Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity

Updated: Medicaid Contraceptive Workforce Tracker now includes 2021 data

Our U.S. Medicaid Contraception Workforce tracker now includes new data from 2021. This tracker identifies providers of 5 types of contraception services to Medicaid recipients & monitors location, clinician specialty, and distribution of this workforce. Check it out: www.gwhwi.org/medicaid-tra...

According to our Health Workforce Diversity Tracker, 64% of the social worker labor force and 70% of licensed practical counselors and marriage and family therapists are white www.gwhwi.org/diversitytra...

We're honored to welcome Dr. Candice Chen, Associate Administrator of HRSA's Bureau of Health Workforce, as a keynote speaker at ACU's 2025 Conference! A renowned public health leader, Dr. Chen oversees BHW's workforce-building initiatives across the U.S.

✅ Register now for #ACUConf: bit.ly/408VR1C

Current Approaches to Addressing Burnout and Moral Injury: Experiences from Community Health Centers. “...employee voice is crucial in addressing burnout, contrasting with wellness approaches that focus solely on individual staff members. Involving staff in decision-making and addressing systemic issues are viewed by participants as essential strategies for mitigating burnout in CHCs.”

Drivers of Burnout and Moral Injury. Societal level: Devaluation of populations served expressed as underfunding of CHCs; Underfunding means staff shortages; Moral injury when they perceive they can’t meet community needs and help make societal improvements. General Health System Level: High workload exacerbated by externally driven administrative burdens related to pre-authorization, billing, quality reporting, and EHRs. Organizational Level Relational distance between leadership and staff: Loss of trust that mission and quality matter more than money; Concern that participation has declined; Concern that survey data may not be used to make changes

Strategies to Mitigate Burnout and Moral Injury. Mission Reinforcements: Mission-focused orientation and training programs; Trauma-informed workplace Collective (in addition to individual) recognition programs; Career advancement programs for low-wage staff. Operational Improvements: 4-day work week; 30-minute appointments; Flexible roles among support staff. Relational Improvements: Culture of patients and staff as “relatives”; Leadership decentralization with new regional leads; Leadership style that empowers staff; Institutional mechanisms to reinforce staff voice; Measurement accompanied by feedback on how surveys led to change

New publication by Patricia Pittman and Samantha Meeker on strategies used by Community Health Centers (CHCs) to address burnout and moral injury among healthcare providers. Read the full article: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
#CommunityHealth #Burnout

Optimizing Medical Assistants’ Role on Primary Care Teams Across New York State - New York Health Foundation Medical Assistants (MAs) are one of the fastest-growing health care professions. They are key members of primary care teams who take medical histories, measure vital signs, prepare patients for exams,...

Upcoming webinar on the role of Medical Assistants (MAs) role in primary care. Join on June 12 from 12-1pm nyhealthfoundation.org/event/optimi... #NewYork #medicalAssistant

In Florida, Black graduates are under-represented among graduates in 9 of 9 medical schools. Hispanic graduates are under-represented in 8 of the 9.

Our report on the Race and Ethnicity of the Florida Health Workforce shows a major gap that needs to be closed among their health professions schools. Learn more socialmission.org/wp-content/u... @gw-workforce.bsky.social #diversity #healthcare #medEd

"There is a deep-rooted problem affecting the mental health of all health care providers." New Health Affairs Forefront article describes the need to tackle burnout and moral injury among our health workforce. www.healthaffairs.org/content/fore...
#burnout #moralInjury #healthcare

Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts - KFF Health News Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vu...

Taxpayers have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.
kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

@aft.org @gwpublichealth.bsky.social @gwnursing.bsky.social @ppittman.bsky.social

Moral Injury Among Nurses Twenty-three stories of moral injury experienced by nurses in the United States. Use the Moral Injury Among Nurses Audio Storybook to learn about their experiences.

This #NationalNursesWeek we salute the power of nurses. In "Moral Injury Among Nurses: Stories of Fractured Hearts & Wounded Souls," listen or read to 23 powerful stories from nurses about their experiences with moral injury in the workplace www.gwhwi.org/moralinjury-...

“You can’t just flip a switch and change the birth rate... The economic requirements — not just for having babies, but for raising babies — last a very long time, and $5,000 doesn’t really go a long way towards supporting that” @jstrasser.bsky.social

Rural Hospitals and Patients Are Disconnected From Modern Care - KFF Health News Technological gaps handicap rural hospitals as billions in federal funding to modernize infrastructure lags. The reliance on outdated technology and piecemeal systems challenge staffs and erode patien...

While a federal $42 billion broadband program faces uncertainty, we visited a rural hospital waiting for a fast-enough connection.

NEW TODAY: Our latest w/ @kffhealthnews.org @investigatetv.com, @caressejbskysocial.bsky.social

kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Rural Hospitals and Patients Are Disconnected From Modern Care - KFF Health News Technological gaps handicap rural hospitals as billions in federal funding to modernize infrastructure lags. The reliance on outdated technology and piecemeal systems challenge staffs and erode patien...

KFF Health News found that counties without fast, reliable internet and with shortages of health care providers are mostly rural. Nearly 60% of them have no hospital, and hospitals closed in nine of the counties in the past two decades. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...

Creating a Physician Assistant Workforce That Represents All Communities   | Milbank Memorial Fund We need a more racially and ethnically diverse PA workforce to reflect the US patient population, But despite the significant increase in the number of PA graduates, there has been a steady decrease i...

Bryant Rucker tells us why having a diverse PA workforce is so important, "Today, I wonder if my family in rural Mississippi would have had better outcomes if they had seen health care providers from their community who looked like us."
@milbankfund.bsky.social
www.milbank.org/2025/04/crea...

Study shows high agency, overtime use increase pressure injury risk The frequency of a pressure injury increases when staffing agency nurses and overtime nurse hours increased at hospitals.

“Both overtime and agency nurse staffing hours have a beneficial effect on patient safety — up until a certain point”

www.mcknights.com/news/study-s...

Hospitals that Rely on Travel Nurses and Overtime Compromise Patient Safety | Milken Institute School of Public Health | The George Washington University Hospitals that Rely on Travel Nurses and Overtime Compromise Patient Safety

“Our study shows that when hospitals over rely on travel nurses or overtime for regular nursing staff, patient safety care may be compromised.”
-Patricia Pittman, lead author of the study & Director of our Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity. publichealth.gwu.edu/hospitals-re...

Hospitals that Rely on Travel Nurses and Overtime Compromise Patient Safety | Milken Institute School of Public Health | The George Washington University Hospitals that Rely on Travel Nurses and Overtime Compromise Patient Safety

🏥 New research shows relationship between use of overtime and travel nurses on patient care.
"Our study shows that when hospitals over rely on travel nurses or overtime for the regular nursing staff, patient safety care may be compromised,”
publichealth.gwu.edu/hospitals-re...
#Hospital #Nurse

This activity has been reviewed by the American Academy of Physician Associates Review Panel and is compliant with AAPA CME Criteria. This activity is designated for 1.5 AAPA Category 1 CME credits. Approval is valid from 3/26/2025 to 3/27/2026. PAs should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation. AAPA reference number: CME-2013364.

🚨This Wednesday🚨 don't miss an important discussion on the challenges and solutions to increasing healthcare workforce diversity. Join 3/26 at 8pm ET & earn up to 1.5 AAPA CME credits. Register here: us02web.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
#PA #HealthEquity @gw-workforce.bsky.social

AJPH American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA)

Despite the challenges, higher education still has a responsibility to broaden access to public health education. Knowing these challenges will help us address them doi.org/10.2105/AJPH... #HigherEd #PublicHealth

Indigenous knowledge should be integrated throughout #MedEd and other health professions education.
Check out "An Introduction to Traditional Healing in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities" www.mededportal.org/doi/10.15766... @aamctoday.bsky.social #IndigenousHealth

Asian American, Native Hawaiian, And Pacific Islander Population Group Representation In The US Health Workforce | Health Affairs Journal Although the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) population encompasses more than 50 ethnicities and 100 languages, it is often treated as a monolith in research and policy. Despite substantial heterogeneity, policy makers and researchers do not usually focus on AANHPI subgroups when discussing underrepresentation and health disparities. We provide insights on the representation of AANHPI populations by disaggregating the AANHPI racial category among the health workforce and examining the representation of AANHPI subgroups in health occupations. These data indicate that although the AANHPI population is well represented as a collective population, there are population groups that are underrepresented, including the other Southeast Asian and NHPI populations in general. There is also considerable underrepresentation of AANHPI populations in the behavioral health workforce. Policy and research addressing underrepresentation and gaps in health care, which usually do not focus on the “Asian” racial population groups, should disaggregate AANHPI population groups.

Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are typically studied & reported as one group.
New research on representation in healthcare shows significant variance between sub-populations, emphasizing the need for disaggregating AANHPI population groups #AANHPI doi.org/10.1377/hlth...

Map of the United States showing density of contraception prescription providers in each county, excluding California, Oregon, and Washington.

New update! Our Prescription Contraceptive Tracker now includes 2023 data. Did you know the total number of prescribers for pill, patch, and/or ring increased from between 2019 and 2023? Learn this and much more at www.gwhwi.org/tracker-cont... #MedSky

Join our team for this internship opportunity. We are looking for a pre-med or current med student for a 10 week part time (10 hours per week) internship to advance social mission with our social mission metrics initiative team. Due february 20. Learn more using link in the post

📢 NEW Internship opportunity! We're looking for a medical trainee with a passion for improving health care and health systems to work part-time supporting our Social Mission Metrics team. The internship is virtual, paid, and lasts 10 weeks. Applications due Feb 20! bit.ly/3Eicu2L #medsky

Medicaid billing for community health worker services growing, but remains low, 2016-2020 Abstract. Despite the recognized value of Community Health Workers (CHWs) in improving health outcomes, the integration of CHWs into Medicaid continues to

Our new #HRSA funded study found that community health workers directly billing Medicaid increased 638% from 2016-2020. By 2020, there were still only 731 CHWs billing Medicaid in the 9 states examined with Ohio accounting for 77.7% of all Medicaid beneficiaries
academic.oup.com/healthaffair...

Top in women’s health: OB/GYN enrollment after Dobbs ; complications among Black infants OB/GYN enrollments in states with abortion bans did not change in the 2 years after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, according to an analysis of Medicare data from July 2017 to June 2024...

"It was the top story in women’s health last week," reports
@gohealio.bsky.social, referring to their article on new research that evaluated changes in the OB/GYN workforce following abortion bans imposed by the Dobbs v Jackson decision healio.com/news/primary... #WomensHealth

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Scaling Contraceptive Access in Primary Care. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. Join the Primary Care Collaborative and Upstream USA for a conversation exploring challenges to providing contraceptive care in a primary care setting – and solutions for overcoming those barriers. ...

Where can patients access prescription contraception? Our Contraception Workforce Tracker allows you to investigate this very question www.gwhwi.org/tracker-cont...

Dive deeper into this topic by joining "Scaling Contraceptive Access in Primary Care" wed. 12/18 us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Lower OBGYN Supply in Abortion Ban States, Despite Minimal State-Level Changes in the 2 Years Post-Dobbs Abstract. Since the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization Supreme Court decision in June 2022, emerging reports suggest that the obstetrician and gy

New research shows no significant change in OBGYNs movement based on state abortion bans since the Dobbs decision and instead shows a longstanding workforce acquisition problem doi.org/10.1093/hasc...
#Workforce