1.X.1. PechaKucha: Health and care workforce retention: how to integrate the needs of rural and remote areas?

Abstract Background The health and care workforce (HCWF) crisis emerges as one of the most severe threats to health systems and quality care for the population globally. Demographic change in many European Union member states and other western countries will further exacerbate the crisis, putting even higher workload and stress on the remaining personnel. These developments will increase burn-out and other threats to health and wellbeing and, ultimately, escalating the crisis. Retention is therefore a key priority of health and care workforce planning and policy across countries and sectors. However, the pressures for change are strongest and the crisis most severe in rural and remote areas, where the HCWF is generally smaller in numbers, retention lower, and migration and mobility higher. Some efforts can be observed to increase the numbers, yet more complex governance approaches and systematic policy development and implementation are still poorly developed or often lacking. Objectives This workshop connects different scenarios of health and care workforce crises in rural and remote areas and the related needs of more sustainable services for the population and better work conditions for the personnel. Three different scenarios are selected to highlight the complexity and context-dependency of what is perceived as needs in rural and remote regions. The workshop presents research evidence, considering the workforce situation in the far North arctic regions of Finland as an extremely remote and scarcely populated region, the contrasting example of the Netherlands commonly perceived as densely populated country, and more global insights including the situation in low- and middle-income countries. This is followed by a brief overview from WHO on how to improve support for health and care workforce retention in the WHO European region. Expected outcome The policy recommendations emerging from the expert panel will be critically reflected in a brief plenary discussion. The workshop aims to explore opportunities for scaling-up awareness of the health and care workforce needs in rural and remote areas, for developing more complex retention strategies across sectors and regions and, finally, building capacity for effective and sustainable implementing of retention policies in practice. Key messages • The health and care workforce in rural and remote areas must become a health policy priority to develop more effective retention strategies that respond to the needs. • The needs of rural and remote health and care workers are diverse but a need for action is strong across countries, calling for knowledge exchange and learning from good-practice examples. Speakers/Panellists Timo Sinervo THL, Helsinki, Finland Ligia Paina Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA