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.
- Objective: To evaluate the effects of different methods of remuneration on the professional behaviour of primary care dentists and associated patient outcomes. Full Publication
- The ability of California Registered Nurses (RNs) to provide culturally competent care to Californians is associated with the language skills and diversity of the RN workforce. Moreover, diversity in the RN profession reflects progress in providing opportunities for young people to obtain...
- More than 8% of employed RNs licensed since 2004 in the United States were educated overseas, yet little is known about the conditions of their recruitment or the impact of that experience on health care practice. This study assessed whether the labor rights of foreign-educated nurses were at risk...
- This report summarizes the findings of a survey conducted in fall 2011 of general acute care hospital employers of registered nurses (RNs) in California. This survey is the second of three annual surveys, with the last survey scheduled for fall 2012. Together, these surveys provide an opportunity...
- OBJECTIVES: To identify the factors and strategies that were associated with successful implementation of hospital-based information technology (IT) systems in US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, and how these might apply to other hospitals. STUDY DESIGN: Qualitative analysis of 118...
- This Brief reviews the main sources of data stakeholders at the national and state level can use to measure education levels among RNs. Each data source is described, with attention to the population of nurses or nursing graduates it represents. Nuances and shortcomings of the data are discussed to...
- This monograph assesses how the Affordable Care Act will influence the demand for health care workers, as well as the nature of care they provide. Full Publication
- Much of the public discussion about health care reform has focused on whether various components of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) are constitutional, and whether the act can be repealed. But an arguably more important question is whether our health care work force is large enough to handle the...
- This paper combines resources from the organization studies and sociology literatures to advance understanding of institutional change processes in health care that emerge from the professionalization projects of occupations. Conceptually, we introduce a model that combines the 'archetype' approach...
- OBJECTIVE: This study compared patient outcomes and staffing in Magnet® and non-Magnet hospitals. BACKGROUND: The pursuit of Magnet designation is a highly regarded program for improving staff and patient outcomes. Research has confirmed that Magnet hospitals provide positive work environments for...
- This survey of nurse practitioners and nurse midwives in California provided information about education, employment, demographics, and the practice of these important advanced practice nurses.
- This survey of clinical nurse specialists in California provided information about education, employment, demographics, and the practice of these important advanced practice nurses.
- New workforce models in dentistry are being explored as potential solutions to improving the dental care delivery system for underserved populations. In 1998, California officially recognized a new dental health profession: the Registered Dental Hygienist in Alternative Practice (RDHAP). RDHAPs...
- This report presents supply and demand forecasts for the Registered Nurse (RN) workforce in California from 2011 through 2030. These new forecasts are based on data from the 2010 California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) Survey of Registered Nurses, the US Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr)...
- This comprehensive report, sponsored by the California Wellness Foundation, explores the current and future capacity of California’s health care workforce to meet the expected increase in demand resulting from expanded insurance coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA)....
- As reported earlier, nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) play a critical role in the delivery of primary care in California, providing the majority of primary care services in over 20% of the state’s community clinics. This follow-up, qualitative research explores how and why...
- Institute of Medicine Report to the US Department of Health and Human Services about the state of oral health in America.
- Efforts to expand access to nursing care and remedy the global nursing shortages are hampered when nurses are unemployed or underemployed. This monograph seeks to fill the gap in understanding on this issue, including nurses who are currently inactive but who might return to nursing work given...
- In 1977, the federal government launched the nation’s largest and most significant program to collect data on the registered nurse (RN) workforce of the United States—the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (NSSRN). This survey is conducted by the U.S. Health Resources and Services...
- This report summarizes the findings of a survey conducted in spring 2011 of general acute care hospital employers of registered nurses (RNs) in California to evaluate the overall demand for RNs in the state. The survey reveals variation in the demand for RNs across California, the lack of positions...
- This report summarizes the findings of a survey conducted in fall 2011 of general acute care hospital employers of registered nurses (RNs) in California. This survey is the second of three annual surveys, with the last survey scheduled for fall 2012. Together, these surveys provide an opportunity...
- Southcentral Foundation (SCF) assumed management of a primary care system with low patient satisfaction and high staff turnover. This led SCF to create extensive employee development programs and to support a human resources policy in which frontline staff, including medical assistants, can work...
- California is the first state to mandate specific nurse-to-patient ratios in general acute care hospitals. These ratios went into effect January 1, 2004 and apply "at all times". Little is known about the changes in staffing that occurred subsequent to the implementation of this legislation. This...
- In the course of rapid expansion, WellMed Medical Group found itself hiring increasing numbers of medical assistants (MAs). However, quality and turnover issues with the existing pool of externally-trained MAs inspired the organization to develop its own medical assistant training school. The...
- The Central Massachusetts Community Health Center Partnership (CMCHCP) is a collaborative effort of employers and training centers intended to address the workforce needs of Worcester area community health centers. The Partnership’s first project focuses on training incumbent and new medical...
- Concern about medication errors inspired Franklin Square Hospital Center to develop a medication safety training program for medical assistants. This initiative empowered medical assistants to think independently, and inspired administrators to offer more standardized training and advancement...
- The biennial California Survey of Registered Nurses provides information about the demographics, education, and employment of registered nurses in the state.
- DFD Russell Medical Centers in rural central Maine involve medical assistants in quality improvement efforts through a) engaging them in small scale testing and refinement of practice improvements (PDSAs), b) providing them with periodic reports on quality measures directly related to their...
- This report summarizes the findings of a survey conducted in fall 2010 of general acute care hospital employers of registered nurses (RNs) in California. This survey was designed to evaluate the overall demand for RNs in the state, and to examine the capacity of acute care hospitals to hire new RN...
- This study assesses whether California’s minimum nurse staffing legislation affected the amount of uncompensated care provided by California hospitals. Using data from California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and InterStudy,...