GROW: “Growing & Retaining Our Workforce” CPCA Health Professions Education and Training Initiative
Prior to March 2020, California faced a looming shortage of providers, especially in medically underserved regions. According to reports from the HealthForce Center at the University of California San Francisco, only two regions of California have ratios of primary care physicians per population above the minimum ratio recommended by the Council on Graduate Medical Education. In addition, it was estimated that California would have a shortfall of more than 4,100 primary care clinicians and 41% fewer psychiatrists by 2030. The same challenges that existed before – especially those related to the healthcare workforce – are still here. In fact, the need has become even more drastic with a significant increase in demand for care resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Community health centers (CHCs) are at the front lines and committed to caring for their patients. They play a critical role in making sure patients are receiving the appropriate level of care, both for urgent COVID cases and non-COVID routine care. To ensure CHCs continue to respond to both the short and long-term needs, they need to utilize every member of the care team and GROW their workforce.
CPCA is committed to developing a robust and diverse healthcare workforce that is responsive to, and reflective of, California’s diverse communities. For this reason, the Association is enhancing health centers’ capabilities to “grow and retain our workforce” by leading a new HRSA Health Professions Education and Training (HP-ET) Initiative, developing a new HP-ET Workgroup, and growing CPCA’s workforce team.
HP-ET Initiative
CPCA is leading a three-year HP-ET Initiative alongside the Health Resources and Services Administration Bureaus of Health Workforce and Primary Health Care (HRSA BHW and BPHC) and other Primary Care Associations (PCAs). The initiative will enhance health centers’ abilities to recruit, develop, and retain their workforce by exposing health and allied health professions trainees to training programs conducted at health centers.
The first step in the HP-ET initiative is to work with CHCs to maximize CHC participation in the Readiness to Train and Assessment ToolTM (RTATTM). Community Health Center, Inc. (CHC Inc.) developed the tool to measure CHC organizational readiness to engage and implement HPET programs. All CHCs, regardless of the status of their training programs, are strongly encouraged submit at least one RTATTM response by February 2021. CHCs can access the survey and resources by visiting CPCA’s HP-ET Initiative webpage here. CPCA also encourages CHCs to register for our upcoming RTATTM office hours here where we will address RTATTM questions and concerns.
CPCA will use the RTATTM results to provide training and technical assistance (T/TA) to CHCs. The Association’s goal is to work with interested CHCs to build strategic action plans on health professions training.
New HP-ET Workgroup in 2021
Our Association is excited to launch a HP-ET workgroup in 2021 to guide the direction of the HP-ET Initiative direction and increase HPET program development. This workgroup will provide guidance to staff on T/TA development, strategize academic partnerships to recruit and retain students from rural and underserved communities, and identify CHC HPT program barriers. To sign up for this workgroup, please contact Madeline Anderson at manderson@cpca.org.
CPCA Adds New Staff to Lead HP-ET Efforts
CPCA is excited to introduce our new Program Coordinator of Health Professions Education Madeline Anderson! She will help lead our HP-ET initiative efforts by supporting the implementation of programs and projects, which strengthen the capabilities of CHCs to train, recruit, and retain health professionals. Madeline previously led CPCA’s 2020 Census Project and is committed to supporting CHC growth and development.
Please reach out to Madeline at manderson@cpca.org for questions or concerns regarding CPCA’s HP-ET initiative efforts.