Deploying and Managing Health Human Resources

At the heart of the healthcare system is the division of labour between differ- ent health professionals. Indeed, what health professionals can (and cannot) do, to whom, where, and how — that is their scope of practice — form a critical component of the provision of healthcare. The preparation to take on those roles through health professional education programmes and their consequent socialization into their profession while in these programmes add another layer of social dynamics to heath professionals’ scopes of practice. Thus, although the notion of a healthcare division of labour and the articulation between different health professional scopes of practice may be rooted historically in economic concerns, it also entails social and cultural dimensions.