Research into Manpower for Health Service

Manpower has often been said to be the key problem in the expansion of the health services, despite the fact that health manpower resources have expanded extremely rapidly (about four per cent per year in the 1950's, and 2.5 per cent per year so far in the 1960's). Yet, as in all services, manpower remains the crucial resource in health services. How rapidly and how well manpower is developed essentially determines how rapidly health services rise. This paper provides an appraisal of the recent research into manpower for the health services, both to indicate its accomplishments and to suggest the main lines which should be pursued in the future. The key question has always been: How can research on manpower contribute to the expansion and improvement of health services to the nation? Since the number of those who are engaged in health manpower research is quite limited, this paper has been written particularly with the potential, but inexperienced, researcher in this field in mind. The intent has been to make the key issues explicit, to indicate what has been emphasized to date and to point out open research areas where specific efforts are likely to yield significant contributions. At this stage, more rapid progress will be gained from solidly constructed, finely focused efforts rather than from grand designs.