Table 1.

Health workforce classification and definition in China

Category		Definition
Health technicians	Licensed doctors (LD)	Licensed Doctors include doctors with the certificate of medical practitioner and the certificate of assistant medical practitioner who are engaged in medical practice, exclusive of those in the managerial positions.
	Registered nurses (RN)	Registered Nurses are the nurses with a registered nurse license who are engaged in nursing practice, exclusive of the nurses in managerial positions.
	Pharmacist	Pharmacists include all levels of pharmacists from chief pharmacist to assistant pharmacist.
	Technologist	Technologists include medical laboratory technicians and diagnostic imaging technicians of different levels (including chief technologist, associate chief technologist, attending technologist etc.).
	Other medical technical personnel (OMTP)	OMTP includes various interns for medical practice (doctor interns, nurse interns, technologist interns etc.).
Other technical personnel (OTP)		Professionals responsible for technical, research and health education & promotion support.
Administrative personnel (AP)		Professionals responsible for the management duties and daily operation of the hospitals and clinics, including personnel engaged in health care, disease control, medical supervision, medical research and medical education duties Other personnel in party, government, human resources, finance, IT and security affairs.
Logistics technical workers (LTW)		Professionals responsible for repairing and logistic services, including technicians and ordinary workers.
Village doctors & assistants (VDA)		Those doctors who serve in the village clinics with the “village doctor” certification are listed as the village doctors while those serving at the same places without the certification are listed as assistants.