National Center for Health Workforce Analysis

State Responses to Health Worker Shortages: Results of 2002 Survey of States

Currently, health worker shortages across the nation are restricting access to needed health services and may potentially reduce the quality of care.

State governments have been asked and are expected to play a major role in helping to assure an adequate supply of health workers. Most states have established task forces or commissions to assess the problems and to develop recommendations for programs and policies.

The focus of this study was state responses to shortages of non-physicians.

Data were obtained on all 50 states and Puerto Rico. The full report contains a profile of each state's response to health workforce shortages, detailing current initiatives, available web sites describing these initiatives and state contacts, presenting a "snapshot" of state responses to health worker shortages as of mid-2002.

• State Responses to Health Worker Shortages report in printer-friendly pdf
• Executive Summary
• Key Findings
• Discussion
• State by State Details