Arizona Statewide Healthcare Workforce Plan
The healthcare industry is critical to Arizona’s economy, to maintaining its healthy and active workforce, and to caring for its growing population. With an abundance of top hospitals and medical systems, revered academic and training institutions, and a growing medical research and development community, Arizona’s healthcare industry is at the epicenter of innovation and growth. Despite this innovation and growth, Arizona has a critical shortage of healthcare workers, with a projected need of over 132,000 jobs needing to be filled and only 56,800 new healthcare workers projected to fill those roles.
AIR Convenes with the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation
Between March and June of 2024, the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation (the Foundation) engaged with AIR workforce experts to convene statewide healthcare systems, workforce development leaders, nonprofit organizations, education institutions, and government leaders to discuss strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in Arizona’s healthcare workforce ecosystem strategies and to identify key priorities and strategies to address the significant healthcare shortages the state faces.
This series of on-site and virtual convenings culminated in the release of an actionable Arizona Statewide Healthcare Workforce Plan, which highlights important healthcare workforce priorities, provides a series of recommended strategies to achieve success in addressing them, and provides planning resources for continued statewide convenings and collective action.
Strategies in the plan focus on achieving progress toward the following four major priorities:
- Improving talent demand and supply data to support informed decision-making about healthcare workforce solutions.
- Expanding and diversifying the healthcare talent pipeline through a statewide career awareness campaign.
- Increasing availability and flexibility of incentives and funding streams.
- Addressing healthcare educator and preceptor shortages.
About the Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation
The Greater Phoenix Chamber Foundation (the Foundation) convenes and catalyzes business, education, and community to enhance college and career readiness, develop a stronger workforce, and build healthier communities throughout Arizona. The Foundation, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, leads the charitable and education initiatives of the Greater Phoenix Chamber under the four pillars of education, workforce development, wellness, and research. Through strong alignment between education, business, and community, the Foundation prepares individuals for college and career and serves as an intermediary to convey workforce needs and champion scalable workforce solutions. In addition, the Foundation makes Arizona and the Greater Phoenix region known as destinations for healthy talent and healthy communities through workplace wellness efforts and publishes data-driven research to inform policymakers, business leaders, and the general public.
