Health Workforce Strategies in Response to Major Health Events: A Rapid Scoping Review with Lessons Learned for the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic brought multiple concurrent threats – high patient volume and acuity and, simultaneously, increased risk to health workers.  Healthcare managers and decision-makers needed to identify strategies to mitigate these adverse conditions. This paper reports on the health workforce strategies implemented in relation to past large-scale emergencies (including natural disasters, extreme weather …