From Rx for the Health Care Workforce: Going Big

Day two at Rx for the Health Care Workforce, and the goal today is to think about the way the 90 leaders here—representing employers, labor, government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sectors—think about scale up and sustainability. In other words, public policy.

The opportunity is great: as yesterday showed, future investments in building a skilled health care workforce can draw on many promising models from the education and workforce development sectors—on the job, in higher education, and in our communities.

At the same time, extending promising models broadly will require unprecedented action. Without strong public action, promising models cannot be implemented on the scale the nation requires in light of the significant challenges our nation faces in the health care workforce. The challenges come from present or expected shortages in key occupations, including primary care and direct care workers; specialists in health information technology; and public health occupations. Equally critical are shortages in the areas of “soft skills,” such as critical thinking, working in teams, and culturally competent care. No less important are barriers—in the workplace, the educational system, and the community—to building a health care workforce pipeline while improving the quality of jobs on the front lines of care.

As the convening closes, the focus, therefore, is on providing policymakers with guidelines for making strategic investments in proven models and implementing them on a large scale. There is movement toward a “call for action” across many constituencies to promote a three-part “health care workforce agenda”: broaden knowledge and deepening commitment among policymakers and funders; strengthen investment; and improve coordination efforts and removing barriers to innovation and scale up. Small solutions will not do.