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Recruiting and Training the Future
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A skilled, national workforce is key to this vision and there is wide effort across the sector to ensure that Qatar can attract and retain the optimum mix of healthcare professionals and build capacity in the existing workforce.
Given global shortages of healthcare professionals and intense competition to recruit from across the world, Qatar’s health sector must present itself as a compelling career option for both expatriates and local students considering a career in medicine. So what are the policies that the SCH and its partners are implementing to attract and develop qualified manpower from within Qatar and from abroad?
Under SCHs Goal 4: ‘A Skilled, National Workforce’, are three projects which will work to produce a Workforce Strategy (Project 4.1), build Recruitment and Retention of a professional workforce (4.2) and develop Professional Training and Education (4.3) within the health sector.
Over the next six months the SCH and a group of partners will produce a ‘Workforce Strategy’.
Hamad Medical Corporation is the largest employer of healthcare providers in the country; Primary Healthcare Corporation is driving to build up its workforce numbers; and Sidra Research Center, which is keenly ‘future-focused’, lends important impetus to the long-term projections required. The four entities have formed a dedicated working group, which will share resources and align their collective workforce data with the SCH’s Infrastructure Master plan. The aim is to determine a list of healthcare professional categories required to man Qatar’s health sector and to define the required number of professionals in each category. From there the working group can look at ways to ‘close the existing gaps’ and secure an effective manpower strategy for the next 15 to 20 years.
Project 4.2 is tasked with ‘Recruitment and Retention’ of this workforce and is already well underway with a series of outputs designed to put Qatar at the forefront of selection for both local and international healthcare candidates.
Appropriate compensation packages, career structure, and leadership and exchange programs are all under development to support a robust healthcare sector and provide additional incentive for professionals considering work in Qatar or local students considering healthcare as a career.
“We are working to benchmark compensation at a global level,” explains Ms. Samar Hussain Maad, Human Resources Director at the Supreme Council of Health. “Data is being collected to give an overview of salaries being offered globally and in the GCC so that we at SCH can understand our position and plan appropriate, and more attractive packages for future recruits”.
Project 4.2 is working with the Quality and Patient Safety department at SCH (NHS Project 2.1) to collect Employee Satisfaction Surveys from public health providers. This will allow the SCH to work directly, at a national level, on perceived issues with the local work environment and improve working conditions for employees.
“Defining career paths within the sector is also very important to provide a clear and competitive career structure”, says Ms. Maad.
“We are working to set these for all areas of healthcare; admin and technicians as well as medical, paramedical. Specialists, specifically, need clarity in their professional grading system. They want to be able to chart their progression from specialist to consultant to senior consultant clearly. And all healthcare professionals want to be assured that they can gain promotions through excellent performance, so this must be reflected in the development of career structure”.
Staff exchange and leadership programs are effective tools in growing capacity in the workforce and these are another focus for Ms. Maad’s department.
“There are fragmented staff exchange efforts being made by public providers. For example, HMC is engaging with global institutes in exchange programs for physicians, but not yet for other professionals. Therefore we have formed a sub-committee with SCH, PHCC and HMC to amalgamate these efforts and create one ‘exchange framework’ to embody all of these initiatives and include all healthcare fields, rather than physicians only,” she says.
“This allows us to promote staff exchanges industry wide and align all initiatives with the NHS”.
The national ‘Leadership Program for Change’ has just completed its first year, in collaboration with WHO, and the International Council of Nursing. The program, which focuses on developing skills such as Leadership, Strategy Planning and Management Training, brought 30 local nurses into a 12-month course. As graduates, these nurses will return to the field as leaders for the next year’s faction.
“The purpose of the program”, Ms. Maad says, “is to nurture our existing workforce and work on growing their capacities, to prepare them to be leaders in their fields. From next year, we plan to expand this program to include other fields, for example, paramedics and pharmacists.”
The QCHP are in the process of becoming accredited CPD and CME providers, furthering their ability to implement a range of education and development programs for healthcare professionals across the sector.
Dr. Samar, Manager of the Accreditation Department within QCHP explained the benefits of CPD and CME in the industry. “Nowadays, patient safety and healthcare quality is a high priority across the world. In North America, Europe and increasingly in the GCC there are bodies created specifically to oversee continuing professional development in healthcare. Medicine is continuously changing and people want the confidence of knowing that their practitioner, who may have graduated some years ago, is still up to date in their knowledge and skill.
In line with global best practice, QCHP is aiming to introduce a requirement for healthcare practitioners to undertake regular CPD courses from 2016, and this attendance will be linked to licensing and registration of the workforce. This means each practitioner must achieve a number of CPD credits to maintain their license to practice in Qatar.
Are there any benefits for the practitioners themselves? “It’s FOR them!” Dr. Samar continues. “CPD and CME training and development allows practitioners to update their knowledge, keep pace with all the progresses in medicine and develop new skills”.
Dr. Fouzia Al Naimi, Manager of Health Workforce Development at the SCH, steers Professional Training and Development in healthcare, the principal driver in fostering young students through the education system and into a career in health.
“Qatar has many schools in the field of medicine right here in Doha so further study in medicine is simple. We have Qatar University, Weill Cornell, University of Calgary and College of North Atlantic. We have allied health programs, dental programs, and ambulatory programs so there is no need for students to go abroad. This is specifically important to Qatari – previously we would send our children abroad to study, now we have it all here in Doha”, says Dr. Fouzia.
Dr. Fouzia’s department is in discussion with the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to review sponsorship (scholarship) opportunities for local students. The SCH aims to build awareness of pre graduate sponsorships by creating a master database of all of the sponsorships available to all candidates; Qatari and Non-Qatari; through both local and global institutions. Together, the SCH and SEC will define a list of sponsorships to communicate to student bodies as part of a national campaign.
“We are working with local educational institutions to produce a unified national awareness campaign targeting all students from intermediate (12-14 years) through to high school (14-17 years),” Dr. Fouzia explains.
“We need to inform young students of their career options within the healthcare industry. This covers all disciplines – nurses, doctors, admin, technicians, and pharmacists. Most importantly we want to talk to young people and find out what the barriers are preventing them from choosing a career in health. Is it long periods of study? Is it a language barrier? Is it relatively low compensation compared to other fields (finance, oil, gas)? We need to dissolve these barriers, plant the seed in their mind and let them think about health as a career.”
A skilled, national workforce is the sectors most valuable asset and the drive to recruit and train both local and expatriate healthcare candidates is high. The SCH is partnering with stakeholders right across the sector to ensure it is engaging wherever possible to create an effective workforce. Research is ongoing to learn how the healthcare sector can improve its working conditions, enhance compensation packages, streamline career paths and offer competitive professional development programs and opportunities. Building awareness in student bodies and promoting educational sponsorships is promoting the idea of a career in medicine for young students.
“There are gaps in all professions”, says Dr. Fouzia. “Not only now but in 5, 10, 15 years. Our planning goes out to 20 years. Our national awareness campaign to students focuses on a message that if you choose a career in medicine, you are choosing a profession highly supported with ongoing professional development, international work opportunities, the ability to work with high technology, the ability to continually further your studies. Most importantly, you will be taking care of your community. Healthcare is rewarding, satisfying work.”
Given global shortages of healthcare professionals and intense competition to recruit from across the world, Qatar’s health sector must present itself as a compelling career option for both expatriates and local students considering a career in medicine. So what are the policies that the SCH and its partners are implementing to attract and develop qualified manpower from within Qatar and from abroad?
Under SCHs Goal 4: ‘A Skilled, National Workforce’, are three projects which will work to produce a Workforce Strategy (Project 4.1), build Recruitment and Retention of a professional workforce (4.2) and develop Professional Training and Education (4.3) within the health sector.
Over the next six months the SCH and a group of partners will produce a ‘Workforce Strategy’.
Hamad Medical Corporation is the largest employer of healthcare providers in the country; Primary Healthcare Corporation is driving to build up its workforce numbers; and Sidra Research Center, which is keenly ‘future-focused’, lends important impetus to the long-term projections required. The four entities have formed a dedicated working group, which will share resources and align their collective workforce data with the SCH’s Infrastructure Master plan. The aim is to determine a list of healthcare professional categories required to man Qatar’s health sector and to define the required number of professionals in each category. From there the working group can look at ways to ‘close the existing gaps’ and secure an effective manpower strategy for the next 15 to 20 years.
Project 4.2 is tasked with ‘Recruitment and Retention’ of this workforce and is already well underway with a series of outputs designed to put Qatar at the forefront of selection for both local and international healthcare candidates.
Appropriate compensation packages, career structure, and leadership and exchange programs are all under development to support a robust healthcare sector and provide additional incentive for professionals considering work in Qatar or local students considering healthcare as a career.
“We are working to benchmark compensation at a global level,” explains Ms. Samar Hussain Maad, Human Resources Director at the Supreme Council of Health. “Data is being collected to give an overview of salaries being offered globally and in the GCC so that we at SCH can understand our position and plan appropriate, and more attractive packages for future recruits”.
Project 4.2 is working with the Quality and Patient Safety department at SCH (NHS Project 2.1) to collect Employee Satisfaction Surveys from public health providers. This will allow the SCH to work directly, at a national level, on perceived issues with the local work environment and improve working conditions for employees.
“Defining career paths within the sector is also very important to provide a clear and competitive career structure”, says Ms. Maad.
“We are working to set these for all areas of healthcare; admin and technicians as well as medical, paramedical. Specialists, specifically, need clarity in their professional grading system. They want to be able to chart their progression from specialist to consultant to senior consultant clearly. And all healthcare professionals want to be assured that they can gain promotions through excellent performance, so this must be reflected in the development of career structure”.
Staff exchange and leadership programs are effective tools in growing capacity in the workforce and these are another focus for Ms. Maad’s department.
“There are fragmented staff exchange efforts being made by public providers. For example, HMC is engaging with global institutes in exchange programs for physicians, but not yet for other professionals. Therefore we have formed a sub-committee with SCH, PHCC and HMC to amalgamate these efforts and create one ‘exchange framework’ to embody all of these initiatives and include all healthcare fields, rather than physicians only,” she says.
“This allows us to promote staff exchanges industry wide and align all initiatives with the NHS”.
The national ‘Leadership Program for Change’ has just completed its first year, in collaboration with WHO, and the International Council of Nursing. The program, which focuses on developing skills such as Leadership, Strategy Planning and Management Training, brought 30 local nurses into a 12-month course. As graduates, these nurses will return to the field as leaders for the next year’s faction.
“The purpose of the program”, Ms. Maad says, “is to nurture our existing workforce and work on growing their capacities, to prepare them to be leaders in their fields. From next year, we plan to expand this program to include other fields, for example, paramedics and pharmacists.”
The QCHP are in the process of becoming accredited CPD and CME providers, furthering their ability to implement a range of education and development programs for healthcare professionals across the sector.
Dr. Samar, Manager of the Accreditation Department within QCHP explained the benefits of CPD and CME in the industry. “Nowadays, patient safety and healthcare quality is a high priority across the world. In North America, Europe and increasingly in the GCC there are bodies created specifically to oversee continuing professional development in healthcare. Medicine is continuously changing and people want the confidence of knowing that their practitioner, who may have graduated some years ago, is still up to date in their knowledge and skill.
In line with global best practice, QCHP is aiming to introduce a requirement for healthcare practitioners to undertake regular CPD courses from 2016, and this attendance will be linked to licensing and registration of the workforce. This means each practitioner must achieve a number of CPD credits to maintain their license to practice in Qatar.
Are there any benefits for the practitioners themselves? “It’s FOR them!” Dr. Samar continues. “CPD and CME training and development allows practitioners to update their knowledge, keep pace with all the progresses in medicine and develop new skills”.
Dr. Fouzia Al Naimi, Manager of Health Workforce Development at the SCH, steers Professional Training and Development in healthcare, the principal driver in fostering young students through the education system and into a career in health.
“Qatar has many schools in the field of medicine right here in Doha so further study in medicine is simple. We have Qatar University, Weill Cornell, University of Calgary and College of North Atlantic. We have allied health programs, dental programs, and ambulatory programs so there is no need for students to go abroad. This is specifically important to Qatari – previously we would send our children abroad to study, now we have it all here in Doha”, says Dr. Fouzia.
Dr. Fouzia’s department is in discussion with the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to review sponsorship (scholarship) opportunities for local students. The SCH aims to build awareness of pre graduate sponsorships by creating a master database of all of the sponsorships available to all candidates; Qatari and Non-Qatari; through both local and global institutions. Together, the SCH and SEC will define a list of sponsorships to communicate to student bodies as part of a national campaign.
“We are working with local educational institutions to produce a unified national awareness campaign targeting all students from intermediate (12-14 years) through to high school (14-17 years),” Dr. Fouzia explains.
“We need to inform young students of their career options within the healthcare industry. This covers all disciplines – nurses, doctors, admin, technicians, and pharmacists. Most importantly we want to talk to young people and find out what the barriers are preventing them from choosing a career in health. Is it long periods of study? Is it a language barrier? Is it relatively low compensation compared to other fields (finance, oil, gas)? We need to dissolve these barriers, plant the seed in their mind and let them think about health as a career.”
A skilled, national workforce is the sectors most valuable asset and the drive to recruit and train both local and expatriate healthcare candidates is high. The SCH is partnering with stakeholders right across the sector to ensure it is engaging wherever possible to create an effective workforce. Research is ongoing to learn how the healthcare sector can improve its working conditions, enhance compensation packages, streamline career paths and offer competitive professional development programs and opportunities. Building awareness in student bodies and promoting educational sponsorships is promoting the idea of a career in medicine for young students.
“There are gaps in all professions”, says Dr. Fouzia. “Not only now but in 5, 10, 15 years. Our planning goes out to 20 years. Our national awareness campaign to students focuses on a message that if you choose a career in medicine, you are choosing a profession highly supported with ongoing professional development, international work opportunities, the ability to work with high technology, the ability to continually further your studies. Most importantly, you will be taking care of your community. Healthcare is rewarding, satisfying work.”
“We are working to benchmark compensation at a global level,” explains Ms. Samar Hussain Maad, Human Resources Director at the Supreme Council of Health. “Data is being collected to give an overview of salaries being offered globally and in the GCC so that we at SCH can understand our position and plan appropriate, and more attractive packages for future recruits”.
Project 4.2 is working with the Quality and Patient Safety department at SCH (NHS Project 2.1) to collect Employee Satisfaction Surveys from public health providers. This will allow the SCH to work directly, at a national level, on perceived issues with the local work environment and improve working conditions for employees.
“Defining career paths within the sector is also very important to provide a clear and competitive career structure”, says Ms. Maad.
“We are working to set these for all areas of healthcare; admin and technicians as well as medical, paramedical. Specialists, specifically, need clarity in their professional grading system. They want to be able to chart their progression from specialist to consultant to senior consultant clearly. And all healthcare professionals want to be assured that they can gain promotions through excellent performance, so this must be reflected in the development of career structure”.
Staff exchange and leadership programs are effective tools in growing capacity in the workforce and these are another focus for Ms. Maad’s department.
“There are fragmented staff exchange efforts being made by public providers. For example, HMC is engaging with global institutes in exchange programs for physicians, but not yet for other professionals. Therefore we have formed a sub-committee with SCH, PHCC and HMC to amalgamate these efforts and create one ‘exchange framework’ to embody all of these initiatives and include all healthcare fields, rather than physicians only,” she says.
“This allows us to promote staff exchanges industry wide and align all initiatives with the NHS”.
The national ‘Leadership Program for Change’ has just completed its first year, in collaboration with WHO, and the International Council of Nursing. The program, which focuses on developing skills such as Leadership, Strategy Planning and Management Training, brought 30 local nurses into a 12-month course. As graduates, these nurses will return to the field as leaders for the next year’s faction.
“The purpose of the program”, Ms. Maad says, “is to nurture our existing workforce and work on growing their capacities, to prepare them to be leaders in their fields. From next year, we plan to expand this program to include other fields, for example, paramedics and pharmacists.”
The QCHP are in the process of becoming accredited CPD and CME providers, furthering their ability to implement a range of education and development programs for healthcare professionals across the sector.
Dr. Samar, Manager of the Accreditation Department within QCHP explained the benefits of CPD and CME in the industry. “Nowadays, patient safety and healthcare quality is a high priority across the world. In North America, Europe and increasingly in the GCC there are bodies created specifically to oversee continuing professional development in healthcare. Medicine is continuously changing and people want the confidence of knowing that their practitioner, who may have graduated some years ago, is still up to date in their knowledge and skill.”
In line with global best practice, QCHP is aiming to introduce a requirement for healthcare practitioners to undertake regular CPD courses from 2016, and this attendance will be linked to licensing and registration of the workforce. This means each practitioner must achieve a number of CPD credits to maintain their license to practice in Qatar.
Are there any benefits for the practitioners themselves? “It’s FOR them!” Dr. Samar continues. “CPD and CME training and development allows practitioners to update their knowledge, keep pace with all the progresses in medicine and develop new skills”.
Dr. Fouzia Al Naimi, Manager of Health Workforce Development at the SCH, steers Professional Training and Development in healthcare, the principal driver in fostering young students through the education system and into a career in health.
“Qatar has many schools in the field of medicine right here in Doha so further study in medicine is simple. We have Qatar University, Weill Cornell, University of Calgary and College of North Atlantic. We have allied health programs, dental programs, and ambulatory programs so there is no need for students to go abroad. This is specifically important to Qatari – previously we would send our children abroad to study, now we have it all here in Doha”, says Dr. Fouzia.
Dr. Fouzia’s department is in discussion with the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to review sponsorship (scholarship) opportunities for local students. The SCH aims to build awareness of pre graduate sponsorships by creating a master database of all of the sponsorships available to all candidates; Qatari and Non-Qatari; through both local and global institutions. Together, the SCH and SEC will define a list of sponsorships to communicate to student bodies as part of a national campaign.
“We are working with local educational institutions to produce a unified national awareness campaign targeting all students from intermediate (12-14 years) through to high school (14-17 years),” Dr. Fouzia explains.
“We need to inform young students of their career options within the healthcare industry. This covers all disciplines – nurses, doctors, admin, technicians, and pharmacists. Most importantly we want to talk to young people and find out what the barriers are preventing them from choosing a career in health. Is it long periods of study? Is it a language barrier? Is it relatively low compensation compared to other fields (finance, oil, gas)? We need to dissolve these barriers, plant the seed in their mind and let them think about health as a career.”
A skilled, national workforce is the sectors most valuable asset and the drive to recruit and train both local and expatriate healthcare candidates is high. The SCH is partnering with stakeholders right across the sector to ensure it is engaging wherever possible to create an effective workforce. Research is ongoing to learn how the healthcare sector can improve its working conditions, enhance compensation packages, streamline career paths and offer competitive professional development programs and opportunities. Building awareness in student bodies and promoting educational sponsorships is promoting the idea of a career in medicine for young students.
“There are gaps in all professions”, says Dr. Fouzia. “Not only now but in 5, 10, 15 years. Our planning goes out to 20 years. Our national awareness campaign to students focuses on a message that if you choose a career in medicine, you are choosing a profession highly supported with ongoing professional development, international work opportunities, the ability to work with high technology, the ability to continually further your studies. Most importantly, you will be taking care of your community. Healthcare is rewarding, satisfying work.”
