and international organizations 75.0% (12/16) believed that “professional skills” was the paramount. In addition, 58.1% (86/148) of the participants agreed that incentive factors (salary, professional title, etc.) are the first factors influencing the deployment, whereas, a majority of 75% (12/16) international organization stakeholders emphasized “security” as the foremost factor. Furthermore, 60.8% (90/148) thought that staff should be deployed align with the needs of global health program implementation. ConclusionThe study shows the priorities of the deployment of Chinese global health workforce, including strengthening the competency of communication and professional skills, stressing the personal security and incentives, and catering to the program implementation.