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Advancing Community Health Worker Practice and Utilization: The Focus on Financing
12-01-06
There is a growing interest in the use of community health workers in various roles in the US health care system. These workers go by various titles and names—including promotora and community health advisor—but all assist members of the communities they serve. As the role of these workers becomes...
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Hospital Demand for Licensed Practical Nurses
10-01-06
Despite evidence that hospital use of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) declined in the 1990s, the current registered nurse (RN) shortage has prompted interest in LPNs as substitutes for RNs. Hospitals, being the dominant employer of RNs, have an economic incentive to use less expensive LPNs as...
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Regional Forecasts of the Registered Nurse Workforce in California
08-01-06
In most regions of California, there is now a shortage of registered nurses, and shortages will grow over the next 25 years. This report presents forecasts of supply and demand for RNs in regions of California. A previous report estimated future supply and demand for RNs statewide, finding a...
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The Personal Assistance Workforce: Trends in Supply and Demand
07-01-06
The workforce providing noninstitutional personal assistance and home health services tripled between 1989 and 2004, according to U.S. survey data, growing at a much faster rate than the population needing such services. During the same period, Medicaid spending for such services increased...
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Can the Use of LPNs Alleviate the Nursing Shortage?
07-01-06
LPNs may be able to help fill some of the gaps caused by the nursing shortage, but little research has been conducted on the demographic characteristics of LPNs, their education and scope of practice, and the demand for their services, all of which vary from state to state. In 2002 and 2003, the...
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College Students’ Perceptions of Nursing: A GEE Approach
05-01-06
The nursing shortage has stimulated renewed attention to understanding factors that may enhance the recruitment of students into nursing programs and the retention of registered nurses in the workforce. Many activities have been initiated to address the shortage of nurses, including increasing...
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The Nursing Shortage: Is It Really About Image?
04-01-06
A poor public "image" of the nurse is believed to contribute to nurse shortages. We surveyed more than 3,000 college students in science and math courses in a seven-county region of California's Central Valley to assess their perceptions of a career as a nurse in relation to a career as a physical...
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Do Physicians Always Flee From HMOs? New Results Using Dynamic Panel Estimation Methods
04-01-06
OBJECTIVE: To assess the impact of changes in relative health maintenance organization (HMO) penetration on changes in the physician-to-population ratio in California counties when changes in the economic conditions in California counties relative to the U.S. average are taken into account.
DATA...
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The Need for More Research on Language Barriers in Health Care: A Proposed Research Agenda
03-19-06
Many U.S. residents who speak little English may face language barriers when seeking health care. This article describes what is currently known about language barriers in health care and outlines a research agenda based on mismatches between the current state of knowledge of language barriers and...
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How Can Employment-Based Benefits Help The Nurse Shortage?
02-01-06
During a labor shortage, employment-based benefits can be used to recruit and retain workers. This paper provides data on the availability of benefits to registered nurses (RNs), reports on how health care leaders are approaching the provision of employment-based benefits for nurses, and considers...
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An Aging U.S. Population and the Health Care Workforce: Factors Affecting the Need for Geriatric Care Workers
02-01-06
As the U.S. experiences a rapid aging of the nation's population, with the number of Americans age 65 and over doubling between 2000 and 2030, the demand for long-term care will rise significantly. The nation faces critical shortages in the health care workforce, particularly among direct...
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California’s Minority Majority and the White Face of Nursing
12-11-05
Of the 33 million people in California, the nation's most populous state, minority groups now constitute the majority of the population. Many sources predict that by 2060, the entire country will mirror the diversity of California today. Like the rest of the country, California is experiencing a...
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The Cost and Cost-Effectiveness of Nursing Services in Health Care
11-11-05
This article examines the literature on cost-effectiveness in nursing, and considers the relationship between this literature and decision-making in health care systems. Researchers have attempted to examine costs and benefits of nurse staffing and nursing interventions for decades. There are...
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The Aging of the Nurse Workforce: Recent Trends and Future Challenges. In: Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics Aging Healthcare Workforce Issues
10-06-05
This chapter of the 25th volume of the Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics reviews key issues associated with the aging registered nurse workforce, particularly challenges of ensuring an adequate supply of nurses in the future.
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The Pharmacy Safety Net in California
08-01-05
Driven by the aging population and the efficacy of drug therapy in the management of chronic disease, the increased use of pharmaceutical products has become the fastest growing, most dynamic part of the health care system. This issue brief finds the pharmacy safety net facing a looming crisis. The...
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The Impact of Hospitalists on the Cost and Quality of Inpatient Care in the United States: A Research Synthesis
08-01-05
There is substantial disagreement regarding the impact of hospitalists on costs, quality, and satisfaction with inpatient care. The authors reviewed 21 evaluations of the use of hospitalists in U.S. hospitals. Most evaluations found that patients managed by hospitalists had lower total costs or...
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The Clinical Laboratory Workforce: The Changing Picture of Supply, Demand, Education, and Practice
07-13-05
The objective of the study was to produce a report to inform the health professions educational community, the health care community, and the public about issues related to the clinical laboratory workforce. Research questions addressed the size of the workforce, demographic characteristics, role...
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Wage Increases in the Clinical Laboratory: How Are Workers Faring Against Inflation and in Comparison to Other Health Professions?
07-01-05
High vacancy rates in the clinical laboratory profession have led to the use of wage increases and financial incentives to attract and retain workers. American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) surveys indicate that wages for Medical Technologists and Medical Laboratory Technicians have been...
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Improving Cultural Competence in Children's Healthcare
07-01-05
On any given day American doctors; offices, hospital emergency rooms, and health centers, are alive with the sounds not only of Spanish, but also of Haitian, Creole, Somali, Hmong, Mandarin, Russian, and other languages from across the globe. These languages communicate more than words. They can...
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Forecasts of the Registered Nurse Workforce in California, 2005
06-01-05
In most regions of California, there is now a shortage of registered nurses, and shortages will grow over the next 25 years. This report presents forecasts of supply and demand for RNs in regions of California and finds a current and widening gap between the supply of and demand for RNs through at...
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Bilingual Proficiency among California’s Health Care Professionals
03-01-05
Californians speak a multitude of languages. In 2000, California ranked first in the U.S. in percent of the population speaking English less than “very well”. With 20% of the general population and 25% of school-age children of limited English proficiency, concerns are rising that many Californians...
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Public Health Workforce Study
01-07-05
The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis of the Bureau of Health Professions in the Health Research and Services Administration commissioned the New York Center for Health Workforce Studies at the SUNY School of Public Health to conduct a study of the public health workforce. The study...
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Public Policy and Nurse Staffing: What Approach Is Best?
01-01-05
Advocates have pressed for legislation mandating improvements in nurse staffing for at least a decade. Recent research publications have established a strong link between nurse staffing and the quality of patient care. These studies suggest that legislation that increases nurse staffing has the...
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An Assessment of Critical Issues Facing the Clinical Laboratory Workforce
01-01-05
The National Center for Health Workforce Analysis of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Bureau of Health Professions contracted with the University of California at San Francisco Center for the Health Professions to conduct a study of the clinical laboratory workforce. The...
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California's Minimum Nurse-to-Patient Ratios: The First Few Months
12-01-04
The author examines the history and early implementation of specific minimum nurse-to-patient ratios in all units of acute-care hospitals in California. After reviewing preliminary forecasts of the effects of the ratios, the effects of the regulations in the first few months of their implementation...
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Supply, Demand, and Use of Licensed Practical Nurses
11-06-04
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.
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No Exit: an Evaluation of Measures of Physician Attrition
10-01-04
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....
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Hospital Nurse Wages and Staffing, 1977-2002: Cycles of Shortage and Surplus
09-11-04
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...
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Strategies for Increasing Physician Supply in Medically Underserved Communities in California
09-01-04
Report that summarizes findings from literature on successful strategies for increasing the numbers of physicians practicing in medically underserved areas.
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Hospital Nurse Wages and Staffing, 1977 to 2002: Cycles of Shortage and Surplus
09-01-04
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...