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New office to study health care workforce
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by Ragan Dubose-Morris
South Carolina Area Health Education Consortium (AHEC)
Like many states, South Carolina has a shortage of critical health care
personnel in rural areas of our state, as well as in our hospitals and
inner-city neighborhoods. It is estimated that more than 500,000
citizens do not have a primary care provider in their home community,
almost 1 million do not have local dental care, and 1.5 million do not
have access to mental health care providers. (These figures are based
on Health Research and Services Administration estimates of the
underserved population in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas
in South Carolina as of Sept. 9.)
In order to meet citizen's needs, South Carolina requires an additional
259 primary care providers, 289 dental care providers, and 140 mental
health providers. Additionally, while the recent economic recession has
eased the nursing shortage temporarily, it has been estimated the state
will have only 68 percent of the registered nurse (RN) workforce needed
in 2020—a shortage of more than 12,000 RNs (National Center for Health
Workforce Analysis, Bureau of Health Professions, Health Resources and
Services Administration, 2004)—unless nursing programs are greatly
expanded. Yet, there is not currently enough nurse faculty in South
Carolina to allow such expansion to take place.
Founded with a four-year, $2.1 million start-up grant from The Duke
Endowment, the Office of Healthcare Workforce Analysis and Planning
(OHWAP) is housed in the South Carolina AHEC at MUSC. The winning grant
proposal was a collaborative effort between South Carolina AHEC, the
Center for Nursing Leadership at the University of South Carolina (USC)
College of Nursing, and the South Carolina Budget and Control Board’s
Office of Research and Statistics.
The grant will support the new Office of Healthcare Workforce Research
for Nursing within USC. This entity will focus on profiling the current
workforce; developing future supply and demand projections for nurses;
studying the state’s nursing education pipeline by monitoring trends in
the number of students admitted, enrolled, graduating and remaining in
active practice within the state; and developing estimates of changes
needed in the South Carolina educational system to address the expected
demand for nurses.
OHWAP will oversee and coordinate the work of the USC Office of
Healthcare Workforce Research for Nursing with the other study groups
that will be assembled around health care workforce issues facing our
state.
The work of all these groups will draw heavily on health care
information compiled through the years by the S.C. Office of Research
and Statistics to improve our understanding of the dynamics in the
health care workforce in South Carolina.
Linda M. Lacey, a veteran workforce analyst who has helped several
states establish similar offices, assumed the role of OHWAP director.
The reports and publications generated by OHWAP will provide
legislators, education administrators, health care educators, and
hospital admini-strators with detailed and current information needed
to make informed policy and planning decisions regarding health care
workforce issues.
South Carolina AHEC exists to help improve the health of South
Carolina’s citizens. Established in 1972, South Carolina AHEC is the
only organization in South Carolina that addresses health care
workforce needs starting at the level of elementary school education
and extending to practicing health care professionals throughout the
state. The success of the South Carolina AHEC is due to the excellent
partnerships that have been built with South Carolina’s colleges,
universities, teaching hospitals and communities.
Friday, Sept. 25, 2009
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