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Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Health
Resources by Topic: Licensure and certification of health professionals

Washington State's 2019 Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner Workforce
Reports on the existing advanced registered nurse practitioner (ARNP) workforce supply in the state of Washington. Highlights the characteristics, distribution, qualifications, and practice settings of ARNPs using data collected from a 2019 Nursys e-Notify survey conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and from state license renewals.
Additional links: Appendix – Unweighted Response Counts and Percentages for Each Survey Question
Author(s): Benjamin A. Stubbs, Susan M. Skillman
Date: 03/2020
Sponsoring organization: UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
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Washington State's 2019 Registered Nurse Workforce
Reports on the existing registered nurse (RN) workforce supply in the state of Washington. Highlights the characteristics, distribution, qualifications, and practice settings of RNs using data collected from a 2019 Nursys e-Notify survey conducted by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) and from state license renewals.
Additional links: Appendix – Unweighted Response Counts and Percentages for Each Survey Question
Author(s): Benjamin A. Stubbs, Susan M. Skillman
Date: 03/2020
Sponsoring organization: UW Center for Health Workforce Studies
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The Behavioral Health Workforce in Rural America: Developing a National Recruitment Strategy
Describes successful strategies to recruit and retain behavioral health workers in rural areas, based on phone interviews with state-level experts in rural health and behavioral health. Explores financial incentives, education and training programs, telehealth, licensure or scope of practice changes, innovative state approaches, and policy considerations.
Author(s): Nancy Baum, Jaque King
Date: 02/2020
Sponsoring organization: Center for Health and Research Transformation
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Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission Advisory Recommendation No: 2019-2 in the Matter of State, Local Tribal, and Territorial Regulatory and Other Barriers and Incentives to Telemedicine
Examines the technical infrastructure necessary for effective telemedicine delivery in state, territorial, tribal, and local (rural and urban) areas. Discusses the regulatory barriers including legislation, licensing, reimbursement, malpractice insurance, and privacy that obstruct its development and utilization, and offers recommendations addressing these barriers. Appendix A presents case studies of broadband and telehealth development in several states and territories.
Date: 11/2019
Sponsoring organizations: Federal Communications Commission, Intergovernmental Advisory Committee to the Federal Communications Commission
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California's Midwives: How Scope of Practice Laws Impact Care
Compares the scope of practice, professional licensures, regulatory systems, and educational requirements for licensed midwives (LMs) and nurse-midwives (NMs) in California. Appendix provides per capita distribution data for midwives by county within the state.
Author(s): Connie Kwong, Margot Brooks, Kim Q. Dau, Joanne Spetz
Date: 10/2019
Sponsoring organization: Healthforce Center at UCSF
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Telehealth in Rural America
Policy brief focused on telehealth in the rural U.S. Addresses state and national policies related to insurance coverage of telehealth, infrastructure challenges such as broadband access, licensure issues, reimbursement, and other barriers to telehealth access.
Author(s): Windy Alonso, Elizabeth Crouch, Nicole Thorell
Date: 07/2019
Sponsoring organization: National Rural Health Association
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Data Report: 2018 Indiana Physician Assistant Licensure Survey
Provides demographic and practice characteristics of the Indiana physician assistant (PA) workforce as well as supply and distribution information, intended to improve the quality and accessibility to primary care. Features statistics including county-level PA geographic distribution with breakdowns by urban and rural location.
Author(s): Analise Dickinson, Sierra Vaughn, Hannah Maxey
Date: 06/2019
Sponsoring organization: Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy
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Data Report: 2018 Indiana Behavioral Health and Human Services Licensure Survey
Provides workforce demographics and practice characteristics as well as supply and distribution information from 13,031 behavioral therapists and counselors licensed in Indiana. Features statistics on professionals in various specialties, including breakdowns by number of providers delivering telemedicine services.
Author(s): Analise Dickinson, Sierra Vaughn, Hannah Maxey
Date: 03/2019
Sponsoring organization: Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy
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Developing Telemental Health Partnerships Between State Medical Schools and Federally Qualified Health Centers: Navigating the Regulatory Landscape and Policy Recommendations
Provides recommendations for overcoming barriers to promoting telemental health services partnerships between medical schools and health centers. Discusses rural-urban disparities in provision of mental health services, credentialing, remote electronic health records access, insurance issues, and billing.
Author(s): John C. Fortney, Richard C. Veith, Amy M. Bauer, et al.
Citation: Journal of Rural Health, 35(3), 287-297
Date: 10/2018
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Nurse Practitioners: A Solution to America's Primary Care Crisis
Examines trends in supply and demand of nurse practitioners (NPs), including projected supply of physicians and NPs in rural areas. Includes a table listing state-level scope-of-practice regulatory restrictions on NPs as of 2018.
Author(s): Peter Buerhaus
Date: 09/2018
Sponsoring organization: American Enterprise Institute
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