At Healthforce Center, our research on the health care workforce offers timely analysis and guidance for providers, policymakers and funders in addressing critical delivery and improvement challenges. We have a team of nationally recognized research experts who work to define issues and support health policy change with rigorous analysis, high-quality data and actionable recommendations.
Our expertise covers the entire health workforce — the full range of licensed professions, credentialed occupations, and emerging roles such as community health workers and peer providers, and across all types of settings from acute to long-term care. We specialize in examining evolving trends in care models, care team composition, and promising new models for the delivery of high-quality health care.
Committed to Improving Health Equity
Our commitment to improving health equity and ensuring a diverse health workforce translates into research that emphasizes expanding cultural competence and language concordance, promoting workforce diversity through education and development programs, and evaluating care models that ensure health equity.
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Populations residing in rural America have lower rates of dental care utilization, higher rates of dental caries, less water fluoridation, and fewer dentists per capita when compared to those living in urban environments. Dental workforce shortages in rural communities are endemic, despite the...
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Several trends suggest that the nurse practitioner (NP) workforce has untapped potential to expand healthcare capacity to increase access to care. The aim of this study was to examine NPs as usual source of care providers and investigate their relationship with state scope-of-practice regulations.
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Although there has been significant progress across states to remove or diminish barriers to the exercise of full scope of practice by advanced practice registered nurses (APRN), state regulations continue to unnecessarily restrict APRN practice in most of the United States. This article integrates...
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The objective of this study was to estimate trends in the percentage of Medicare beneficiaries cared for by nurse practitioners from 2012 to 2017, to characterize beneficiaries cared for by nurse practitioners in 2017, and to examine how the percentage of beneficiaries cared for by nurse...
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The objective of this study was to explore how home care workers and the agencies that employ them interact with their state’s nurse practice act in the provision of care. Using a qualitative case study approach, they selected four states with varying levels of restrictiveness in their nurse...
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The delivery of medical care services in US nursing homes (NH) is dependent on a workforce comprised of physicians, nurse practitioners (NP), and physician assistants (PA). Each of these disciplines operate under a unique regulatory framework while adhering to common standards of care. NH provider...
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Suspected opioid overdose deaths are surging during the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing by more than 40% in May and continuing to rise. The short-term emergency authorizations for audio-only buprenorphine treatment during COVID-19 have helped us reach people previously unable to access...
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Patient safety is a global concern, yet little is known about how and whether perceptions of patient safety culture (PSC) vary by nurses' countries of origin and preparation. This is particularly important in American nursing homes (NHs), which are increasingly hiring non-US born and prepared...
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The dental workforce is increasingly gender diverse. This study analyzed gender differences in dental practice using the American Dental Association’s 2010-2016 Masterfile and the 2017 Survey of Dental Practice. Between 2010 and 2016, the proportion of women working in dentistry increased from 24.5...
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This study examines whether a portable, school‐based, preventive oral health program was associated with reduced use of treatment services over time. They obtained encounter data from Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC) in Connecticut that operates such a program. They followed cohorts of children...
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This report presents an overview of California’s veterinarian workforce. The majority of veterinarians care for companion animals (i.e., pets). Others work in settings such as agriculture, research, and public health. As a health sciences discipline with expertise across multiple species and...
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Pharmacists are healthcare professionals who work with patients, physicians and other healthcare providers to ensure that patients receive the safest, most effective and least costly medications. They communicate knowledge about drugs, dispense drugs and manage patients whose chronic conditions...
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Registered nurses (RNs) are the largest group of health care professionals in the United States. They work in a wide range of health care settings and provide a variety of services including acute care, primary care and preventive services. Prospective RNs can complete one of four types of...
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This report presents an overview of California’s allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO) physicians. Allopathic medical schools grant the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, while osteopathic medical schools grant the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree. Graduates earning an MD typically...
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This report presents an overview of current and future supply and demand for California’s public health workforce. Public health professionals perform a wide range of services aimed at creating the conditions in which people can be healthy. Some public health professionals provide services to...
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Optometrists are health care professionals who have earned a Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree. Common tasks performed by optometrists include conducting eye examinations, diagnosing vision problems (such as nearsightedness or farsightedness), addressing binocular vision issues, diagnosing and...
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Dentists are healthcare professionals who diagnose and treat problems related to oral health. Common tasks include repairing or removing damaged teeth, filling cavities, performing root canals, placing sealants or whitening agents on teeth and making models and measurements for dental appliances (e...
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Childhood malnutrition has been a longstanding crisis in Mumbai, India. Despite national IYCF (Infant Young Child Feeding) guidelines to promote best practices for infant/toddler feeding, nearly one-third of children under age five are stunted or underweight. To improve child nutrition,...
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A large body of research has documented a relationship between higher nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and better patient outcomes. To date, most studies have not identified an ‘optimal’ nurse staffing ratio, which creates a challenge for determining appropriate staffing levels. If increasing nurse...
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The nurse practitioner (NP) role has evolved substantially from its origins in primary care, with NPs increasingly being employed in the medical and surgical specialties. Between 2008 and 2016, there was an increase in nurse practitioners in specialty care. This study explores some differences in...