-
Rollout of the Oral Health Literacy Toolkit in California: A Mixed-Methods Analysis
01-31-23
Formative assessment of the rollout process of the California Oral Health Literacy (OHL) toolkit uses a mixed-methods approach. The OHL toolkit is an educational resource for dental professionals to improve communication with patients. This study was intended to obtain user feedback and suggestions...
-
Be Kind. Use Systems. Improve Care
01-26-23
Most people’s perspective of health care carries an expectation that patients will be treated with kindness and empathy by health care workers. However as rates of burnout among workers rise, empathy and patience are in shorter supply. What can organizations do to support their staff to deliver...
-
Linking Patient Safety Climate With Missed Nursing Care in Labor and Delivery Units: Findings From the LaborRNs Survey
01-13-23
This study aimed to explore the association of nurses’ perceptions of patient safety climate with missed nursing care in labor and delivery (L&D) units. We recruited nurse respondents via email distribution of an electronic survey between February 2018 and July 2019. Hospitals with L&D...
-
Eliminate the Buprenorphine DEA X Waiver: Justification Using a Policy Analysis Approach
01-09-23
Drug overdoses have reached a historic milestone of over 100,000 deaths in a single year, 75,673 related to opioids. The acceleration in opioid-related deaths coupled with stark health inequities demands a close examination of opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment barriers and swift consideration of...
-
Alzheimer’s Disease Services, Staffing, and Outcomes in Adult Day Health Centers
01-06-23
Increasing rates of Alzheimer disease and related dementia (ADRD) has resulted in greater reliance on adult day health centers (ADHCs) and their skilled workforce. Little is known about staffing in ADHCs that provide ADRD services compared with ADHCs that do not. This study examines whether there...
-
Rural-Urban Prescribing Patterns by Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers in Older Adults with Serious Mental Illness
11-30-22
Older adults with serious mental illness (SMI) often have multiple comorbidities and complex medication schedules. Shortages of behavioral health specialists (BHSs), especially in rural areas, frequently make primary care providers (PCPs) the only clinician managing this complex population. The aim...
-
Understanding California’s Community Health Worker/Promotor Workforce: Four Reports
11-22-22
In California, one of the most culturally diverse states in the country, health care must bridge cultural and linguistic divides to serve all communities equitably. As trusted community members with lived experience, community health workers and promotores (CHW/Ps) have a long history of connecting...
-
Rural Access to Leadership Development in California: Needs and Opportunities
11-18-22
Nationwide experts on rural health assert that leadership training would benefit health and health care in rural communities. Most available leadership development programs for health care leaders in rural and border regions of California are year-long hybrid or virtual only. Existing programs have...
-
Teledentistry Trends in the United States During the COVID-19 Pandemic
10-24-22
This report reviews the use of teledentistry following the COVID-19 pandemic in 4 states—California, Maine, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin—and the supports needed to enhance dental care in a post-COVID-19 world. States were selected for case studies based on the following parameters: existence of...
-
Analysis of US County Characteristics and Clinicians With Waivers to Prescribe Buprenorphine After Changes in Federal Education Requirements
10-21-22
Buprenorphine is associated with decreased mortality from opioid use disorder, but prescribing is limited in office-based settings to clinicians with federal waivers. To expand this workforce, on April 28, 2021, the US federal government eliminated educational requirements for waivers to prescribe...
-
Personal Care Aides: Assessing Self-Care Needs and Worker Shortages in Rural Areas
10-20-22
Previous research has documented shortages of personal care aides who provide Medicaid home and community-based services, but there are few detailed geographic data to determine the areas of greatest need and assess the availability of personal care aides nationwide. Using 2013–17 data from the...
-
Trends in Postgraduate Dental Training in the United States
09-27-22
Objective
This study examines the individual, educational, and policy factors that predict dentists pursuing postgraduate dental (PGD) training.
Methods
Individual dentist records from the 2017 American Dental Association Masterfile were linked with pre-doctoral training attributes and state-level...
-
Practice Patterns of Postgraduate Trained Dentists in the United States
09-27-22
Objective
Postgraduate dental (PGD) primary care training has grown significantly. This study examines the individual, educational, community, and policy factors that predict practice patterns of PGD-trained dentists.
Study design
Individual dentist records from the 2017 American Dental Association...
-
Physician and Nurse Practitioner Teamwork and Job Satisfaction: Gender and Profession
09-08-22
Designing interprofessional primary care teams composed of physicians and nurse practitioners (NPs) is a national priority. We assessed how profession and gender affect teamwork and job satisfaction among primary care physicians and NPs by using survey data from 186 physicians and 398 NPs...
-
Workforce Trends of Underrepresented Minority Nurses in the United States over the Last Decade: Progress Towards Equal Representation?
09-06-22
A healthcare workforce representative of the race/ethnicity composition of the population it serves is central to addressing systemic health inequities. The aim of this study was to assess workforce trends of underrepresented minority (URM) nurses using the National Sample Survey of Registered...
-
Buprenorphine Treatment: Advanced Practice Nurses Add Capacity
09-01-22
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was slower growth in the number of new waivers authorizing clinicians to provide buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder. However, treatment capacity grew at a stable rate as a result of already authorized clinicians obtaining waivers for larger patient...
-
The Future of Behavioral Health - Harnessing the Potential of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners
07-29-22
The toll of mental illness in the US is substantial: 1 in 5 adults live with a mental illness. As the population ages, greater numbers of individuals will need care for the comorbidities associated with older age and their mental health needs. There is a lack of mental health services nationwide,...
-
Perceptions of Workplace Climate and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Within Health Services and Policy Research
07-09-22
To describe the perception of professional climate in health services and policy research (HSPR) and efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the HSPR workforce and workplaces, researchers administered the HSPR Workplace Culture Survey online to health services and policy...
-
Policy Considerations for Routine Screening for Adverse Childhood Events (ACEs)
07-01-22
In October of 2021, California mandated commercial insurance coverage of screening for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) in addition to ACEs screening already covered for the Medi-Cal enrollees. California is the first state to expand ACEs screening coverage, but it is possible other states may...
-
Beyond State Scope of Practice Laws for Advanced Practitioners: Additional Supervision Requirements for Buprenorphine Prescribing
07-01-22
Buprenorphine is a life-saving medication for people with opioid use disorder (OUD). U.S. federal law allows advanced practice clinicians (APCs), such as nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs), to obtain a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine in office-based practices....
-
Slipping through the cracks: Just how underrepresented are minorities within the dental specialties?
06-21-22
There is a lack of diversity in the dental workforce. Efforts to enhance underrepresented minority (URM) recruitment and retention within dental school exist, but little effort has been made to track URM providers through education and practice. This study assesses the status of workforce diversity...
-
Climate Change, Public Health, Health Policy, and Nurses' Training
06-01-22
There are few educational programs in the United States that have a primary focus on preparing nurses to engage in all levels of public health, health policy, and climate change. The United Nations sustainability development goals (SDG) and the Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to...
-
Dominant Power and the Concept of Caste: Implications for Dentistry and Oral Health Inequality
05-27-22
In her 2020 book Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson argues that a caste system not only exists in the US, but also operates as a hidden force affecting social inequality. In this paper, Healthforce Center’s Associate Director for Research Dr. Elizabeth Mertz and colleagues...
-
Class, Employment, and the US Health Care System
05-25-22
In 1970, health care constituted 7% of gross domestic product, but now represents nearly 20%. Conversely, in 1970, manufacturing accounted for 24% of the economy and now represents 11%. Health care recently passed manufacturing as the largest sector in the United States’ economy. It is incumbent on...
-
Changes in U.S. Clinician Waivers to Prescribe Buprenorphine Management for Opioid Use Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic and After Relaxation of Training Requirements
05-12-22
The COVID-19 pandemic worsened the opioid overdose crisis. Buprenorphine management for opioid use disorder (OUD) reduces overdose risk and can be offered in office-based settings or via telehealth. Federal regulations require that clinicians complete training and obtain a waiver from the Drug...
-
Beyond Just a Supplement: Administrators' Visions for the Future of Virtual Primary Care Services
05-01-22
The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented adoption and implementation of virtual primary care services, and little is known about whether and how virtual care services will be provided after the pandemic ends. We aim to identify how administrators at health care organizations perceive the...
-
A Toolkit to Advance Racial Health Equity in Primary Care Improvement
04-21-22
The California Improvement Network (CIN) is focused on effectively integrating equity into health care improvement projects. Informed by its Racial Health Equity Workgroup and developed in partnership with HealthBegins, this practical toolkit is designed to help health care organizations —...
-
More Than Just Giving Them A Piece of Paper: Interviews with Primary Care on Social Needs Referrals to Community-Based Organizations
04-14-22
Primary care practices are responding to calls to incorporate patients' social risk factors, such as housing, food, and economic insecurity, into clinical care. Healthcare likely relies on the expertise and resources of community-based organizations to improve patients' social conditions, yet...
-
Prescribing Patterns in Nursing Home Residents Living with Dementia by Specialty and Provider Type
04-04-22
Objective/Issue
Little is known about the contributions of different provider specialties in prescribing medications for nursing home residents living with dementia. In this study, we examine prescribing patterns for common psychiatric medications and for opioid and non-opioid analgesics in long-...
-
Comparison of Dental Care Visits Before and After Adoption of a Policy to Expand the Dental Workforce in Minnesota
03-18-22
Adding new types of clinicians is often a policy strategy to address clinician shortages and enhance access to health care. In oral health, several states have sought to expand the dental workforce to include dental therapists, which are primary dental care providers who can evaluate and treat...