Role of Young professionals in shaping Public Health Workforce

It is believed that the leaders in public health will have to deal with complicated new difficulties during the next 100 years. For it to be successful, the following generation must be educated and equipped to identify and address health issues.  The future of public health is comprised of young professionals. They are the sources of creative ideas, are aware of hot topics, and can offer novel strategies for dealing with them. They should be provided the opportunity to participate in decision-making, promote interdisciplinary partnerships, build communication skills, and the tools they need.

The young public health professionals should be actively involved in decision-making, which requires investment. The process of making a decision involves more than just selecting the best option. They involve creating and defending arguments, articulating them to others, and politely expressing opinions—all of which are crucial components of effective leadership. Also, collaborations should be promoted across the disciplines to help young public health professionals to gain crucial soft skills and expand their perspectives in public health (Nittas et al., 2020).

Reference:

Nittas, V., Buitrago-Garcia, D., Chetty-Mhlanga, S. et al. Future public health governance: investing in young professionals. Int J Public Health 65, 1521–1522 (2020). //doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01521-0

Young professionals play a crucial role in shaping the future of the public health workforce by bringing fresh ideas, new perspectives, and diverse backgrounds to the field. They can contribute by:

1. Staying current on emerging trends and technologies related to public health
2. Advocating for policies and initiatives that improve health outcomes for communities
3. Mentoring and supporting the next generation of public health professionals
4. Collaborating with cross-disciplinary teams to address complex health problems
5. Encouraging a culture of continuous learning and professional development
6. And most importantly to engage in platforms like //smaartlab.org/discussion-board/ and converse/discuss with fellow peers on current affairs w.r.t public health. 

Through these and other efforts, young professionals can help shape the public health workforce in a way that is more inclusive, innovative, and effective in addressing the health needs of communities.

Young professionals in public health like other workforce system are considered to be age below 30 or 32 years. International organization and individual countries government understand the role of young professional in driving innovative changes, social change, technological innovation and economic growth. To improve representation, to promote gender parity in governmental and international level programs such as young professional programme (YPP) at international, national and state level by government and non governmental agencies have been established. Evidence shows young people have greater power in changing negative attitude and accepting technological changes. This trait of youth can be used to achieve sustainable goals of public health like universal health coverage. SDG 3c  target for 2030 includes training and retention of health workers in developing countries to accelerate SDG goals achievement. However, these transformation can be achieved by young professionals only through participatory leadership and proper mentoring programs post graduation in public health. 

The impact and indespensable contribution of young professionals in public health is undeniable moreover post covid-19 pandemic but lack of funding and mentoring system as public health is a vast arena has led to limited youth participation in global and national policy making. To overcome this barrier and include young professional in public health UN has established PHC Youth Leader Network in 2018 for collective learning, mentorship, regular interaction for advancement of voice of young professional in primary health. 

Reference : 

1. Kara Ray.B. Calma, Lynsey J. Brown, Strengthening primary health care: contribution of young professional-led communities of practice, //www.cambridge.org/core/journals/primary-health-care-research-and-development/article/strengthening-primary-health-care-contributions-of-young-professionalled-communities-of-practice/2045329B23434190AAC5EB19744A2F08

link 

@sofiasaggu I totally agree.

But the challenge faced by young public health professionals is that their role is totally tokenistic in nature due to the top-down approach and lack of transparency. The Young professionals are unable to voice out or make a significant difference due to the organizational structure.

//human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-021-00627-7  

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid the importance and extra need of the public health workforce. The pandemic has clearly identified one of the most  overlooked resources of the current public health workforce is the lack of integration of young professionals.

Young professionals can provide new perspectives and increase diversity, along with providing the necessary human resources to the workforce. Young professionals despite being in surplus cannot be utilized effectively due to lack of infrastructure to adequately link them.

Major barriers to successful integration of young professionals within the public health workforce:

1) Inaccessibility: A diverse and inclusive public health workforce must involve the representation of professionals at all stages of their careers, in a manner that actively respects and reflects their individual experiences and values their contributions.

2) Tokenization: To ensure young professionals are genuinely and not tokenistic ally engaged, they should be taken seriously and given real opportunities to participate in each phase of projects.

3)  Lack of mentorship: lack of mentorship Peer mentorship, a strategy to evolve the understanding of public health by providing opportunities between young professionals, is also limited.

These barriers must be addressed accordingly to build the sustainable, interdisciplinary, unified public health that is necessary for future.

References:

Brian Li Han Wong et al. Rebuilding to shape a better future: the role of young professionals in the public health workforce. Hum Resource Health //www.researchgate.net/publication/353231307_Rebuilding_to_shape_a_better_future_the_role_of_young_professionals_in_the_public_health_workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a trained public health workforce. This paper talks about including young professionals in the workforce by addressing the challenges of inaccessibility, tokenisation, and a lack of mentorship.

//human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-021-00627-7

@revathi27 I agree, ground reality is different. What are the solutions for this in your opinion?

“Building strong health systems requires a well-trained workforce”

Young professionals play a major role in the strengthening of Public health systems. For building a strong and resilient workforce that can rebuild and improve our current health systems. World Health Organization has estimated a global shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030.

Refer: //www.keppelhealthreview.com/spring2022/digital-public-health

The COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted the public health workforce's urgent needs. It is essential that young professionals participate in societal discussions on how to improve the capability and infrastructure of their systems. Through this research paper the researcher talks about Rebuilding to shape a better future: the role of young professionals in the public health workforce.

Read more: //human-resources-health.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12960-021-00627-7

@sofiasaggu The tokenization could be the consequence of the burden of lack of human resources and inequitable distribution of the same in the domain of public health. Lack of functional training among young professionals may also catalyze this process.

A 2011 study estimated that India has roughly 20 health workers per 10,000 population, with allopathic doctors comprising 31% of the workforce, nurses and midwives 30%, pharmacists 11%, AYUSH practitioners 9%, and others 9%.This workforce is not distributed optimally, with most preferring to work in areas where infrastructure and facilities for family life and growth are higher. In general, the poorer areas of Northern and Central India have lower densities of health workers compared to the Southern states.

As it is mentioned in the previous posts, developing a culture of continuous learning, peer mentorship, and maintaining hand on practice and log book could improve the knowledge confidence among them.

Reference;

//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6166510/

Nearly half of public health professionals working in health departments intend to leave their positions in the next five years, according to data from the 2017 Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey (PH WINS). Young professionals ages 21 to 30 only make up about 10 percent of the workforce. An aging workforce and increasingly complex public health problems raise concerns about what changes need to be implemented to advance public health practices and properly engage future leaders for a career in a demanding and evolving field. The PH WINS data also shows that nearly one-third of young professionals are poised to leave the field within the next year, citing lack of advancement opportunities and workplace environment as the top two factors. experience young professionals are able to obtain early in their careers should include opportunities to lead and discussed the need for leaders to listen to new ideas that come from their younger colleagues. The PH WINS findings align with that notion: young professionals do not believe creativity and innovation are rewarded or that there is adequate communication between senior leadership and other staff.

References : //nnphi.org/focusing-on-the-future-young-professionals-and-emerging-leaders/

Over the last ten-year period, the health and social sector has become the biggest employer of young people, and employment rates have improved faster for young people in this sector than any other age strata. This is considered in nearly every country around the world regardless of the socio-economic context. The health and social care sector is expected to create 40 million new health worker jobs by 2030, each supported by an additional two supportive jobs with a total job creation potential of over 120 million. These new jobs are mostly being filled by youth, women, and in particular by young women

 In 2017, the inaugural Youth Forum was held at the 4th Global Forum on Human Resources for Health in Dublin, Ireland. Students and early career professionals from the health sector and beyond gathered to voice their collective vision for the future of the health workforce. As an immediate response to the Youth Call for Action in 2017, the Global Health Workforce Network (GHWN) Youth Hub was created by the World Health Organization (WHO). From the group’s conception to now, an inter-professional community of practice has convened, which focused on issues of work in the health and social care sector. The Youth Hub’s strategic aims include driving youth-inclusive policy-making nationally, regionally, and globally.

References:

//cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/youthpaper-final-feb2020_ee459279-a5a6-465f-8859-a0d91b730472.pdf?sfvrsn=a0a4431c_2&download=true

Its important know the barriers for young professionals in shaping Public Health workforce, To incorporate young professionals into the public health workforce have wrestled with inaccessibility, tokenisation, and a lack of mentorship, leading to a loss of potential workforce members and a non-representative workforce that reinforces systemic societal exclusion of diverse young people. These barriers must be addressed through robust mentorship structures, intentional recruitment and continuous support, as well as genuine recognition of the contributions of young professionals to build the sustainable, interdisciplinary, unified public health that is necessary for the future.

Young professional present great potential for the field of public health. Young professional's can provide new perspectives and increase diversity, along with providing the necessary human resources the workforce so desperately needs.

Ref: Wong, B.L.H., Siepmann, I., Chen, T.T. et al. Rebuilding to shape a better future: the role of young professionals in the public health workforce. Hum Resour Health 19, 82 (2021).  //doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00627-7  

The world has more young people than ever before. According to 2020, there were 1.8 billion people between the ages of 10 and 24, and 89% of this age demographic lived in low- and middle-income countries. With such a large population of young people around the world, an unprecedented window of opportunity for economic growth emerges – a demographic dividend. A feature of this demographic dividend is that the working-age population is larger than the non-working-age population; however, to capitalize on this dividend the right policies must be developed and implemented at the right time alongside significant, well-planned investment in young people. The health and social care sector is expected to create 40 million new health worker jobs by 2030, each supported by an additional two supportive jobs with a total job creation potential of over 120 million. 

YPs are an effective way to build workforce capacity and increase the representativeness of public health work. The inclusion of young professionals in decisions about education and training will enable these future leaders to engage in policy developments and inform public health structures that will shape their careers and the future of health service delivery. The unique position of students and ECPs within complex health systems affords them an appropriate vantage point from which to engage in curriculum and social wellness debates. 

References-

//cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/health-workforce/youthpaper-final-feb2020_ee459279-a5a6-465f-8859-a0d91b730472.pdf?sfvrsn=a0a4431c_2&download=true

//gh.bmj.com/content/8/3/e011310

Wong BLH, Siepmann I, Chen TT, Fisher S, Weitzel TS, Nathan NL, Saminarsih DS. Rebuilding to shape a better future: the role of young professionals in the public health workforce. Hum Resour Health. 2021 Jul 13;19(1):82. doi: 10.1186/s12960-021-00627-7. PMID: 34256785; PMCID: PMC8276547.