news & events archives, 2005
(2004)

Conference: AcademyHealth 2005 Annual Research Meeting, June 26-28, 2005, Boston

Conference: AAMC Physician Workforce Conference 2005, May 5-6, 2005, Washington D.C.

Three New Southeast Regional Center Projects
We have added three new projects starting in 2005. They include "Service-Requiring Scholarships and Loan Repayment for Nurses in the Southeast," "Population Characteristics and Nursing Employment Patterns," and "Allied Health Needs Assessment: Lessons Learned." Click here to read more details about these projects.

Second Meeting of the Advisory Group for the Dental Health Professions Shortage Area Designation Project
An Advisory Group met for the second time March 9th, 2005 in Baltimore, Maryland to discuss advances made in a project to develop a methodology to designate Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA). The advisory group met first on February 6, 2004 in Washington, DC to review key issues and provide comment on the direction of the research team in the development of the methodology. For more information on this project, issue papers, and summary of meetings, click here.

Report on Public Health Workforce Shortages
An online report by Melissa Taylor Bell and Irakli Khodeli of the Council of State Governments summarizes the results of a 2003 survey of human resource directors in offices of state public health. The report is divided into 3 sections: Section 1 focuses on public health workforce issues identified in the survey, Section 2 examines public health professions that are most critically affected by workforce shortages, and Section 3 summarizes various approaches states are taking to address the workforce shortages.

Of the 38 states profiled in an appendix, seven Southeastern states are featured - Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. Approaches used in the Southeastern US to address these shortages include paid internships between state health departments and schools of public health, strengthening skills of public health professionals, offering salary increases and other economic incentives, offering career progression opportunities, and providing service-requiring loan-repayment and scholarship programs. Click here to go to CSG's product page and click on "trends alert" to read more details.

Report on the Public Health Workforce in North Carolina
A recent report from the North Carolina Center for Public Health Preparedness that profiles the North Carolina public health workforce is now available online. This report, completed in October, 2004, is based on findings from a baseline assessment of self-identified training needs for public health workers in core public health and emergency preparedness. Information includes demographic details about the composition of the workforce and prioritizes training needs for public health workers into 12 major occupational classifications. The workforce development training needs assessment was implemented to improve the capacity of the public health workforce to prepare for and respond to bioterrorism and other emerging public health threats. The assessment was possible through a collaboration among the North Carolina Division of Public Health, the NC Institute for Public Health, the UNC School of Public Health, and local health departments across the state. To see the report and other information from the assessment, click here.

Re-Introduced Legislation to Increase Public Health Workforce
On March 3, 2005, U.S. Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) re-introduced The Public Health Preparedness Workforce Development Act. According to Senator Hagel’s office, this legislation aims to increase the pipeline of qualified public health workers at the federal, state, local and tribal levels by offering scholarships to students going into the public health field. It also encourages current employees to stay in the public health field by providing loan repayments in exchange for a commitment of a designated number of years of service in public health. Click here to read more.

Association of Academic Health Centers Awarded Macy Foundation Grant for Health Workforce Initiative
The Association of Academic Health Centers (AHC) received a three-year Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation $520,000 award to "examine the causes, manifestations, and implications of the current health professions workforce crisis," according to a US Newswire release dated February 9th of this year. Click here to read more about the specific issues this initiative will address.

Seminar on Mississippi Physician Workforce Jeralynn Cossman, PhD of the Mississippi Health Policy Research Center presented on the Mississippi physician supply on January 31, 2005 at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research in Chapel Hill, NC. Dr. Cossman is a research fellow investigating issues related to health assessment, prevention, and social epidemiology. She presented her research on physician workforce trends in the state of Mississippi, particularly as related to the recent medical malpractice climate. Click here to read more about Dr. Cossman’s work.

Article: American Journal of Public Health, January 2005
"Workforce Issues in Rural Areas: A Focus on Policy Equity"
Synopsis: This recent article by Dr. Thomas C. Ricketts examines trends in the distribution of health care professionals in rural versus urban/suburban areas and characterizes the multiple government and private policies and programs intended to affect their geographic distribution. Dr. Ricketts classifies these programs into 3 categories - coercive, normative and utilitarian. Coercive programs require health care professionals to work in underserved communities or populations. Normative programs match health care professionals with the underserved communities or populations, while utilitarian programs support practice elements for practitioners within particular market structures. He concludes that health workforce policies should be normative to ensure equity for rural communities, but goals in this area can be achieved only through a balance of utilitarian and coercive mechanisms.

Reference: Ricketts, TC. 2005. Workforce Issues in Rural Areas: A Focus on Policy Equity. American Journal of Public Health 95 (1): 42-48.