Using Public Data for Regional Health Workforce Planning: A Toolkit
Health workforce planning and development is a collaborative process requiring the engagement of multiple stakeholders with expertise across different domains, including health care systems, health professions training and education, and policymaking. This collaborative process also requires a…
Accelerated Health Professions Education Programs in California
California has a well-documented health workforce shortage, especially in rural areas. Accelerated education programs are one of the many approaches being employed to reduce shortages by shortening the educational pathway and increasing the production of qualified health care providers.This issue…
Relationship Between Safety-net Oral Health Care Practices and Income Among American Indian/Alaska Native, Black, and Hispanic/Latino Dentists
Background. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), Black (B), and Hispanic/Latino (H/L) people are underrepresented in dentistry, yet disproportionately constitute the safety-net dental workforce. We examined the relationship between serving as safety-net providers (SNPs) and self-reported income…
An Unclear Partnership: Key Questions about Physician and Advanced Practice Provider Collaboration in Primary Care
More than 83 million people in the United States live in primary care shortage areas. As the US healthcare system faces a contracting primary care physician workforce, advanced practice providers are playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of primary care services. In parallel,…
2024 Annual Report: Update on California's Physician Workforce
This report provides California policymakers with up-to-date information about the state’s physician workforce and the pipeline of trainees in the state’s medical schools and graduate medical education (GME) programs, often referred to as residency programs. This report focuses on the five…
Cancer Registrar Workload and Staffing Study: Guidelines for Hospitals Cancer Registry Programs
Cancer registrars are vital to cancer surveillance -- the work includes collecting, coding, reporting, and curating national cancer data that are used to create national statistical data about cancer epidemiology and treatment.
However, cancer registrars are often considered a nonrevenue-producing…
Understanding California’s Midwife Workforce
Midwives are licensed clinicians who play a key role in the maternity care workforce. In California, licensed midwives (LMs) and nurse-midwives (NMs) provide comprehensive, person-centered care focused on pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period.
To better understand the midwife workforce…
Health Workforce Research Centers Annual Report, 2024
Important health workforce research that we undertake here is part of a national effort to monitor and plan for the health care needs of US residents. The UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care (UCSF HWRC), housed at Healthforce Center, is a dynamic hub of policy-oriented research…
Association Between Self-Direction and Personal Care Aide Wages
The supply of personal care aides (PCAs), who assist people receiving home care, is a growing concern. PCA shortages result, in part, from the low wages earned by these workers. State policies have had some effect on wages. Self-direction (SD) may be associated with wages because SD allows home…
Policy at Healthforce Design Workshop Pre-work June 2024
As part of our commitment to a process that is community informed, we invited anyone interested in shaping our health workforce policy priorities to participate in design workshops. In August and September, Policy at Healthforce held two online workshops (each with the same content) for people to…
Authorization Status of Dental Therapists by State, 2024
Dental therapists (DTs) are primary dental care practitioners that have been deployed in many countries around the world. There is increasingly strong evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of DTs, including their ability to promote community-based services and enhance oral health equity…
Health Workforce Research Centers Annual Report, 2023
Important health workforce research that we undertake here is part of a national effort to monitor and plan for the health care needs of US residents. The UCSF Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care (UCSF HWRC), housed at Healthforce Center, is a dynamic hub of policy-oriented research…
The Relationship Between Scope of Practice Laws for Task Delegation and Nurse Turnover in Home Health
Nurse turnover can compromise the quality and continuity of home health care. Scope of practice laws, which determine the tasks nurses are allowed to perform and delegate, are an important element of autonomy and vary across states. In this study, researchers used human resource records from a…
Defining a Long-term Care Workforce Shortage Designation: A Conceptual Approach
The aging of the US population is a well-documented phenomenon. In just 7 years, an estimated 73 million Americans will be aged 65 and over, equal to 21% of the population. Aging is associated with increased consumption of health care, and more specifically, long-term care services and supports (…
Characteristics of California’s EMT and Paramedic Workforce
Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics play critical roles in delivering emergency services to Californians. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic employers have reported increased difficulty recruiting and retaining EMTs and paramedics. In light of this situation, there is a…
Paraprofessionals in California’s Behavioral Health Workforce
One in five adults in California had a mental illness in 2018-2019. Some 23.5% of these adults had unmet need for mental health services as did an estimated 64.5% adolescents with major depression.
The shortage of licensed behavioral health professionals, which affects communities throughout…
Building the Future Behavioral Health Workforce: Needs Assessment
The County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California (CBHDA) is developing a 10-year strategic plan for strengthening the county behavioral health safety net workforce to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving safety net delivery system and the people it serves. This workforce encompasses…
Rural-Urban Prescribing Patterns by Primary Care and Behavioral Health Providers in Older Adults with Serious Mental Illness
Older adults with serious mental illness (SMI) often have multiple comorbidities and complex medication schedules. Shortages of behavioral health specialists (BHSs), especially in rural areas, frequently make primary care providers (PCPs) the only clinician managing this complex population. The aim…
Understanding California’s Community Health Worker/Promotor Workforce: Four Reports
In California, one of the most culturally diverse states in the country, health care must bridge cultural and linguistic divides to serve all communities equitably. As trusted community members with lived experience, community health workers and promotores (CHW/Ps) have a long history of connecting…
Analysis of US County Characteristics and Clinicians With Waivers to Prescribe Buprenorphine After Changes in Federal Education Requirements
Buprenorphine is associated with decreased mortality from opioid use disorder, but prescribing is limited in office-based settings to clinicians with federal waivers. To expand this workforce, on April 28, 2021, the US federal government eliminated educational requirements for waivers to prescribe…
Personal Care Aides: Assessing Self-Care Needs and Worker Shortages in Rural Areas
Previous research has documented shortages of personal care aides who provide Medicaid home and community-based services, but there are few detailed geographic data to determine the areas of greatest need and assess the availability of personal care aides nationwide. Using 2013–17 data from the…
Practice Patterns of Postgraduate Trained Dentists in the United States
Objective
Postgraduate dental (PGD) primary care training has grown significantly. This study examines the individual, educational, community, and policy factors that predict practice patterns of PGD-trained dentists.
Study design
Individual dentist records from the 2017 American Dental Association…
Buprenorphine Treatment: Advanced Practice Nurses Add Capacity
During the COVID-19 pandemic, there was slower growth in the number of new waivers authorizing clinicians to provide buprenorphine treatment for opioid use disorder. However, treatment capacity grew at a stable rate as a result of already authorized clinicians obtaining waivers for larger patient…
The Future of Behavioral Health - Harnessing the Potential of Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners
The toll of mental illness in the US is substantial: 1 in 5 adults live with a mental illness. As the population ages, greater numbers of individuals will need care for the comorbidities associated with older age and their mental health needs. There is a lack of mental health services nationwide,…
Class, Employment, and the US Health Care System
In 1970, health care constituted 7% of gross domestic product, but now represents nearly 20%. Conversely, in 1970, manufacturing accounted for 24% of the economy and now represents 11%. Health care recently passed manufacturing as the largest sector in the United States’ economy. It…
Comparison of Dental Care Visits Before and After Adoption of a Policy to Expand the Dental Workforce in Minnesota
Adding new types of clinicians is often a policy strategy to address clinician shortages and enhance access to health care. In oral health, several states have sought to expand the dental workforce to include dental therapists, which are primary dental care providers who can evaluate and treat…
2020-2021 Annual School Report: Data Summary for Pre-Licensure Nursing Programs
The 2020-21 Board of Registered Nursing (BRN) School Survey was based on prior BRN surveys and modified based on recommendations from the Nursing Education & Workforce Advisory Committee (NEWAC), which consists of nursing education and industry stakeholders from across California. The…
Characteristics of Multiple Job Holders in Long-term Care
Issue
Health care workers in long-term care (LTC) settings face concerns related to financial security resulting from low wages, inconsistent hours, and a lack of benefits. These factors contribute to higher rates of LTC workers holding multiple jobs. The COVID-19 pandemic has added a new set of…
Innovation Landscape — Solving Shortages: How Technology Can Help Meet California’s Immediate Health Workforce Needs
The health care safety-net system, a patchwork of programs and providers that serve Californians with low incomes, faces unique challenges in recruiting and maintaining its clinical staff due to workforce shortages and inequitable distribution of health care providers across California.
To address…
Managing the Tension Between Caring and Charting: Labor and Delivery Nurses' Experiences of the Electronic Health Record
Over a decade following the nationwide push to implement electronic health records (EHRs), the focus has shifted to addressing the cognitive burden associated with their use. Labor and delivery nurses may encounter unique challenges when using EHRs because they also interact with an electronic…
