Black, Hispanic, and American Indian and Alaskan Native populations in the US experience great disparities in both oral health status and access to dental services. Increased diversity in the oral health workforce has been shown to decrease access barriers and oral health disparities and increase health care quality and patient satisfaction, specifically for minority populations….
A diverse oral health workforce is important for providing care to patients of different backgrounds and improving health equity overall. Unfortunately, Blacks and Hispanics are underrepresented in dental education programs and in the larger oral health workforce. This article describes a study that analyzed the demographic data of dental programs and recent graduates and conducted…
Studies have shown that sufficient nurse staffing is essential for the delivery of quality care and safe working conditions that are associated with better patient outcomes. As of 2020, 14 states had legislation to increase nurse staffing in hospitals. The legislation includes 3 main approaches: 1.) mandating minimum nurse staffing ratios in hospitals; 2.) mandating a…
According to the March of Dimes, a “maternity care desert” is “a county in which access to maternity health care services is limited or absent, either through lack of services or barriers to a woman’s ability to access that care.” Counties that are considered “limited access” or “deserts” have either limited or no access to…
Community health centers (CHCs) are the cornerstone of primary care for 29 million people, most of whom are low-income, underserved, and live in rural populations. Until 2016, CHCs reported community health workers (CHWs) as part of their overall enabling services workforce, making it difficult to report CHW use in the annual Uniform Data System (UDS)….
As the COVID-19 pandemic surged throughout the United States, increased demand for health workers led to the implementation of health workforce data and tools to aid planning and response at local, state, and national levels. This article describes the development of 2 estimator tools—the State Hospital Workforce Deficit Estimator and the Contract Tracing Workforce Estimator—designed…
Previous studies of community health centers (CHCs) have found that clinicians supported by the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) provide a similar number of primary care visits per full-time clinician as non-NHSC clinicians, as well as supply additional behavioral health care visits per clinician than non-NHSC clinicians. This article examines the contributions of NHSC and…
Clerical burdens have impacted primary care providers that are already facing changes to the healthcare landscape and workforce shortages. These pressures have negative implications for patient care and result in burnout and job dissatisfaction. Medical scribes have emerged as a solution to reduce clerical tasks and negative perceptions of patient/provider interactions associated with the use…
Many patients without access to private insurance rely on primary care providers who take Medicaid to receive quality, affordable care. However, the number and proportion of primary care providers who take Medicaid varies widely by geographic location. This interactive map allows users to view the number and proportion of primary care providers who take Medicaid…
Social mission efforts in health professions education are helping to better prepare graduates with skills to address societal needs. These efforts are designed to strategically increase health equity and address health disparities. This article provides an overview of the social mission research landscape and discusses critical evidence gaps.ArrayArticle Arrayhttps://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2022/01000/Advancing_Social_Mission_Research__A_Call_to.16.aspxJanuary 1, 2022Array, Array, Array, Array, Array…
