Healthcare provider education: from institutional boxes to dynamic networks

The world recognizes the need for close collaboration in planning between the healthcare system and the post-secondary education system; this has also been advocated in the lead article. Forums and mechanisms to facilitate this collaboration are being implemented from local to global environments. Beyond the focus on competency gaps, there are important functional co-dependencies between healthcare and post-secondary education, including the need for a more formalized continuous quality improvement approach at the inter-organizational system level. The case for this close and continuous collaborative relationship is based on the following: (1) a close functional relationship, (2) joint responsibility for healthcare provider education, (3) the urgent need to address the workforce and education strategies for almost all healthcare services areas and (4) the factors that characterize successful and sustained quality improvement in complex adaptive systems. A go-forward vision consisting of an integrated web of academic health networks is proposed, each with its particular shared vision and aligned with an overall vision for healthcare in each provincial jurisdiction, as well as with national and global healthcare objectives.