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New research selected by Health Affairs’ Editor in Chief as work that moves the field forward and needs more attention

Personal care aides (PCAs) play a vital role in ensuring that people with disabilities and older adults remain in their homes and communities, but according to recent research by Healthforce Center’s Susan A. Chapman, Laura Wagner, and Timothy Bates, in partnership with Rayna Sage and colleagues at the University of Montana, there is a shortage of these workers throughout the United States, particularly in rural areas.

By Nabiha Siddiqui based on work by Sunita Mutha, Janet Coffman, Susan Chapman, and Rebecca Hargreaves, Healthforce Center at UCSF

Dental therapy is a workforce innovation that appears to improve access to and equity in dental service delivery in the US. This webinar discussed the origins and evolution of this workforce model, the process of authorizing and implementing dental therapy training and practice in states, and the impacts on patients and providers in Minnesota where dental therapists have been established and integrated into clinical teams over the last decade.

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 Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP, Director of Healthforce Center

If 2020 was the year of a collective reckoning on racial injustice across the nation, then 2021 was the year of laser-like focus on how to redouble our efforts to advance equity and become more anti-racist. As Healthforce Center at UCSF will celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2022, we are taking extra time to review where we've been and where we are going.

Reprinted with permission by Monterey County Now.

By Sara Rubin

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.

Healthforce Center at UCSF is excited to announce that Dr. Elizabeth Mertz has been appointed Associate Director of Research to succeed Dr. Joanne Spetz. In this role, Mertz will be responsible for developing new research opportunities and cultivating faculty connections.

“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. 

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.