Improving the Health of the Nation: HRSA's Mission to Achieve Health Equity

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Mary Wakefield, PhD, RNa Improving the health status of the United States is predicated on reducing and eventually eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity. Meaningfully addressing health disparities is complex work and involves considering what are, at times, seemingly unrelated factors. Recognizing this challenge, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently hosted an inter-professional summit titled Nursing in 3D: Workforce Diversity, Health Disparities, and Social Determinants of Health. The speakers included experts in nursing, health workforce, epidemiology, and public health who presented recent findings on complex connections among workforce diversity, health disparities, and social determinants of health. The interplay of these factors is not a new focus for HRSA; in fact, the basis for some of the meeting’s agenda was drawn from an earlier HRSA report titled “The Rationale for Diversity in the Health Professions: A Review of the Evidence.”1 The report shows that patients are best served by providers who are knowledgeable and conversant in the background and culture of the patients for whom they care. Through these and many other related efforts, HRSA has engaged a sharp focus on eliminating disparities in health outcomes and enhancing health equity across the populations served by our programs. An essential element in this effort is building a culturally and linguistically diverse health workforce by increasing both minority participation in the health professions and the cultural competency of all health professionals. Increased diversity among health professionals leads to improved patient satisfaction, patient-clinician communication, and access to care for racial/ethnic minority patients.2 Consequently, for many of HRSA’s health professions training grants, the agency requires grant applicants (generally health professions schools) to identify in their applications innovative programs and institutional strategies to effectively develop and retain a diverse and culturally competent workforce. Such strategies often include supporting activities to recruit diverse students and provide cultural competency training. During academic year 2011–2012, 46% of graduates and individuals who completed training and received direct financial support through one of HRSA’s Title VII or Title VIII programs were from underrepresented minority groups and/or disadvantaged backgrounds.3 HRSA is evaluating these strategies and incentives to identify and expand on