Governmental public health has been saddled with underinvestment and stagnant wages, making recruitment into the sector challenging. Although governmental public health pays reasonably well overall, it is also generally viewed as uncompetitive with the healthcare and tech sectors, which often capture recent graduates and recent hires. The growing concern of student loan debt, coupled with…
Workplace violence (WPV) against healthcare workers is a longstanding challenge that impacts the well-being of workers and patients. State legislative efforts to address WPV against healthcare workers have accelerated in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. This article provides a comprehensive review of WPV-related enacted legislation in healthcare settings across all 50 states over…
Disease intervention specialists (DISs) play a crucial role in the public health workforce by conducting essential tasks such as contact tracing, contact interviews, and providing referrals for services to control disease spread. Despite the importance of DISs, research is lacking on the job tasks that they perform and the role that they serve in public…
Public health nurses (PHNs) are one of the largest public health occupation groups, bringing important expertise to the activities of public health; however, their roles and distribution differ across the country. The local-level need for and role of PHNs differ across the United States based on factors such as community characteristics, health needs, and public…
Nursing education programs across the US face persistent challenges in recruiting and retaining qualified faculty. Over half of nursing schools had unfilled full-time positions for 2024–2025, and many cited budget limitations or difficulty finding faculty with needed specialties. Low compensation for nursing educators compared to nurses in clinical practice remains a major barrier, contributing to…
Registered nurses (RNs) are integral to healthcare delivery in the United States, with approximately 4.3 million licensed RNs in 2022, the majority working in hospital settings. However, nearly 10% of RNs are employed in long-term care (LTC) settings such as nursing homes, assisted living communities, and home health agencies. LTC settings are projected to experience…
The shortage of nursing faculty is a key barrier to addressing the broader nursing shortage, as many graduate-prepared nurses lack formal training in education and are often hired based on clinical or research expertise rather than teaching experience. Without structured preparation or mentoring, new faculty frequently struggle to adapt to academic roles and leave at…
By 2050, older adults will outnumber adolescents and young people worldwide, creating significant challenges for health and social care systems. With nearly three-quarters of care for US adults aged 65 and older provided informally by family and friends, unmarried and widowed older adults face heightened risks of unmet needs, hospitalization, and mortality. While neighborhood cohesion…
Nursing homes provide essential 24-hour long-term and rehabilitative care for 1.4 million Americans, but have long faced persistent staffing challenges that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse staffing hours declined sharply in 2020 and 2021, especially among certified nurse aides (CNAs), while contract staffing rose dramatically before stabilizing in 2022. Staffing shortfalls were particularly acute…
Public health nurses (PHNs) are a distinct specialty within the field of nursing and a core occupation within the public health workforce. However, PHNs do not have a distinct Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) code to distinguish them from other nurses. Without a SOC code, federal government data, such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)…
