The World Health Organization (WHO) proposes to member states to integrate oral health into primary care through collaborative and interprofessional models. This is how he collects it in his Global Strategy and Oral Health Action Plan 2023-2030, a plan that highlights the need to develop innovative workforce models and reform competency-based education to support skill mixes needed in the sector.
Along these lines, the strategic objective of the WHO regarding health personnel seeks to review and expand competency-based education, to ensure that there are enough trained health workers to provide the necessary oral health services. In its strategy, this organization highlights the importance of including “health professionals who have not traditionally been involved in oral care”, working together with specialists in this matter to offer a essential package of services.
“The planning and prioritization of oral health services should integrate into all policiesnational plans and strategies for health personnel and investment plans,” says the WHO in your strategy. To this end, the organization emphasizes the need to “develop and expand the role of oral health care providers” that operate autonomously at the middle level.
To this end, the document highlights the need to reform “intra- and interprofessional” education as well as “collaborative” practice in order to “fully integrate oral health services at the level of Primary Care and in broader health systems.” “Professional education in oral health must go beyond the development of a set of fundamental clinical skills to incorporate community health competenciespublic health, leadership and research,” the document details.
Goals for healthcare personnel in oral health
To get a innovative workforce model In terms of oral health, the WHO has collected a series of global goals. On the one hand, it urges the promotion of paradigms that allow a sufficient number of trained health workers to provide health services in this area as part of collaborative teams at all levels of care.
In addition, it is advisable to update the policies of licenses, accreditation and scopes of practice to support models “flexible” workforce and competency-based education. At the same time, it points out that the capacity to provide these services must be “increased,” expanding coverage and planning the “availability, accessibility, acceptability and quality” of workers to provide essential oral health care. to all populations, including the most vulnerable and marginalized.
Along these lines, the WHO urges the establishment of mechanisms for accreditation and portability of licenses between countries. To do this, it is also essential to “take advantage” of the collaboration between ministries and professional associations to ensure “occupational health and safety, the rights of healthcare workers, the reduction of bias in the workforce, and adequate compensation.”
Along with this, among the most important issues, the need to carry out a “education reform” to prepare students for collaborative practice and the integration of oral health into health services Primary Care. In turn, this should focus on prioritizing public health competencies, health promotion and disease prevention.
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