Professional Education of Health Technicians in Argentina at Tertiary and University Level

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The research of the professional training of health technicians in Argentina is a priority area because of the heterogeneous educational offer that makes entry into the labor market and regulation of exercise more difficult. OBJECTIVE: To analyze the situation and characteristics of professional high education for health technicians in Argentina. METHODS: A descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional study was conducted, with secondary and primary data sources during 2010-2011. RESULTS: The 370 educational institutions included in the survey were concentrated in the Central Region (64%). The training at tertiary level was 87%, mostly privately managed (71.3%). University education depended mostly on public sector (73.9%). Of the 852 careers surveyed, almost 30% were Nursing, Lab 12.4%, Health 11.9%, Radiology 11.6% and Surgical Instrumentation 10.1%. There were 78972 students, most of them in Nursing (39%) and Radiology (12%). CONCLUSIONS: The training offer for health technicians is unequally distributed in Argentina. Structural differences between tertiary institutions and universities make it difficult to move from one subsystem to the other. The complexity of high education system poses different challenges requiring the involvement of both Education and Health ministries for planning and development of these resources at national level.