Browse Research Publications

  • The study examined health career programs for the state’s pipeline of secondary students. It revealed a broad range of program structures, including academy models, Regional Occupational Centers and Programs, magnets and stand-alone health professions high schools. Key barriers to making these...
  • The 2008 Survey of California Registered Nurses is the sixth in a series of surveys designed to describe licensed nurses in California and to examine changes over time. Other studies were completed in 1990, 1993, 1997, 2004, and 2006. Like the 2004 & 2006 surveys, the 2008 survey targeted two...
  • Forecasting the supply and demand of the nursing workforce is crucial to understanding the short and long term needs for nurses in California and for identifying strategies for addressing future shortages. This presentation provides data for the 2009 forecast of the nursing workforce in California.
  • Physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) are increasingly being incorporated into outpatient specialty practices to improve access to care and reduce wait times. PAs and NPs also bolster the quality and financial profitability of specialty practices by allowing physicians to focus...
  • While the number of RN programs as well as graduation numbers have increased, and some regions do not currently in this recession experience a shortage, the overall projected shortage of nurses still looms in the future. Detailed data is presented to the California Healthcare Workforce Policy...
  • An influx of new students in the mental health professions will be needed in order to serve a growing number of Californians. Beyond addressing a shortage of mental health providers, a more diverse mental health workforce is desired in order to better reflect the increasing diversity in California’...
  • The mental health workforce is challenged to provide needed mental health services to a growing and increasingly diverse population in California. By interviewing stakeholders and reviewing key literature this report seeks to assess the supply, demand, education, training, and diversity of...
  •  In 2004, California became the first state to implement minimum-nurse-staffing ratios in acute care hospitals. We examined the wages of registered nurses (RNs) before and after the legislation was enacted. Using four data sets—the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses, the Current Population...
  • In 2004, California began requiring that acute-care hospitals maintain certain minimum ratios between nurses and patients, making it the first state in the nation to do so. However, little is known about what effects the staffing ratios have had, either on the hospitals themselves or the quality of...
  • Purpose–A very limited number of studies have explored factors related to emergency medical services (EMS) workers leaving their jobs and the profession. This paper aims to investigate the correlates of intent to leave EMS jobs and the profession and compared two types of workers: emergency medical...
  • The California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) is interested in knowing more about the movement of nurses into and out of California and commissioned the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) to research behaviors of these nurses. Every month during the six-month study period, the BRN...
  • This report provides an overview of the dental hygiene workforce labor market in California.
  • Registered dental hygienists (RDHs) focus on providing critical preventive and therapeutic dental hygiene services for the population of California. The labor market for dental hygienists is responsive to variations in multiple factors at the local level. This study explores the labor market for...
  • The development of the future oral health care workforce is a central focus of WICHE, which has a long history of partnering with states to improve access to dental and other professional training via the Professional Student Exchange Program. This report highlights some of the key trends, issues,...
  • One of the many challenges facing America’s health care system has been securing sufficient numbers of practitioners to fill jobs and meet patient needs. Allied health professions particularly hard hit in recent years include respiratory care and imaging (or radiologic technology). To better...
  • Objective: To compare alternative measures of nurse staffing and assess the relative strengths and limitations of each measure. Data Sources/Study Setting: Primary and secondary data from 2000 and 2002 on hospital nurse staffing from the American Hospital Association, California Office of Statewide...
  • Most studies of nurse turnover focus on job turnover, which could reflect nurse advancement and thus not be detrimental to the workforce. The authors discuss findings from a study that involved 2 cohorts of graduates from registered nursing and licensed vocational nursing community college programs...
  • Concern over the lack of diversity in California’s RN population has been raised by educators, nursing leadership, private foundations, and policy makers. This issue brief is one in a series of briefs presenting a profile of California’s current and projected population, selected health professions...
  • California has become one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the country, and is projected to become even more so in the coming decades. This issue brief is one in a series of briefs presenting a profile of California’s current and projected population, selected health...
  • For the first time, the Legislature has charged the state’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development with establishing a clearinghouse of data about California’s health care workforce. Such a coordinated effort could mean that policy makers will have good, solid information on which to...
  • The phenomenon of career inactivity in professional nursing has been historically portrayed in the literature as a major cause of disequilibrium in the registered nurse labor market. However, there remains a general lack of understanding of the diverse forces that shape the inactive nurse pool and...
  • The trend of increasing demand for health -- and especially allied health workers -- in CA is projected to continue. This presentation takes a closer look at the data as related to employment, income, and educational opportunities. 
  • California has become one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the country, and is projected to become even more so in the coming decades. This issue brief is one in a series of briefs presenting a profile of California’s current and projected population, selected health...
  • California has become one of the most racially and ethnically diverse states in the country, and is projected to become even more so in the coming decades. This issue brief is one in a series of briefs presenting a profile of California’s current and projected population, selected health...
  • Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics are a critical component of any community’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system. Assuring the continued viability of the prehospital EMS workforce is a key concern for many local, State, Federal, and tribal EMS agencies, as well as national...
  • In recent years, attention has focused on the nursing profession due to a crippling shortage of registered nurses (RNs) that has been reported throughout California, the United States, and in many other countries. California’s nursing shortage is among the most severe in the United States and many...
  • In 1998, California officially recognized a new dental health profession: the Registered Dental Hygienist in Alternative Practice (RDHAP). RDHAPs may practice unsupervised in homes, schools, residential facilities and other institutions, and in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas. Recent...
  • Increasing racial and ethnic diversity in California’s physician workforce is a key component in the ongoing effort to address health disparities associated with race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status. New physician workforce data show that despite decades of efforts to achieve this goal, little...
  • A recent poll by the Field Research Corporation showed that six in ten voters agree that it is important for California to have enough health professionals who reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the patients they serve. This report examines data from the California Medical Board Relicensure...
  • California’s population is among the most racially and ethnically diverse in the U.S. However, policy makers, educators, foundations, and other stakeholders are concerned about how well this diverse population is represented among healthcare practitioners in key health professions and occupations....

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