ABSTRACT
This chapter examines prevailing international approaches to the impending crisis and argues that one of the major obstacles to an effective solution lies with the failure of wealthy nations, such as members of the OECD, to develop a better, research-based understanding of, and interventions to address, the exodus of workers from their own health workforces. As significant as training and recruitment of future health workers in obstructing the advancement of its global health workforce strategy, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is institutional organisation and management of the current health workforce. As significantly, to carry out policy formulation related to health workforce reform, policy makers must have the capacity to base policy on a proper understanding of the nature of the problems. It is evident that high-income countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States are not self-sufficient in terms of securing enough health workers to ensure universal healthcare access.
