Cancer Screening ProgrammesWorkforce Development Strategy 2001-2006 (Draft)
Prepared on behalf of the National Screening Unit, Ministry of Health
Published in November 2001 by the
Ministry of Health
PO Box 5013, Wellington, New Zealand
ISBN 0-478-26237-X (Book)
ISBN 0-478-26236-1 (Internet)
Introduction
New Zealand operates two cancer screening programmes for women: the National Cervical Screening Programme (NCSP) and BreastScreen Aotearoa (BSA). Like many other health services in New Zealand, both programmes are facing current and future workforce issues. These include recruitment and retention problems, sustainability, and a lack of appropriate education, training and continuing professional development opportunities for some roles.
This draft screening workforce strategy identifies ways the Ministry of Health’s National Screening Unit (NSU), along with key sector stakeholders, can begin to address issues facing the cancer screening programmes over a five-year period. The current NCSP and BSA policy and quality standards provide a foundation on which the programmes and their workforce are to be measured.
The general approach involves analysing the major issues for each of the workforces engaged in the cancer screening pathway, and then proposing initiatives that address the fundamental problems. For instance, in some professions tertiary study numbers are limited by the availability of clinical placements; in others, the only way to gain further screening expertise is by travelling overseas. By implementing a co-ordinated workforce strategy, the sector will be able to make better use of limited resources and enhance New Zealand’s own workforce capacity.
The proposed framework involves intervening at six levels:
| 1 | the screening sector leaders |
| 2 | the screening workforce |
| 3 | the potential screening workforce |
| 4 | tertiary students |
| 5 | secondary students |
| 6 | the public. |
It is important that the workforce reflects the population of women for whom the screening programme is intended, and therefore special efforts must be directed toward Mäori, Pacific and other cultural workforce developments.
The NSU has proposed a high-level vision to guide its own and the sector’s efforts in relation to the screening workforce:
| Towards a high quality, sustainable, culturally competent cancer screening workforce, that operates within public health and well-women’s perspectives, to deliver world class cervical and breast cancer screening services for women in New Zealand. |
The draft strategy includes almost 100 initiatives, about half of which relate to both programmes, with the remainder shared between the NCSP and BSA. The initiatives are organised according to the following objectives:
| 1 | to promote a well-women cancer screening focus
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| 2 | to better meet the needs of Mäori women
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| 3 | to better meet the needs of Pacific women
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| 4 | to ensure laboratories have adequate numbers of competent staff and associated systems to meet the programme quality standards
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| 5 | to ensure radiological services have adequate numbers of competent staff and associated systems to meet breast screening quality standards
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| 6 | to encourage providers, colleges and professional bodies to improve their capacity to manage workforce issues
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| 7 | to influence Ministry of Education-funded courses
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| 8 | to influence Clinical Training Agency purchases
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| 9 | to improve specification, collection and analysis of information relating to the cancer screening workforce
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| 10 | to specify and develop the NSU’s role in cancer screening workforce issues. |
While many in the sector have been involved in the development of this draft strategy, it is important that it be released for comment prior to final consideration by the NSU early in 2002. The initiatives adopted will be further developed for implementation, and any necessary funding sought in the budget bid process.
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