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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Health workforce supply and demand

Nursing Home Workforce Issues and Inequities
Offers an overview of issues related to the direct care workforce in nursing homes including staffing shortages, recruitment and retention, low wages, job training, interdisciplinary care, and more. Discusses proposed policies offering workforce-related reforms. Discusses rural throughout.
Author(s): Jasmine L. Travers, Rita Choula, Edem Hado
Date: 02/2024
Sponsoring organization: AARP Public Policy Institute
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Bridging The Home-Based Primary Care Gap In Rural Areas
Discusses challenges with offering home-based primary care (HBPC) in rural communities for older adults and people with disabilities, notably workforce shortages, insufficient infrastructure, and funding. Offers HBPC redesign suggestions with these challenges in mind, discussing community health workers, technology and telehealth, leveraging community resources and partnerships, training, scope of practice laws, payment models, and infrastructure investments.
Author(s): Ginny Rogers, Montgomery Smith, Jonathan Gonzalez-Smith, Robert S. Saunders
Citation: Health Affairs Forefront
Date: 02/2024
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Quantifying Arizona's Mental Health Workforce Shortage Using Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) Data, Updated: January 2025
Report describing the shortages of psychiatrist physicians in Arizona. Data include shortages in both tribal nations and at a county-level.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Arizona Center for Rural Health
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2022 Indiana Behavioral Health Workforce Report Series: Behavioral Health And Human Services Professionals
Provides information on the Indiana behavioral health workforce, such as license types, demographics, employment and practice characteristics, populations served and services provided, and more. Includes data on addiction and mental health counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. Appendix provides county-level population to behavioral health workforce ratios.
Author(s): Yan Ge, Sierra Vaughn, Hannah Maxey
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy
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Pennsylvania Hospital Workforce Survey
Examines Pennsylvania hospitals' efforts to recruit and retain talented workers, using data from a survey conducted in October and November 2023. Describes how care is evolving to support providers and patients, examines healthcare professional shortages, and offers strategies to eliminate violence against healthcare professionals. Features statistics on vacancy rates, with breakdown by rural areas.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania
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AACOM 2023-24 Academic Year Graduating Seniors Survey Summary Report
Results of a survey of 4,146 expected 2023 graduates from 34 colleges of osteopathic medicine and branch campuses. Provides statistics and data on medical education debt and scholarships, graduate medical education plans, and percentages of students who plan to practice in rural underserved or shortage areas.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine
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Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce Annual Report: Fiscal Year 2023
Reports on the Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce's activities, funding, and programming for fiscal year 2023, including discussion of loan repayment and grants for medical education. Provides data on schools of medicine, including graduates entering core specialties and graduates practicing in Georgia, and undergraduate medical education. Includes coverage of the Physicians for Rural Areas Assistance Program and the Dentists for Rural Areas Assistance Program, with statistics on the number of participants and the number of counties in which they are serving.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce
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Expanding the Care Team: Leveraging a Broad Workforce to Improve Health Care in Kansas
Discusses challenges facing the healthcare landscape in Kansas, such as hospital closures and healthcare workforce shortages, and how expanding healthcare teams to include professions like community paramedics and community health workers can help alleviate these challenges. Includes data on demographics of the Kansas population and related hospital closures that impact rural areas in particular.
Author(s): Valentina Blanchard, Wyatt J. Beckman, Linda J. Sheppard
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Kansas Health Institute
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Investing in North Carolina's Caregiving Workforce: Recommendations to Strengthen North Carolina's Nursing, Direct Care, and Behavioral Health Workforce
Reports on North Carolina's caregiving workforce, with focus areas in nursing, behavioral health, and direct care. Provides context, describes existing solutions, and makes recommendations for addressing challenges and shortages in each focus area. Highlights state health investment, and lists current caregiving workforce initiatives. Mentions rural communities throughout.
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services
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Legislative Action Bridging Public Health and Clinical Healthcare
Discusses legislation that relates to equitable access to healthcare, with a focus on telehealth, infrastructure, safety net services, management of healthcare costs, and the expansion of the healthcare workforce. Includes information on access to emergency departments in rural areas and the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) designation.
Author(s): Ashley Cram, Brianna Gorman
Date: 01/2024
Sponsoring organization: Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
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