The health care sector, predominantly staffed by women, faces significant gender pay disparities. This inequity not only results in lower lifetime earnings for women but may also discourage them from pursuing advancement in health care careers. However, little is known about how the gender wage gap has changed in the health care workforce over the…
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dynamic effect on the health workforce. Redeployment, furlough, and layoff are among the terms used to describe various work statuses. Some terms are related and overlapping, potentially causing confusion for employees, media, policymakers, and researchers who may be interested in tracking health care employment trends throughout the pandemic. This…
Increasing nursing workforce diversity is essential to quality health care. Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs are a primary path to becoming a registered nurse and an important source of nursing diversity. While public institutions contribute the highest total number of diverse ADN graduates, private for-profit institutions have the highest percentage of non-white graduates. This…
Studies have shown that wage disparities exist across race and ethnicity within selected health care occupations. These wage disparities negatively affect the industry’s ability to recruit and retain a diverse workforce in varying fields. This article aims to determine whether wage disparities by race and ethnicity persist across health care occupations and whether disparities vary across…
Background checks are intended to ensure a quality workforce, but they may also exclude qualified workers. Though these background checks may appear straightforward, they rely on information from a variety of sources, and are governed by a complex regulatory environment. Various laws, industry norms, and court precedents shape what background information is gathered and/or maintained….
Navigators in the federal Insurance Navigator Program provide enrollment assistance, outreach, and education to individuals who are eligible for health insurance coverage. Their work is key to public health efforts to address inequities but continues to be poorly understood and undervalued. This article examines the navigator profession to better understand the equity work they do,…
Implicit bias of healthcare providers often influences patient care. Bias awareness is a key element included in implicit bias education and can help motivate behavior change. This article discusses a study that evaluated whether exposure to a brief online course on implicit bias increased bias awareness for health providers.ArrayArticle Arrayhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10872981.2021.2025307February 9, 2022Array, Array, Array, Array,…
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified long-standing workforce issues and further weakened the financial position of many rural health facilities as they have attempted to mobilize their workforce while struggling to absorb the added costs of patient care and invest in the additional resources needed for pandemic response. The federal government has addressed some of these…
Birth doulas, who support pregnant women during the perinatal period, have positive impacts on pregnancy and birth outcomes, particularly among underserved populations. However, health workforce-related barriers challenge the development of robust doula services in the United States. This article examines various approaches to train, recruit, and employ doulas, as well as what system-level changes are…
The Indian Health Service (IHS) provides federal healthcare that his specific to the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) population. Because the vast majority of AI/ANs do not belong to federally recognized tribes and other factors limiting the accessibility of IHS services, a better understanding of how AI/ANs obtain healthcare outside the IHS is needed. This brief…
