Refugee Health Workforce Answer To Global Skill Shortage

Drive employability of refugees in healthcare across globe. 

The purpose of this project is to develop an opportunity for collaboration between the Andan Foundation, The Humanized Internet (THI) and a group of interested partners to support the professional certification and recognition of refugee caregivers in Jordan. The greater goal is to drive employability of refugees in the healthcare sector on a global level to address the industry’s skill shortages and international migration according to labor market needs. This is to address the ‘crisis in human resources’ in the health sector which has been described as one of the most pressing global health issues of our time.

Today, there are 65.6 million displaced persons worldwide. Of these, 22.5 million have crossed the borders of their countries and are technically designated as ‘refugees’.

The target population group is experienced refugee caregivers holding certificates or degrees in areas such as: aged care, child health, community support workers, practical / enrolled nurses, registered nurses, physical therapists, medical technicians, speech or language therapy, etc.

Refugees who have educational and professional experience in healthcare will be helped to gain social and workplace integration through re-certification of their credentials. The deployment of blockchain technology will enable their professional identities to be digitally stored and used to support their ongoing employability and international mobility.

 Critical, will be that the validation results will be recognized by receiving countries of these individuals as part of the resettlement process therein expediting employment and solving for a caregiver crisis demand.

Never before has a project of International partners - Andan, The Humanized Internet, CGFNS, Nursing leader come together to address the needs of refugee health professional workforce. This initiative involves application of blockchain technology and new methods of restorative credentialing. 

Without adequate and timely intervention in the form of professional credential restoration and professional development, nurses and other healthcare professionals within these displaced populations represent a huge economic and skill set loss.

This technology will allow and facilitate safe access and interaction by a group of validators. Via blockchain, we can create a closed permissioned group where only known entities are allowed to exchange data, e.g. UNHCR – CGFNS – THI - Jordanian Ministry of Health. An individual should be therefore able to store their own skills and certification, which institutions can access to validate certain data.  No plain personal data will be stored, but encrypted variables that can be proven and used by related stakeholders.

1. To establish project team on site

2. To develop IT platform and technology on site

3. Commence data collection through interviewing for restorative credentialling

Ongoing evaluation will occur over the pilot period, once this is analyzed for learnings the plan is to document and develop project plan to gain future funding to take to another geographical area ie Africa.

We will be located in Jordan refugee camp, working closely Jordanian ministry of health, UNHCR  and Al-Albayat University in Jordan.

We are not serving anyone with this service yet. CGFNS is serving over 44 countries around the world with there credentialing evaluation service. We hope to pilot in Jordan.

 THI is working in Germany, Switzerland and Canada

20,000 via professional predictor exam and certificate credentialing using blockchain over first 12-48 months.

Success can be assessed via the quantity of caregivers who have been successfully assessed, re-trained and resettled.

Al Al-Bayat University in Jordan can integrate the blockchain enabled credentialing as part of it Nursing Degree Program to include Jordanian citizens.

Leaders of industry in blockchain technolgy for refugees- THI, Andan foundation- experts in supporting project for refugees and displaced persons. CGFNS international - leaders in credentialling, restorative processes. Dr Frances Hughes- International Nursing and Health leader

All experts in field and all passionate in making a difference to close the gap in caregiver skill shortage across the globe and maintaining professional skills of refugees who are health professionals.

Monique Morrow is President, Co-Founder of THI and was formerly of of Cisco Systems' CTOs.  

We current have a costing model for three years to support 20,000 number of HP through blockchain technology to restore and evaluate credentials. we are seeking support from foundations and agencies to provide additional funding.  The cost model includes:

• Authentication and Verification of the individual applicant’s credentials

• Analysis of the applicant’s credentials to all applicable standards for the profession for comparability analysis (standards to be created during the build phase)

• Creation of a ePortfolio for the individual applicant’s credentials to be archived

• Administration of the Qualifying Exam

• Scoring of the Qualifying Exam

• Individual Applicant Diagnostics of Qualifying Exam Results

• Creating an Advisory Report that details the applicant’s credentials and the comparability of those credentials to an international standard.

• Awarding a Certificate to those who pass the qualifying exam

It is assumed that the documentation that we receive for each applicant will be non-English documents, so we also included estimated upfront costs for translation of documents depending on applicant population.

As a non-profit, we expect the model to scale to the other countries.

Solve is about finding and advancing innovative solutions. This proposal brings technology and innovation to refugee health professionals - front line workers. It will accelerate these HP in camps to regain their professional qualifications  and bring them back to the workforce either in their country of origin or a new country. They will become available to address the global caregiver shortage.  In essence, the proposal returns dignity back to the individual.  It is a win-win solution and MIT SOLVE is providing a platform to execute.

Funding is critical as a launching point though we have met with the partner organisations.