Colorado Health Professions Workforce Roundtable

Discussion of May 22nd Meeting and Priorities for Primary Care Policy Agenda

Liza — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:05:17 GMT

During the Collaborative's May 22nd meeting, members reviewed and discussed a menu of policy options under consideration for a comprehensive policy agenda to alleviate the primary care provider shortage by 2025. Please review the meeting summary from the 22nd and use this discussion to express your comments, concerns, and suggestions about moving forward with the policy agenda and prioritizing options.

Should there be public policy to support the coordination of clinical placements in Colorado?

Chris — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:19:21 GMT

Many people have identified the need to expand clinical placement opportunities as critical to alleviating Colorado's healthcare professional shortage. One promising approach, based on some limited experience with nursing, would be to coordinate the availability of openings and placements via a central clearinghouse.

Some believe that, because many facilities host placements for many different professions simultaneously, this coordinating function should include multiple health care professionals.

One of the major potential benefits of coordination would be to make the most of the opportunities that are available and to be able to identify where gaps exist.

There are several challenges to coordination including:

* Participation--should licensed facilities be required to participate?

* Multi-disciplinary--is there benefit to having in a centralized place clinical placement opportunities for multiple professions?

* Funding--how could this be sustainably funded over time?

* Organization--what would be the attributes of the entity that would serve as a clearinghouse?

Finally, is this issue of coordinating clinical placements something that could be effectively supported by public policy? For example, would you support a regulation that would require licensed facilities to participate? Or, would you support paying for the coordination via public funds?

Do you think this is an area that is best left addressed by the private sector? If so, how could the private sector address some of the above concerns?

What are additional questions?

--Chris

Advocacy on Health Care Workforce Issues

Chris — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:10:56 GMT

At the July meeting of the Collaborative Sen. Betty Boyd said that advocacy would be needed in order to move many public policy issues important to the healthcare workforce. During the August Meeting, two speakers--Reeves Brown and Gully Stanford--shared their thoughts on advocacy in this context. Use this discussion area to discuss this issue.

Continue the dialogue on health professions workforce issues

Chris — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 20:26:49 GMT

This area is provided to extend the dialogue between meetings and to allow those unable to attend to weigh-in on key issues. You can reply to questions or create your own thread. You will need to sign up for a free account first--see upper right.