Feds grant $100 million to grow healthcare workforce
The awards, HRSA says, will expand the number of nurses and primary care physicians while increasing behavioral health support.
Photo: Emir Memedovski/Getty Images
The Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, has announced nearly $100 million in awards to grow the national healthcare workforce and improve access in high-need areas.
The announcement was made in conjunction with an HHS Health Workforce Roundtable convened as part of HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra's Health Workforce Initiative.
Launched last year, the initiative is intended to ensure a ready supply of healthcare workers in the U.S., and to invest in recruiting, training and support.
WHAT'S THE IMPACT?
The awards, HRSA said, will enhance and expand the number of nurses and primary care physicians, while increasing behavioral health support by growing the community-based workforce.
HRSA is awarding more than $19 million over four years to five schools, including two community colleges, in order to increase the nursing workforce practicing in acute care settings and long-term care facilities.
It's also providing nearly $12 million in 2024 to three medical schools to help boost the number of primary care physicians in medically underserved rural and tribal communities.
In response to the nation's ongoing opioid crisis, the agency said it was earmarking more than $63 million over four years to 32 organizations to train and increase the number of peer support specialists and other community-based providers, such as community health workers, to provide mental health services and family support to children whose parents or guardians are impacted by opioid use disorders and other substance use disorders.
In addition, HRSA is providing $4.6 million to existing grantees to expand their efforts to provide pediatricians mental health training, and to support pediatricians in conducting teleconsultations with psychiatrists to provide real-time behavioral health support to their child and adolescent patients.
A full list of awards can be seen here.
THE LARGER TREND
Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a pair of bills in July, both aimed at curbing the nursing shortage that many nurses across the country say is getting worse.
The newest bill, introduced by Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), would address the nationwide nursing shortage by making visas available to foreign nurses working in areas where HRSA has determined there is a nursing workforce shortage.
Specifically, the NURSE Visa Act would create 20,000 nonimmigrant visas per fiscal year to employ nurses in areas where the HRSA has determined there is a nursing workforce shortage, and where the facility has a provider-to-patient staffing ratio in place.
The second bill, the Stop Nurse Shortages Act, was recently reintroduced by U.S. Representatives Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) and Dave Joyce (R-Ohio). It would create a grant program to help nursing schools create, expand or support accelerated nursing degree programs, which are geared towards training those with an undergraduate degree in another field as nurses at an accelerated pace.
The Stop Nurse Shortages Act is supported by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the American Nurses Association, the National League for Nursing, the American Association for Nurse Anesthesiology, the American Organization for Nursing Leadership, the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners, and the Michigan Health and Hospital Association.
Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.
