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.
- There is a shortage of clinicians authorized to prescribe medications to treat opioid use disorder. Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) were allowed to obtain waivers to prescribe buprenorphine beginning in 2016. They investigated the proportions of NPs and PAs with waivers in...
- Introduction Shortages of behavioral health providers, particularly prescribing clinicians, are widespread nationally. Although rapidly increasing numbers of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) could increase access to behavioral health services, state limitations on scope of...
- Background This document summarizes the eighth annual survey of hospital registered nurse (RN) employers. The surveys collect data on demand for RNs, changes that have occurred over time, and information specific to the hiring of newly-graduated nurses. Results The vast majority of hospital chief...
- Projections of future supply and demand for registered nurses (RNs) have been published by the California Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) since 2005. The forecasts are intended to guide educators, employers, and policymakers to take action to ensure that supply is adequate to meet future health...
- Overuse and inappropriate use of emergency departments (EDs) remains an important issue within the US health care system, as an estimated 37% of ED visits involve nonurgent care that could be provided in other care settings such as physician offices and urgent care centers. Inappropriate ED use has...
- In May, 2018, 40 national leaders and experts were convened to make workforce development recommendations that address the needs of persons living with serious illness in community settings. Over the course of two and a half days, attendees offered sixteen broad recommendations that included...
- This document is a guide for primary care organizations and care teams working to integrate substance use disorder (SUD) treatment services. It provides proven strategies, best practices, and tools used by organizations within California to expand the capability of primary care teams in commercial...
- Nurse practitioners (NPs) constitute the largest and fastest growing group of nonphysician primary care clinicians. As the primary care physician (PCP) shortage persists, examination of trends in primary care NP supply, particularly in relation to populations most in need, will inform strategies to...
- Some regions of California face nursing shortages, according to new projections of supply and demand through 2035. The forecasts, which account for population growth, population aging, and anticipated changes in the numbers of new registered nurse (RN) graduates, are the first regional projections...
- Some regions of California face nursing shortages, according to new projections of supply and demand through 2035. The forecasts, which account for population growth, population aging, and anticipated changes in the numbers of new registered nurse (RN) graduates, are the first regional projections...
- A survey of nursing administrators in the US was conducted to solicit opinions about health economics (HE) course competencies for baccalaureate nursing (BSN) programs. The survey was conducted to provide rationale for intensifying educational efforts to increase nurses’ awareness about the value...
- Residents of long-term care (LTC) facilities have a significantly higher risk of poor oral health status compared with those living independently; moreover, the provision of oral health services to LTC residents is often limited. This study identifies and classifies state-level policies and funding...
- The United States will experience significant growth of the population older than age 65 in the coming decades, which will contribute to an increase in the number of people living with chronic and serious illnesses in the community. Field experts, policy makers, and health care leaders have...
- Ensuring that Californians have timely access to substance use disorder (SUD) treatment that is appropriately linked to their physical health care represents a huge challenge and opportunity for health leaders, providers, and care teams throughout the state. This issue of CIN Connections features...
- Objective To compare medication adherence, cost, and utilization in Medicare beneficiaries attributed to nurse practitioners (NP) and primary care physicians (PCP). Data Medicare Part A, B, and D claims and beneficiary summary file data, years 2009‐2013. Study Design We used propensity score‐...
- Physician assistants (PAs) — state-licensed health professionals who practice medicine in collaboration with physicians and other providers — provide high-quality care, and are more likely to work in rural areas and with underserved populations than are physicians. Their training enables them to...
- The purpose of this project is to conduct a two-year formative and summative evaluation of the San Francisco Support at Home program. The Support at Home program provides financial support for the purchase of home care services by adults with disabilities and older adults living in San Francisco....
- Nurse practitioners (NPs) are registered nurses who have completed additional education to prepare them to deliver a broad range of services including the diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses. They are one of four categories of advanced practice registered nurses, with the others...
- Registered apprenticeships (RA) – programs that have formal standards and are regulated by both federal and state agencies – have a long history in the United States. Health care-related RA programs account for a small fraction of overall apprenticeship training activity, but would seem to be a...
- Nurse practitioners are well prepared to help fill care gaps arising from shortages of primary care physicians in California. This article reports findings from a survey of California nurse practitioners that examined their employment and practice barriers. The number of nurse practitioners per...
- In spite of the United States’ racial and ethnic diversity, the health care workforce remains predominately white, particularly in professions that require doctoral degrees. This has a real and negative impact on both patients and health professionals. Diversity in the classroom can translate into...
- The people in California’s communities rely on physicians — primary care providers and specialists alike — to keep them healthy. This report, compiled using data from surveys completed by doctors renewing their medical licenses in 2015, provides a snapshot of who those physicians are, where they...
- California needs a comprehensive strategy for primary care workforce development to alleviate a statewide shortfall of primary care providers that is projected to occur within the next 15 years. According to a report released June 12 by Healthforce Center, this comprehensive strategy should include...
- According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in five adults experience mental illness in a given year; yet our health care system does not have enough behavioral health workers to meet service demands. Psychiatrists, psychologists, advanced practice nurses, therapists and other...
- In 2011, the Institute of Medicine (IOM, now part of the National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine) released a report, “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,” which contained eight recommendations regarding how the nursing workforce can best meet health-care needs in...
- The California Improvement Network’s report, CIN Connections: Healing the Healers, features actionable information to tackle provider burnout and promote well-being at health care organizations. It includes an interview with Mickey Trockel, MD, PhD, from Stanford Medicine WellMD Center, who...
- This study of California nurse practitioners (NPs) and certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) was conducted in early 2017. In November 2016, there were 20,337 NPs living in California, of whom 569 also were CNMs (“dual certified”). Another 582 people had CNM-only certification. Surveys were mailed to 2,...
- This report summarizes the findings from a survey of general acute care hospital employers of registered nurses (RNs) in California conducted in fall 2017. This is the eighth annual survey of hospital RN employers; these surveys provide an opportunity to evaluate overall demand for RNs in the state...
- As the registered nurse (RN) baby boomers retire, there is a need for more highly skilled and experienced nurses in California, according to a new survey published by Healthforce Center at UCSF and the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies. This report summarizes the findings from the eighth...
- This qualitative descriptive study assesses perspectives of US community-based palliative care program leaders on staffing, recruitment, and training. Leaders from academic medical centers, large integrated and community health systems, home health and hospice organizations, and the Veterans...