Strengthening the Health Workforce
Health care workers play a critical role in helping communities thrive. However, long working hours, potentially hazardous working conditions, and the emotional nature of caring for patients can cause stress and burnout. Changes like medical breakthroughs, shifts in public health approaches, rapid advances in technology, and evolving government policies and reimbursement models are designed to improve health outcomes, but this dynamic environment can further strain individuals in the health care workforce.
AIR joined other organizations this year in a commitment to the long-term well-being of health professionals through the National Academy of Medicine's Change Maker campaign. The campaign aims to advance research and innovation that humanizes health care providers and addresses their well-being as a foundational driver for sustainable solutions.
Strengthening and supporting the health care workforce requires holistic, comprehensive, and sustainable strategies. AIR helps to build a resilient health workforce that can weather current and future challenges. We evaluate policies and programs that promote increased capacity, guide leaders in their strategic planning, and provide technical assistance to workforce development programs.
Our approach is grounded in understanding the specific needs of individuals who make up the health care workforce, as well as how these needs intersect with health care quality and equitable outcomes for both workers and the people they serve. We are committed to authentic community engagement; we strive to co-create evidence and effective solutions with policymakers, practitioners, and community members.
Our multidisciplinary project teams include:
- Mixed methods researchers;
- Workforce experts;
- Epidemiologists;
- Economists;
- Industrial organization experts; and
- Current and former health care clinicians and practitioners.
Explore our key projects below.
Regardless of what job prospects look like across the economy, we know there is always a need for a strong and diverse health workforce. AIR is excited to work with policymakers, providers, educators and trainers, patient advocacy organizations, and others to address these needs while centering equity in health outcomes and quality patient care.
Christina Yancey
Vice President, Workforce Development
Evaluating Programs and Policies That Expand Capacity
Evaluation of the National Mental Health Workforce Accelerator Collaborative
To address disparities in the mental health care system, AIR has partnered with Kaiser Permanente and the National Council for Mental Wellbeing to evaluate the National Mental Health Workforce Accelerator Collaborative.
This project aims to diversify the mental health workforce; promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in mental health degree programs; and increase access to mental health providers in underserved communities.
Impact of Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Area Designation on Provider Supply
Improving primary care access and quality is essential to promoting health equity because primary care is a patient’s entry point to the greater health care system as well as a key component of preventive care. But there is a shortage of primary care physicians working full time which is predicted to grow.
Supported by the AIR Equity Initiative, this project evaluated how primary care Health Professional Shortage Areas (pcHPSAs) designations impacted the supply of health care providers in counties with shortages.
Graduate Nurse Education Demonstration Evaluation
To expand the primary workforce and address barriers in skill-development, the Graduate Nurse Education (GNE) Demonstration expanded clinical training opportunities to increase the number of advanced practice registered nurses.
AIR evaluated the effectiveness of the GNE Demonstration by collecting and analyzing multiple sources of primary data. We reported on the successes and challenges of implementing the GNE Demonstration project and the permanent changes associated with the project related to staffing, processes, and the attitudes of schools of nursing and clinical preceptors.
More diverse health workers who are based in community settings will advance progress toward equitable outcomes for health workers and the populations they serve. AIR stands ready to leverage our equity values, commitment to community engagement, and expertise in policy and delivery systems to advance these dual goals.
Kelly Devers
Vice President
Guiding Leaders in Health Workforce Strategic Planning
The Changing Workforce Task Force
To understand and address health workforce challenges, the American Hospital Association convened the Changing Workforce Task Force to provide input to their board on the future of the health care workforce.
AIR provided thought partnership and facilitation to the task force, made up of 24 hospital and health system executives.
Health Care Talent Task Force
AIR assisted the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania’s Health Care Talent Task Force to identify promising practices and approaches to addressing challenges with recruiting, retaining, and maintaining its members’ health care workforce.
After conducting an environmental scan to produce a series of case studies, we refined the organization’s occupational data analysis to describe workforce challenges faced by hospitals and other providers, and developed recommendations for consideration by the task force.
Facilitating Workforce Development in the Health Care Sector
Tampa Bay Partnership Health Care Collaborative
AIR provided strategic consultation to the Tampa Bay Partnership to launch and implement highly active employer collaboratives focused on pipeline development for health care using the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM®) framework and methodology. Specifically, AIR helped the health care collaborative identify its most critical occupational pain points and establish new business-led programming and approaches to improve the pipeline.
AIR’s input resulted in the expansion of several programs, establishment of new training and education programs, a sustained network of employers, and education and training providers working to grow the regional health care workforce and provide quality jobs to a diverse pipeline of learners and workers.
H-1B One Workforce and Rural Health Care Grant Technical Assistance
Equipping the workforce with the necessary skills for sectors facing shortages is one of many innovations aimed at addressing workforce challenges. One such example is the H-1B (work visa) One Workforce grant, where AIR currently provides programmatic and performance management technical assistance (TA) to help the H-1B One Workforce and H-1B Rural Health Care grantees achieve project success. Our comprehensive TA strategy includes:
- Customized coaching to help grantees problem-solve and refine strategies;
- Peer learning and knowledge sharing opportunities such as monthly grantee peer calls to facilitate real time problem-solving and periodic discussions on promising practices;
- Tools and resources that provide information and templates related to strategy assessment, strategy development, progress tracking, and participant support; and
- Quarterly performance monitoring to identify challenges that TA staff can provide remediation and strategic assistance.
