As populations age, there is a greater need for long-term care (LTC) for older adults to maintain functional capacity. The formal LTC system is highly labour-intensive, and there is an urgent need for strategies to strengthen LTC workforce recruitment and retention.
To explore this, the WHO Centre for Health Development (WHO Kobe Centre – WKC) funded a study on “Strategies to improve recruitment, retention, working conditions, and skills among the LTC workforce through an umbrella review of existing evidence”. This research by Andreea Badache, Maja Dobrosavljevic, and Sarah Louise Barber, has been published in Health Policy.
The review found that evidence-informed strategies to strengthen the LTC workforce were sorely lacking: of the 10475 articles, only 19 met the inclusion criteria, and most were of low quality. Positive findings were that continuing professional development and peer-led training consistently improved staff skills, satisfaction and care. Organizational and well-being interventions reduced stress and turnover.
This paper highlights the urgent need for further research to provide evidence for strategies to strengthen the LTC workforce, and rigorous evaluation of organizational interventions to inform policy across broader contexts.
To read more about the LTC formal workforce, please see the research brief on supporting workers in the formal LTC system, part of our briefing series on LTC financing: lessons for low- and middle-income settings.