Knowledge and Skills Needed for Future Health Administrators: A Systematic Review.

Background: The educational needs of future health administrators, prioritizing their needs, and developing a relationship between these needs and the needs of the community are very important to provide better responsiveness. We aimed to identify the knowledge and skills required for health care management students as future managers of the health community.

Methods: In this systematic literature review, all studies conducted between 1990 and 2021 were searched in such databases as MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, ProQuest Iran Medex, Magiran and Scientific Information Database (SID), and the collected data were analyzed via the thematic analysis method.

Results: Findings of this study were divided into two main categories and fourteen subcategories, including knowledge-related factors (awareness of the structure and processes in the field of health and knowledge of management science) and skill-related factors (planning, coordination, organization, leadership, control and evaluation, management of financial resources and budgeting, service management, communication and information management, human resource management, implementation of participatory and team activities, crisis management, entrepreneurship, innovation, marketing, policymaking, and decision-making).

Conclusion: By identifying the knowledge and skills that students need, it is possible to empower them through necessary education. Therefore, by providing responsive education, developing skills, and improving capabilities, we can take an effective step to improve the quality of health system services.