|
SAN DIEGO, Calif. (July 2, 2008) – Some of the fastest growing jobs in San Diego County include nursing assistants, mental health counselors, mental health social workers and public health educators, according to the Allied Health Workforce Analysis – San Diego Region report released today by the Allied Health Care Workforce Program. However, the 71-page report also describes the significant workforce shortages of minorities in needed areas of health care.
Prepared by the University of California, San Francisco Center for the Health Professions, the report assesses the region’s future health care landscape and its “allied health workforce” – professionals who provide a range of diagnostic, technical, therapeutic direct patient care services and support services.
“This report provides substantiated data that workforce planners, counselors and labor specialists within high schools, hospitals, workforce investment boards, health plans and other key partners can use as a tool for shaping the face of our future health care workforce,” said Susan Chapman, Ph.D., R.N., director, Allied Health Workforce Studies, Center for the Health Professions, University of California, San Francisco. “We have an opportunity to anticipate and properly address our future health outcomes and needs before they become challenges.”
In addition to serving as a resource in guiding the career paths of California’s communities, this report identifies a job sector that requires needed participation of racially and diverse communities. Such participation would build a culturally sensitive workforce – one that is better equipped to understand the needs of a growing and diverse population, and is then able to provide quality health care to them as well as improve their health outcomes.
Nineteen allied health occupations were selected for a detailed analysis ranging from Dental Assistant to Health Care Interpreter. The report includes information on current wage levels and projected occupational employment that can be used to evaluate the relationships among wages, employment opportunities, and demographics of the workforce and population in the region.
Key findings include:
-
Latinos are significantly underrepresented in all but those occupations that require the lowest level of education for entry.
-
Asians represent well over half of the region’s foreign-born health care workforce, and roughly eight out of every 10 Asian health care workers in the regional sample from 2005-2006 were foreign born.
-
African American students are underrepresented in the following programs: Dental Assistant, Dental Hygiene, Registered Nurse Practitioner, Clinical or Counseling Psychology at the doctoral level, master’s level Social Work and Public Health.
-
An estimated 95 percent of the projected population increase of 1.6 million is expected to come from growth in the Latino (75 percent) and Asian (20 percent) populations.
-
Nursing Assistant, Mental Health Counselor, Mental Health Social Worker and Public Health Educator are projected to grow rapidly in San Diego County.
-
Private for-profit schools play a significant role in training the region’s health care support workers. “We hope this data provides the necessary information to support the development of a culturally competent health care workforce in the San Diego region,” said Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California Endowment. “The supply and composition of the health workforce are key ingredients in maintaining and improving the health status of individual patients from diverse communities.”
Referenced in the report, the San Diego Workforce Partnership authored Careers in San Diego’s Healthcare Sector: A Healthy Future, which provides a concise outline of the different career development pathways unique to individual health occupations and is an invaluable tool for strategic workforce planning.
To download the Allied Health Workforce Analysis – San Diego Region report, visit www.calendow.org, or click here. The Allied Health Workforce Analysis is part of a series of regional reports describing the basic components of the allied health care workforce supported by The California Endowment.
The California Endowment was established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment makes grants to organizations and institutions that directly benefit the health and well-being of the people of California. To date, The Endowment has awarded approximately 9,800 grants across California totaling more than $1.8 billion. For more information, visit The Endowment’s Web site at www.calendow.org.
#
|
