Increasing access to compassionate, respectful, and caring health workers was one of the transformation agendas of HSTP-I, and the government sought to increase the availability of health workers. In 2018, health worker density was estimated at 1.0 per 1,000 population (considerably lower than the 4.5 per 1000 population standard proposed by WHO to achieve UHC). The inadequate skill mix of health professionals is another issue; there is a relatively high number of nurses but a shortage of medical doctors, midwives, anesthetists, pharmacists, and medical laboratory technologists. To address this, MOH and the MOE have committed to scaling up health professional training in public and private universities and colleges. Key initiatives implemented during   HSTP-I   include upgrading   HEWs and expansion of medical residency (specialization) and nursing specialty training and scale-up midwifery and anesthesia professional training. The Ethiopian Residency Matching Program for 22 medical specialty programs enrolls an average of 1,050 residents per year in 13 public universities; 3,150 residents were in training in 2019. The nursing specialty training program was started with categories for neonatal, emergency and critical care, operating room, pediatric, and surgical nursing.  However, it fell short of meeting the target with only 1,113 enrolled and 771 graduating in 2019 against a target of 11,780 specialty nurses.

Data from Ethiopian health and health-related indicators showed that the number of nurses increased from 2000 to 2020. The density of nurses in 2000 was approximately 0.009 per million people and reached 0002 per million people in 2020. In 2000 there were 0.0068/million extra people for one nurse as compared to 2020. The trend for midwives increased from 2000 up to 2020. In 2000, the density of midwives was 0.0074/1million people whereas, in 2020, it was 0.0054/1million people. In 2000 there were 0.0068/million extra people for midwives as compared to 2020. The number of health officers increased and the density was 0.3 per million people in 2000 and 0.007 per million people. The number of general practitioners did not show improvement in the public health facilities throughout the period. The density was 0.05 per million people in 2000 and 0.08 per million people. The trend analysis also shed the increasing number of other health care professionals, such as pharmacy, laboratory professionals, and environmental health professionals.

Public healthcare workers, especially physicians, are unequally distributed throughout the country (figures for the private sector are lacking but are likely to be even more focused in urban areas). Typically, urban areas are staffed, and certain regions consistently have a chronic shortage of workers.  In particular, Afar suffers from a shortage of all types of health workers, while Oromia has very few doctors per person and Tigray has very few midwives given its population.

• Human resource
• National
• Health profession
• Health profession density
• HEWs
• Midwives
• Medical doctors
• Anesthetists
• Pharmacists
• Medical laboratory technologists

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Data from Ethiopian health and health-related indicators have included the following variables: region, year, types of the health profession, and density of health professions per 100, 000.

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