184250 A Comprehensive MODEL for Workforce Development in the Health Professions

Tuesday, October 28, 2008: 9:00 AM

Kaia Gallagher, PhD , Center for Research Strategies, Denver, CO
Tanya Beer , The Colorado Trust, Denver, CO
Laurel Petralia , The Colorado Trust, Denver, CO
As a high growth industry, the health care field is expected to increase by 28 percent between 2002 and 2012. Similar growth is projected for Colorado's health care system where the numbers of available health professionals are not expected to be sufficient to meet the growing need. Over the next decade, Colorado will face shortages in physicians, nurses, physical therapists, physician assistants and occupational therapists. Over the past three years, The Colorado Trust's Health Professions Initiative (HPI) has funded 22 grantees to focus on ways in which the supply of health professionals can be increased and sustained throughout the state. Initial data show the preliminary impacts of the Health Professions Initiative to be promising. The 22 HPI grantees have collectively assisted over 1,500 health professional students to advance their training. Over half of these students are from rural underserved areas, and 39 percent intend to return to a rural area to work. The capacity of training programs has increased across 47 professional categories, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists and allied health personnel. In addition, a comprehensive workforce development framework has emerged from the work of the HPI grantees that includes: 1) student level strategies 2) capacity development strategies for health professions training programs and 3) community partnership strategies that provide leadership in recruitment and retention efforts. Building on these findings, ongoing workforce development in Colorado will include ongoing data collection efforts, policymaker summits and coordinated workforce development efforts focusing on improvements both within the state's education and health care sectors.

Learning Objectives:
1. Identify a comprehensive workforce development framework for ensuring an adequate supply of health professions 2. Define evidence-based strategies for recruiting and retaining health professional workers 3. Assess state-level strategies for addressing health professions workforce needs

Keywords: Workforce, Community Health Planning

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the Principal Investigator for the evaluation of The Colorado Trust's Health Professions Initiative for the past five years.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.