Supporting health care professionals throughout their careers is imperative for maintaining a strong workforce and delivering better health care for patients. But practitioners in various health care fields continue to face challenges in their professional lives that are contributing to stress, burnout, and a decline in overall wellbeing. In many fields, their work has become more complex as they increasingly encounter patients with psychosocial issues outside of their traditional training. At the same time, public expectations have evolved to demand better customer service, transparency, and accountability in health care – leading to rising numbers of complaints in several fields.

In addition to these challenges, labor shortages, which increase the workload of remaining workers in the system, remain a persistent issue that could worsen as a generation of practitioners retires in the coming years. Enabling mobility for health care workers who wish to practice in new jurisdictions could help alleviate these shortages, but applicants continue to face licensing obstacles like long wait times and arduous requirements. These obstacles are particularly acute for internationally trained professionals, who face their own unique challenges integrating into a new health care system.

In response, many governments are working with regulators to eliminate or reduce licensing barriers for domestic as well as internationally trained professionals. But is this the right move? Is it enough? How can regulators best support health care workers in regulatory processes like licensing, complaints and investigations, and professional development as health care continues to evolve and new challenges arise?

Ascend Radio host Paul Leavoy recently sat down with researcher Zubin Austin to discuss these questions and more.

Austin is a professor and Murray Koffler Research Chair at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto (U of T), and at the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. His research focuses on the professional and personal development of the health workforce, with a focus on the successful integration of internationally educated health professionals (especially pharmacists that have been internationally trained) into the Canadian workforce. He is also regularly engaged by health regulatory bodies in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., and Australia to study competency-related issues.

Their conversation delves into topics such as:

• Austin’s research into the use of AI in regulatory decision-making surrounding complaints in nursing and some potential benefits that AI could offer regulators in the future.
• What his study on understanding complaints made to regulators against paramedics and social workers in England revealed about the challenges health care workers face today.
• The tension between the regulatory and the political when it comes to licensing, and why he believes that one-size-fits-all approaches to dismantling licensing barriers can be a disservice to both internationally trained practitioners and the public.
• How kindness can help regulators reduce risk and liability and improve operations.
• The benefits of employing peer-based models in continuous professional development programs, and more.

To learn more about Austin’s work, make sure to check out these resources:

• “Use of Artificial Intelligence in regulatory decision-making,” research by Austin and colleagues that aimed to develop an AI-based tool for improving the consistency and efficiency of decision-making in the nursing complaints process in three jurisdictions in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.
• “Understanding complaints about paramedics: a qualitative exploration in a UK context,” a study by Austin and colleagues that explores the reasons for the disproportionate number of complaints raised against paramedics to the professional regulator.

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