By Paula Hartman Cohen
Today’s tight economy has eliminated jobs in all sectors, including public and private research. No one is immune to joblessness, even those with advanced degrees and experience. As universities and research centers cut back on staff, this may be a good time to leverage professional training into a field that promises employment opportunities. Right now, that field is health care.
The federal government is making it easier for individuals to be part of a resource pool to care for millions of people newly insured through health care reform.
According to Howard Koh, who serves as the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, “We’re projecting that by 2020, we’ll face a shortage of nearly 100,000 physicians and as many as one million nurses. We’re also facing potential shortages of nearly 250,000 public health professionals by 2020.”
To address this problem, $500 million in funds were allotted though the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to address workforce shortages and grow our health care workforce. Those funds are being distributed through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured, isolated or medically vulnerable, according to Koh.
HRSA offers “a smorgasbord of money, all related to clinical practice,” according to agency spokesperson David Bowman. It provides scholarships and grants, loans, loan payback programs, traineeships, and other opportunities, including funding to promote workforce diversity.
Thanks to the Recovery Act, HRSA now has much more money to distribute. The level of financial assistance available through the Recovery Act should make the transition from one track to another much easier today, than even a year ago.
Minorities, in particular, are sought for clinical practice careers, especially if they are willing to work (for salary) for several years for the National Health Service Corps, which has found it difficult to build diversity, Bowman said. Recovery money is expected to double the size of that longstanding program, adding more jobs and more money to train people to fill posts in remote rural or underserved urban communities.
Officials hope money pumped into the health care infrastructure through the Recovery Act will help close the gap on disparities within the health care workforce.
HRSA Administrator Mary Wakefield said in August, “at a time when African-Americans and Latinos represent more than a quarter of the U.S. population, for example, the fact that they comprise less than 10 percent of the physician workforce nationwide stands out as a crisis within a crisis.”
“Nationally, Latinos are only 3 percent of the active dental workforce. But they provide 40 percent of the care in Spanish-speaking communities.
“My point is that diversity in the health professions is no longer simply a dream deferred. It's an unmet public health imperative. As we look to reform our health care system and our workforce, we have a golden opportunity at long last to do something about this, too.”
When and if a health care reform bill is passed by Congress and signed into law by the president, that workforce will be strengthened with additional funding, Koh predicts:
“Health insurance reform will build upon this foundation by investing and improving upon programs such as the NHSC, which provides scholarships and loan repayments for primary care providers working in underserved areas (including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and others); loan repayment programs to increase the number of nursing faculty, addressing the educational bottleneck that limits the training of much needed nurses; and scholarships, grants, and loan repayment programs for primary care, dentistry, nursing, public health, and mental health.
“The future of our country lies in fostering the next generation of leaders in health care, and we are eager to see our young people dedicate themselves to service to society.”
For more information on funding available from HRSA click here and here.
For more information on the National Health Services Corps, read this fact sheet.
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The HRSA Health Workforce Information Center is a one-stop resource for the latest on health workforce programs and funding sources; workforce data, research and policy; educational opportunities and models; plus news and events. |
written by Jacon, April 12, 2010
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written by KevinSmith, April 26, 2010
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