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Educational Program Responses to Workforce Challenges

California, along with the rest of the United States, has been experiencing workforce shortages in the respiratory therapy and allied radiology (imaging technology) fields. Analysts speculate that these shortages are a summation of common plights in most of the health care workforce; this includes increased health care demands, the imminent retiring of health professionals, locating competent replacements, and an educational system facing expansion limitations. Projections based on Bureau of Labor Statistic data suggests that shortages are expected to persist in these fields.

Our research team investigated the perspectives of educational leaders in respiratory therapy and imaging technology on workforce supply and demand trends and their institutional initiatives to provide a strong pipeline of students to the workforce. Interview subjects were asked to share information about their program's size, student demographic profiles and past and future efforts in response to market demands in their geographic region. In addition, we asked educators' views on the challenges and limitations encountered in managing their programs as well as a broader assessment on the current issues in their respective fields.

Key findings include: many programs have expanded and are now filled to capacity; imaging technology shortages appear to have subsided somewhat but ongoing respiratory care shortages are reported in many regions; and the biggest challenge to expanding program size was reportedly limited availability of clinical sites for students to complete their training.

To read the full report, please click here.

This study is a project of the Health Workforce Tracking Collaborative, which is funded by The California Wellness Foundation and The California Endowment, and administered at the UCSF Center for the Health Professions.

For more information, please contact Vincent Lok at vlok@thecenter.ucsf.edu or Catherine Dower.