Prior research by the University of Washington Center for Health Workforce Studies’ (UW CHWS) found that supply estimates of health professionals at national and state levels vary across secondary data sets such as the American Community Survey, Current Population Survey, and the Occupational Employment Statistics. Additional UW CHWS analyses found age cohort trends and commuting…
Health workforce research and planning consists of using supply data at multiple levels (ie, national, state, local, etc). Unfortunately, the variation in the allied health workforce means that supply data for these workers is less likely to be easily available. This report compares allied health workforce supply data (including 9 separate occupations) across multiple years…
Medical assistants (MAs) are a flexible and low-cost resource for primary care practices and their roles are swiftly transforming. This article surveyed MAs and family physicians for evidence of role confusion between MAs and physicians, physician resistance to delegate tasks to properly trained MAs, or MA reluctance to pursue training to take on new roles….
Many children in rural areas receive teledentistry consultation before receiving treatment and follow-up care at a specialty dentistry clinic. However, little is known about what factors impact how often these children utilize follow-up oral health services. This article describes a study that examined 144 children living in rural New York who underwent a teledentistry consultation…
Increased training and input from registered nurses is needed to identify appropriate health maintenance tasks to delegate to home care workers and to support development of training strategies. Using a qualitative case study approach, 4 states were selected with varying levels of restrictions in their nurse delegation regulations to conduct interviews. The researchers spoke with…
Hospitals have increasingly relied on nurse assistants to support nurses in the provision of patient care, yet knowledge about their contributions to the patient experience in US hospitals is limited. Although registered nurses are more impactful, nurse assistants are the more underdeployed staffing category. Given their lower labor costs, further employment of nurse assistants may…
Information on the supply of workers in a local job market is important when determining whether there are qualified workers to fill health care jobs in demand. The American Community Survey (ACS), a publicly available annual survey of over 3.5 million households conducted by the US Census Bureau, has been a regular source of information…
More social workers in primary care clinics now work as part of integrated behavioral healthcare (IBH) teams. Understanding how many of these social workers are co-located with primary care physicians is important to ensure that planning and training align with current models of care. This article described a review of the data on social worker…
There are insufficient numbers of practicing geriatricians to meet the current demand for their services, and the shortage is projected to worsen in the coming decades as the number of older Americans rapidly increases. Understanding how to best leverage geriatricians as members of an overall care team is critical. This report is the second component…
Legislators in each state construct policies to define legal scope of practice (SOP) for dental hygienists in their state. These policies create variation in the tasks Dental Hygienists (DH) in different states are legally allowed to perform, which ultimately impacts access to oral healthcare services. The Oral Health Workforce Research Center developed an infographic that…
