Pandemic influenza: Competency-based health human resources planning for teams

The study proposes an innovative competency-based approach to employ existing health care staff during a surge such as pandemic influenza, optimizing already limited health human resources (HHR) stretched even further in surge conditions. This applied approach is based on the health needs of people, is pragmatic and offers a flexible, practical tool for planners to use to plan for health services across sectors (acute, long term care, community, etc.) and to identify the appropriate composition of health care teams based on members unique competencies. Consistent with CIHR's Listening For Direction (LFD) III (2007), the research proposed here will investigate the barriers and opportunities related to a competency-based approach to HHR and the changing scope of practice of health care providers required to align HHR planning with the health needs of populations.