Browse Research Publications

  • This study examines the demand, supply, utilization, and scope of practice of LPNs in the United States. Particular attention is paid to educational issues, career mobility, geographic distribution, and the ability of LPNs to substitute for registered nurses.
  • Objective: To validate physicians' self-reported intentions to leave clinical practice and the American Medical Association (AMA) Masterfile practice status variable as measures of physician attrition, and to determine predictors of intention to leave, and actual departure from, clinical practice....
  • OBJECTIVE: The author reviews the causes of nursing shortages and surpluses and examines data from California hospitals to demonstrate how these cycles are expressed in the demand for and wages of nurses. BACKGROUND: Nursing shortages have been reported cyclically for more than 50 years in the...
  • Report that summarizes findings from literature on successful strategies for increasing the numbers of physicians practicing in medically underserved areas.
  • The author reviews the causes of nursing shortages and surpluses and examines data from California hospitals to demonstrate how these cycles are expressed in the demand for and wages of nurses. Nursing shortages have been reported cyclically for more than 50 years in the United States. There has...
  • This brief provides an overview of an emerging and unique workforce in California. Community health workers (CHWs) and promotores are public health professionals who carry out a variety of health promotion, case management, and service delivery activities at the community level. This profession...
  • The problem of access to dental care services gained national attention following the publication of the first ever Surgeon General’s report on Oral Health. However, dental policies and programs implemented over the past several decades have done little to change the practice patterns of dental...
  • Central to efforts to increase access to dental care has been a focus on the supply, distribution and diversity of a workforce willing and able to provide care for underserved populations. While there are no definitive numbers, between 3 and 9 million Californians are lacking access to care or have...
  • California citizens and lawmakers should be aware of how the state's physicians have responded to the dramatic changes in health care in the United States over the past 25 years. This report presents important new findings about long-range trends in physician supply in California, as well as a...
  • OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to describe the relationship between nurse staffing and owner type or specific corporate owner in California acute care hospitals. BACKGROUND: Little empirical data exist regarding nurse staffing as it relates to owner type or specific corporate owner. With...
  • Medical assistants are multi-skilled health care practitioners who are trained to assist physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners with administrative and/or clinical duties in an ambulatory care setting; they are an integral part of any medical practice. This issue brief provides...
  • This report provides a descriptive overview of the nursing labor market with a focus on the institutions and regulations that affect the labor market. The authors provide in-depth information about the demand for nurses, and explore the types of health care providers that employ nurses and the...
  • EMTs and Paramedics are essential members of the health care workforce. They are an intrinsic part of California's and the nation's emergency medical system. This issue brief examines this workforce in California where the number of EMT’s and Paramedics per capita are below the U.S. average. Lack...
  • The intent of the Caregiver Training Initiative (CTI) was to increase the number of health caregivers in the State of California. This initiative, which is part of the State’s Aging with Dignity Initiative, provided $25 million through competitive grants to twelve Regional Collaboratives statewide...
  • In recent years the U.S. media have been reporting a shortage of registered nurses (RNs). In theory, labor-market shortages are self-correcting; wage increases will bring labor markets into equilibrium, and policy intervention is not necessary. In this paper we develop a simple forecasting model...
  • Part I of the 2002 Wage and Vacancy Study appeared in the September issue of Laboratory Medicine.1 That report focused on the response rates by laboratory type and the wages associated with 12 categories of clinical laboratory staff. The detailed methodology related to the design of the...
  • The diagnostic imaging professions provide vital services in the modern health care system, and as with other types of healthcare workers such as registered nurses and clinical laboratory scientists, there is a current labor shortage within these professions. This issue brief examines this...
  • The 2002 Wage and Vacancy Report will spanned 2 issues of Laboratory Medicine. This issue focuses on the salary data. The October issue will focus on hiring practices and vacancies. Full Publication 
  • PURPOSE: Little is known about whether different types of physician and nonphysician primary care clinicians vary in their propensity to care for underserved populations. The objective of this study was to compare the geographic distribution and patient populations of physician and nonphysician...
  • Respiratory care practitioners (RCPs) comprise a critical sector of the allied health care workforce though the profession is not well understood or highly visible to the public, even though RCPs are very involved with direct patient care. This issue brief examines this workforce in California...
  • The clinical laboratory workforce comprises a critical sector of the healthcare workforce, and as with other types of healthcare workers such as registered nurses and pharmacists, there have been documented shortages of these workers for several years. This issue brief examines this workforce in...
  • With 65,000 practitioners nationwide, chiropractic is the third largest “primary” health profession in the US (behind medicine and dentistry). This issue brief examines the chiropractic workforce in California. Beginning with its history and recent growth, the report looks into supply, demand and...
  • California has a considerable and increasing need for interpretive services in health care. Currently one in every five Californians, over 6 million people, qualify as Limited English Proficient (LEP) and could be expected to benefit directly from improved interpretive services and the attendant...
  • Minimum Staffing Ratios: The California Workforce Initiative Survey
  • The pharmacy technician profession is experiencing rapid change and growth, mirroring changes in the pharmacy profession and in pharmaceutical treatment. This issue brief examines the growth and evolution of this profession as it has emerged over the last 10 years in retail, hospital, and other...
  • Over the past two decades there has been a growing call for parity between mental and physical health care. Mental health services have been stigmatized, provided unsystematically, and they came late to the third party reimbursement process. Today the field is still beset by a vast array of often...
  • Public health nurses (PHNs) make up the largest group of public health workers and are important health care providers for a variety of underserved populations, yet data about PHN demographics and practice are limited. This report provides data on the demographics of the PHN workforce in five...
  • As health care in California continues to experience major changes and challenges, it is important to periodically check the pulse of one key group of participants in this system: the state’s physicians. This report presents the results from the 2001/2002 UCSF California Physician Survey. The...
  • Policy brief summarizing findings from site visits and interviews with heatlh care executives and primary care physicians in six rural communities in California.
  • Legislative calls for new methodologies to identify dentally underserved areas are an acknowledgement of the growing concern that the existing Dental Health Professional Shortage Area (DHPSA) designation criteria are outdated and ineffective. This report explores the history of DHPSAs, critiques...

Pages