Health Workforce Unit, Universal Health Coverage Life - Course Cluster, World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, Brazzaville, Congo
Centre for Health Professions Education, Faculty of Health Sciences, North-West University - Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
BMJ Glob Health. 2022 Jul;7(Suppl 1). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-009555.
Specialist health professionals improve health outcomes. Most low-income and middle-income countries do not have the capacity to educate and retain all types of specialists across various health professions. This study sought to explore and describe the opportunities available for specialist health professions education and the pathways to becoming a specialist health professional in East and Southern Africa (ESA). Understanding the regional capacity for specialist education provides opportunities for countries to apply transnational education models to create prospects for specialist education.
A document analysis on specialist training programmes for health professionals was conducted in twenty countries in ESA to establish the capacity of specialist education for health professionals. Data were collected from policy documents, grey literature and websites at the country and institution levels.
We found 288 specialist health professions education programmes across ten professional categories in 157 health professions education institutions from 18 countries in the ESA are reported. Medical and Nursing specialist programmes dominate the list of available specialist programmes in the region, while Kenya, South Africa and Ethiopia have the highest number of specialist programmes. Most included specialist programmes were offered at the Master's level or as postgraduate diplomas. There is a general uneven distribution of specialist health professions education programmes within the ESA region despite sharing almost similar sociogeographical context and disease patterns. Current national priorities may be antecedent to the diversity and skewed distribution of specialist health professions programmes.
Attention must be paid to countries with limited capacity for specialist education and to professions that are severely under-represented. Establishing regional policies and platforms that nurture collaborations towards specialist health professions education may be a proximal solution for increased regional capacity for specialist education.
专业卫生人员可改善健康结果。大多数低收入和中等收入国家没有能力在各种卫生专业中培养和留住所有类型的专业人员。本研究旨在探索和描述在东非和南非（ESA）提供专业卫生职业教育的机会，以及成为专业卫生专业人员的途径。了解区域专业教育能力为各国提供了应用跨国教育模式的机会，为专业教育创造了前景。
对 ESA 二十个国家的卫生专业人员专业培训方案进行了文件分析，以确定卫生专业人员专业教育的能力。数据来自国家和机构层面的政策文件、灰色文献和网站。
我们发现，在 ESA 的 18 个国家的 157 个卫生专业教育机构中，报告了来自十个专业类别的 288 个专业卫生专业教育方案。医学和护理专业方案在该地区的可用专业方案中占据主导地位，而肯尼亚、南非和埃塞俄比亚拥有最多的专业方案。大多数包含专业方案的课程都是在硕士或研究生文凭级别提供的。尽管 ESA 区域在社会地理背景和疾病模式上几乎相似，但专业卫生专业教育方案的分布普遍不均衡。当前的国家优先事项可能先于专业卫生专业方案的多样性和倾斜分布。
必须关注专业教育能力有限的国家和严重代表性不足的专业。制定培养专业卫生职业教育合作的区域政策和平台，可能是增加区域专业教育能力的近期解决方案。
