By Avram Goldstein

Evidence is mounting that American health care workers are quitting in large numbers. The health care sector has lost nearly half a million workers (PDF) since February 2020, and new data suggest that during the pandemic 18% of health care workers have quit and 12% have been laid off.

By Rebecca Wolfson

California will face a significant shortfall of registered nurses over the next five years due to long-term trends that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report by the UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care.

“Whenever somebody says, I think we have a nursing shortage, I think the answer we should all provide to that is, what do you mean by shortage? And where is it happening? It's really almost the beginning of the question, not the answer,” said Dr. Joanne Spetz, associate director of research at Healthforce Center at UCSF, a leading source for actionable research insights into the health care workforce. 

By Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP

One of my passions in my work here at Healthforce Center at UCSF is advancing culturally competent care for all patients. Having served on multiple panels and boards, including the Joint Commission’s Expert Advisory Panel to develop standards for culturally competent care, I believe this is one central solution to dismantling structural racism and achieving health equity.

Story source: CalMatters

By Janet Coffman, Healthforce and Alicia Fernández, Special to CalMatters

COVID-19 has revealed serious flaws in our health system, but none is more distressing than the deep racial and ethnic inequality exposed by the pandemic.

On September 18, Dr. Mitch Katz, President and CEO, NYC Health + Hospitals, shared with California Improvement Network (CIN) partners at the fall CIN partner meeting about his experience leading the largest public health care system in the United States as it became the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020.

By Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP

By Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP, Director of Healthforce Center

By Joanne Spetz, PhD

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our lives in every possible way in a short amount of time. While the spread of COVID-19 and the economic effects of shelter in place have impacted everyone to varying degrees across California, the gaping social disparities underscored by the pandemic make clear that addressing social needs that impact health is more important than ever. What changes are health care providers seeing and how is the role of health care evolving in this context?