Trust News

Building Colorado's Health Professions Workforce
Health care providers, educators and experts agree that multiple efforts are needed to shore up Colorado’s lagging supply of nurses, physicians and pharmacists. Several recommended strategies to achieve this goal have emerged through the Health Professions Workforce Roundtable, which The Trust convened in January, and through The Trust’s recently concluded three-year, $10.2 million Health Professions initiative.

Preliminary evaluation findings of the Health Professions initiative indicate that a combination of three components is needed to find a long-term solution to the shortage of health professionals, namely:
1. Creating awareness and readiness among students to generate interest in health careers
2. Supporting and expanding training opportunities
3. Promoting employer efforts and community partnerships to recruit and retain health professionals.

The Trust convened a Health Professions Workforce Roundtable – attended by representatives from state health agencies, community colleges and universities, hospitals, professional organizations, government, health care providers and students – who strongly recommended that a comprehensive, statewide policy agenda is necessary to address the shortage.

The Trust has committed an additional $5.7 million in funding over the next three years to develop and implement strategies tied to these recommendations. Under this funding, the Roundtable participants will reconvene in May to begin the collaborative work of creating a public policy framework. This framework will address key health professions workforce issues and systems improvements, such as loan repayment, primary care Medicaid reimbursement, higher education funding and compensation disparity. The Trust further supports evidence-based approaches to reduce the shortage of providers. Grant programs under this strategy will increase the number of education and training opportunities for students, strengthen the amount of loan support for faculty, and improve the recruitment and retention of providers in rural and medically underserved communities.

For additional information, contact Laurel Petralia, Program Officer, laurel@coloradotrust.org or 303-837-1200.