A central piece of Canada's health-care system is human resources. Current concerns with shortages of various types of health-care providers, whether real or perceived, and the impact that these shortages have on other policy initiatives (e.g., primary care reforms, wait-time reduction, etc.), have drawn the attention of policymakers to the need for improvement in the planning for and use of healthc are human resources. Health human resource planning is not only a critical task, it is also increasingly complex. Healthcare production is labour-intensive and the human resource inputs used are well trained. Moreover, the context within which these health workers are deployed is highly regulated, constrained by pre-existing policy and institutional imperatives, and subject to a range of political influences. The collection of papers in this Special Issue of Canadian Public Policy/Analyse de politiques presents a wide range of contributions to some of the key problems associated with health human resources in the Canadian context.

Stephen Birch, George Kephart, Gail Tomblin-Murphy, Linda O'Brien-Pallas, Rob Alder, and Adrian MacKenzie: Human Resources Planning and the Production of Health: A Needs-Based Analytical Framework, pp. 1-16. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 217 KB]  

Sung-Hee Jeon and Jeremiah Hurley: The Relationship Between Physician Hours of Work, Service Volume and Service Intensity, pp. 17-30. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 100 KB]  

Isik U. Zeytinoglu, Margaret Denton, Sharon Davies, Andrea Baumann, Jennifer Blythe, and Linda Boos: Deteriorated External Work Environment, Heavy Workload and Nurses' Job Satisfaction and Turnover Intention, pp. 31-48. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 128 KB]  

Gillian Mulvale and Ivy Lynn Bourgeault: Finding the Right Mix: How Do Contextual Factors Affect Collaborative Mental Health Care in Ontario?, pp. 49-64. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 118 KB]  

Janice Keefe, Jacques Légaré, and Yves Carrière: Developing New Strategies to Support Future Caregivers of Older Canadians with Disabilities: Projections of Need and their Policy Implications, pp. 65-80. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 115 KB]  

Margaret Denton, Isik Zeytinoglu, Karen Kusch, and Sharon Davies: Market-Modelled Home Care: Impact on Job Satisfaction and Propensity to Leave, pp. 81-99. [Abstract] [Download Paper, 123 KB]  

© 2010 Canadian Public Policy (URL: http://cpp.economics.ca/, E-mail: cpp.adp@gmail.com). The CPP web pages are maintained by Olivier Lebert (Université de Montréal) and Werner Antweiler (UBC). Earlier versions of the documents on this site were created by Elaine Constant (Queen's University) and Maureen Church (University of Calgary).