A Policy Perspective: How NPs Expand Healthcare Access to Rural Areas

Interview with Joanne Spetz by Matt Zbrog. Reprinted with permission from Sechel Ventures.

Approximately 46 million Americans live in rural areas, nearly 15% of the nation’s population. Those rural residents tend to be older and sicker than residents of urban areas, with higher rates of cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and obesity. A lack of reliable health care access exacerbates the problem further.

Announcing Our New Initiative to Strengthen California’s Health Workforce

By Director Sunita Mutha, MD, FACP, and Associate Director of Research Elizabeth Mertz, PhD

 

“We envision a collective effort that prioritizes systems and policy changes to advance the diversity and skills of workers to produce better economic opportunity and, ultimately, better health for communities of color.”

 

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Rural America Faces Major Shortage of Personal Care Aides

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New research selected by Health Affairs’ Editor in Chief as work that moves the field forward and needs more attention

Personal care aides (PCAs) play a vital role in ensuring that people with disabilities and older adults remain in their homes and communities, but according to recent research by Healthforce Center’s Susan A. Chapman, Laura Wagner, and Timothy Bates, in partnership with Rayna Sage and colleagues at the University of Montana, there is a shortage of these workers throughout the United States, particularly in rural areas.

Webinar: Enabling Dental Therapy Practice to Improve Access to Oral Health Services

Dental therapy is a workforce innovation that appears to improve access to and equity in dental service delivery in the US. This webinar discussed the origins and evolution of this workforce model, the process of authorizing and implementing dental therapy training and practice in states, and the impacts on patients and providers in Minnesota where dental therapists have been established and integrated into clinical teams over the last decade.

COVID-19 Is Reshaping California’s Health Workforce

By Avram Goldstein

Evidence is mounting that American health care workers are quitting in large numbers. The health care sector has lost nearly half a million workers (PDF) since February 2020, and new data suggest that during the pandemic 18% of health care workers have quit and 12% have been laid off.