Meet Workforce Demands Research Articles

Nurse faculty shortage problem and a grant solution to the problem

Introduction: The projected growth of the nurse workforce will drive the need for more nurse faculty in the U.S., with an estimated needed increase of 24% (16,000 new faculty) to meet workforce demands between 2016 and 2026. However, nursing schools have struggled to keep pace with growing enrollment demands and faculty retirements.Methods: To meet the needs of the nursing workforce and to address the nursing shortage by educating qualified faculty, the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing (UC CON) has applied for and received funding through the federal government’s Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Nurse Faculty Loan Program (NFLP) grant.Results: Since 2012, the UC CON has utilized the NFLP to provide nearly $4.4 million in loans to students. The UC CON has supported 115 individual graduate-level nursing students with NFLP funds. As of 6/07/24, 73 UC CON degrees have been awarded. Several prior recipients are working as nurse faculty, some at rural and community colleges where the nurse faculty shortage is most acute. Some of the students who received NFLP funds and graduated are working in medically underserved and/or rural areas across the U.S.Conclusions: A new grant submission was funded in June 2024 to fund more doctoral students and Master of Science in Nursing Education Students. The UC CON provides additional components (e.g., nurse educator development, professional development, and job search support) to strengthen recipients’ preparation and marketability for nurse faculty roles in all regions, including rural and underserved areas.

The evaluation of health, disability and aged care-sector engagement with resources designed to support optimisation of the allied health assistant workforce: a qualitative study

BackgroundAllied health assistants (AHAs) support allied health professionals (AHPs) to meet workforce demands in modern healthcare systems. In an Australian context historically, AHAs have been sub-optimally utilised. Prior research has identified that AHAs and AHPs working in health, disability and aged care sectors, and the Vocational Education and Training (VET) industry, may benefit from access to resources to support the optimisation of the AHA workforce. As a part of a Victorian department of health funded project, several resources were developed in line with workforce recommendations for use in each of the above sectors. Recommendations and resources covered the broad areas of pre-employment training, workforce planning and governance, consumer-centred therapy and supports, recruitment and induction and workplace training and development. This study aimed to evaluate the engagement with these newly designed resources to support optimisation of AHAs in the Victorian context.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted to evaluate engagement with resources, from the perspective of AHAs, AHPs and allied health leaders (AHLs) in the health, aged care or disability sectors, and educators and managers of allied health assistance training. Thematic analysis was conducted using team-based framework analysis.ResultsThematic framework analysis of the interview data identified four themes; Why participants accessed the resources; How participants engaged with the resources; What (if any) changes in practice occurred as a result of engaging with the resources in a participant’s local context, How did participants envision the resources being utilised for AHA workforce optimisation in the future. Responses were mapped to the AHA workforce career pathway at the career preparation, career development and career trajectory tiers.ConclusionsAppetite for AHA workforce development and optimal utilisation is evident across Victoria, Australia. Readily accessible resources that inform AHA role and scope of practice, delegation practice, or improve the ability for an AHA to state their own development needs, were identified as useful by participants. The potential for these resources to assist in the optimal utilisation and development of AHA workforces across the career continuum differs according to the role, sector and geographical location of the resource user. Further study is needed to investigate the transferability of these resources to national and global contexts.

Facilitating integration of international medical graduates into neonatal-perinatal medicine: a critical strategy to meet workforce demands.

Facilitating integration of international medical graduates into neonatal-perinatal medicine: a critical strategy to meet workforce demands.

On the Innovative World of Care: Unveiling the Lived Experiences of Nurses in Using an Electronic Health Information System

As healthcare systems worldwide continue to undergo digital transformation, the integration of health informatics has become pivotal in enhancing patient care, communication, and overall healthcare efficiency. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore and understand the experiences of staff nurses using an electronic health information system. A purposive sample of 14 senior nurses were interviewed. Using Collaizzi (1978) phenomenological method, rigor was established through application of verification, validation, and validity. From 205 significant statements, 15 cluster themes emerged. The experiences of staff nurses in employing the electronic information system included struggles during the initial encounter with the new electronic health information system, working with IT support, workflow disruption, issues regarding limited devices and internet connection, need for training, and having staff pay for errors committed. Their means of coping with the challenges of their experiences focused on recognizing workflow efficiency as perceived benefit, changes in the protocol for improvement, support from superiors and hospital management, as well as collaboration and coordination with others. The insights that staff nurses wanted to share with their peers and the nursing practice in general were personal alignment and resilience, upgrading the system, enhancing staff competency, and meeting workforce demands. Nurses adapting to a new electronic health information system echo wider healthcare's digital hurdles. Let's learn from their struggles and resilience to prioritize user-friendly designs, accessible technology, and robust training. This empowers and supports our essential nurses, paving the way for successful health informatics.

The Patient's Experience of Working with Multiple Allied Health Professional Students - A Qualitative Interview Study.

There are increasing numbers of learners in clinical settings as part of approaches to meet workforce demands. As a result, patients are now working with multiple learners at the same time, yet little is known about how people experience this. The aim of this study was to explore the patient experience of working with multiple allied health professional students. Structured interviews were carried out with 22 patients across hospital wards in one hospital in the North-West of England. Data was analysed using thematic analysis and four themes were identified: consent to work with multiple students; responses to working with multiple students; multiple students and feelings of safety; making connections with multiple students. Findings indicated that patients experienced positive relationships and feelings of safety with groups of students. However, patients were given limited advance or tailored information about working with a group of students which is an important area to address.

Use of the Rasch Model for Fit Statistics and Rating Scale Diagnosis for the Student Perception Appraisal.

Background and Purpose: Nursing student retention is essential to meet workforce demands. Jeffreys' Nursing Student Retention Student Perception Appraisal-Revised (SPA-R1) has been used extensively to understand factors that impact retention. Psychometric testing of the SPA-R1 contributes to greater confidence in the instrument's reliability and validity. Methods: Item response theory and specifically, the single parameter polytomous Rasch model was used as a framework for fit statistic testing and rating scale diagnostics of the SPA-R1. This was a secondary analysis of a convenience sample of undergraduate prelicensure nursing students. The setting for the previous study was virtual, and the study period was 2022. Results: The model item characteristic curves for the 27 items of the SPA-R1 have similar shapes and are clustered in proximity. Overall, there are three clusters of items evident in the Rasch standardized residual contrast. The Rasch scale diagnostics indicated that the scale appropriately monotonically increases. However, there is a greater than 5 logit distance between does not apply and severely restricts, between severely restricts and moderately restricts, and between does not restrict or support and moderately supports. These large threshold distances indicate that additional steps in the scale may be warranted. The items cover the mid-range of the amount of retention perceptions; however, there are no items that represent the highest magnitude of the perceived amount of influence on retention. Conclusions: This study contributes further evidence to support the validity and reliability of the SPA-R1. We recommend adding steps to the scale, removing the does not apply response option, and considering scoring by three domains or clusters.

Cybercompetitions: A survey of competitions, tools, and systems to support cybersecurity education.

Over the last decade, industry and academia have worked towards raising students' interests in cybersecurity through game-like competitions to fill a shortfall of cybersecurity professionals. Rising interest in video games in combination with gamification techniques make learning fun, easy, and addictive. It is crucial that cybersecurity curricula enhance and expose cybersecurity education to a diversified student body to meet workforce demands. Gamification through cybercompetitions is one method to achieve that. With a vast list of options for competition type, focus areas, learning outcomes, and participant experience levels we need to systematize knowledge of attributes that ameliorate cybercompetitions. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and global lock-downs, competition hosts scrambled to move platforms from local to online infrastructure due to poor interoperability between competition software. We derive a list of takeaways including the lack of interoperability between state-of-the-art competition systems, breaking the high knowledge barrier to participate, addressing competition type diversity, then suggest potential solutions and research questions moving forward. Our paper aims to systematize cybersecurity, access control, and programming competitions by surveying the history of these events. We explore the types of competitions that have been hosted and categorize them based on focus areas related to the InfoSEC Color Wheel. We then explore state-of-the-art technologies that enable these types of competitions, and finally, present our takeaways.

High-Impact Educational Practices in Kinesiology: Examples of Curricular Advancements to Prepare Students for the Future of Work

A 21st century college education should prepare students to meet workforce demands and contribute to an educated citizenry. This paper provides examples of the ways in which two institutions are adjusting kinesiology program design and delivery through the adoption of high-impact educational practices to prepare students to meet these goals. The authors describe first-year experiences to develop critical information literacy, a series of collaborative community-based health projects, and a unique internship experience for work-integrated learning. The authors reflect on the similarities between their efforts to implement high-impact teaching practices to prepare kinesiology students for the future of work. Keys to success include: (a) shifting to idea-based, learner-centered curriculum design; (b) developing strategic partnerships with college services, programs, and administrators; and (c) recognizing the significant impact of the changes on the student learning experience.

Exploring utilisation of the allied health assistant workforce in the Victorian health, aged care and disability sectors

BackgroundAllied health assistants (AHAs) support allied health professionals (AHPs) to meet workforce demands in modern healthcare systems. Previous studies have indicated that AHAs may be underutilised in some contexts. This study aims to identify factors contributing to the effective utilisation of AHAs across health, aged care and disability sectors and possible pathway elements that may optimise AHA careers in Victoria.MethodsUsing an interpretive description approach data collection included a workforce survey and semi structured interviews (individual and group). Data analysis included descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and thematic analysis. Participants included allied health assistants, allied health professionals and allied health leaders in the health, aged care or disability sectors; educators, managers or student of allied health assistance training; and consumers of Victorian health, disability or aged care services.ResultsThe literature scan identified numerous potential barriers to and enablers of AHA workforce utilisation. A total of 727 participants completed the survey consisting of AHAs (n = 284), AHPs & allied health leaders (n = 443). Thirteen group and 25 individual interviews were conducted with a total of 119 participants. Thematic analysis of the interview data identified four interrelated factors (system, training, individual and workplace) in pre-employment training and workplace environments. These factors were reported to contribute to effective utilisation of the AHA workforce across health, aged care and disability sectors. Study findings were also used to create a conceptual diagram of potential AHA career pathway elements.ConclusionThis study identified pre-employment and workplace factors which may contribute to the optimal utilisation of the AHA workforce across Victorian health, aged care and disability sectors. Further study is needed to investigate the transferability of these findings to national and global contexts, and testing of the conceptual model.

Exploring the Value of Non-Technical Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) to Cybersecurity Hiring Managers

Industry's demand for cybersecurity workers with non-technical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that complement technical prowess is not new. The purpose of this study was to connect with cybersecurity practitioners to determine which non-technical KSAs should be emphasized by educators to help meet workforce demands. This research applies a novel application of the Ground Truth Expertise Development Model (GTEDM) for exploring suitable non-technical and particularly soft KSAs necessary for cybersecurity professional development programs. This study focused on the definition and competency determination step and provided foundational KSA prioritization for further research. The field overwhelmingly agreed that non-technical skills were essential to a cybersecurity worker's success. The qualitative process produced three themes as non-technical KSA areas of the most significant import to the cybersecurity field. These KSA themes required included critically using information, communications skills, and collaboration to pursue customer/client success. The findings produce a more comprehensive list of hard, soft, and mixed non-technical skills that will benefit the public, private, and academic sector organizations as they develop cybersecurity curricula.

Placement Overlap with Other Students; Effects on Medical Student Learning Experience

Phenomenon In the United Kingdom (UK) the government has increased the number of places at university to study medicine in England to meet workforce demands. In parallel, there have been growing student numbers in other healthcare professions and new professions whose roles overlap with doctors, such as advanced nurse practitioners and physician associates, have been introduced. These increasing numbers of medical students and other healthcare professions training in the same clinical setting have led to questions about the effect on the student experience. We aimed to investigate the impact of student-student encounters on the learning experience during clinical placements before student numbers increase further. Approach In this investigation medical student perceptions were collected retrospectively at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia in the UK, during the 2018/19 academic year following two clinical placements in secondary care settings. Through mandatory online course evaluations, all medical students were asked if their learning had been positively or negatively affected by other students, and how frequently they had certain student-student experiences. Findings Responses from 786 (of 844) medical students (93% response rate) demonstrated that most students felt their learning had been affected in some way by the presence of others while on their secondary care placements. Students experienced both positive and negative impacts of encounters with other students. Final year students tended to report more negative experiences, with first year students reporting more positive. while some students had experienced competition for learning opportunities and lower quality interactions with patients and doctors due to “overcrowding,” more students reported benefits from learning from and with other students. However, it also was found that any negative encounters with other students, even if accompanied by positive experiences, detrimentally affected student satisfaction with the placement. Insights This investigation indicates that student-student interactions influence the clinical learning experience of medical students both positively and negatively. Given the overriding influence of negative encounters, the findings suggest a need to maximize the beneficial effects of encountering other students on clinical placements; while protecting against missed or poor-quality learning opportunities due to competition between students, particularly for more senior students. Medical educators need to consider where their clinical attachments are at risk from multiple students being present at the same time and work to alleviate the negative impacts of such student-student encounters, while actively encouraging peer learning experiences between the medical students and collaborative activities between students of different healthcare professions. This is likely to become increasingly important as student numbers in medicine and other healthcare professions continue to grow.

A certificate in youth psychiatry: meeting the training needs of psychiatrists.

This paper provides the rationale for the development of sub-specialty training in youth psychiatry. Training needs for youth psychiatry are discussed and the opportunities provided by sub-specialisation in youth psychiatry are presented. The majority of mental disorders have their onset prior to 25 years. There has been substantial recent growth in services to meet the clinical needs of young people. The development of these services has exposed gaps in current training for psychiatrists, which varies considerably between child and adolescent, and adult psychiatry. Competencies acquired by psychiatrists in youth mental health are non-standardised, which may hinder optimal care. Sub-specialty training in youth psychiatry is needed to meet workforce demands. The development of a certificate in youth psychiatry, by the RANZCP Section for Youth Mental Health, is underway. This will complement existing training and provide trainees and psychiatrists the opportunity to develop specialist skills in the provision of mental health care for young people negotiating the transition between adolescence and adulthood.

The Role of the Academy and HRD in the Changing of the Guard

The Problem Life for faculty members is becoming more complex and stressful due to the rate of change and the ever-increasing demands being placed on them: publish in top journals, apply for funding, teach and support more students, integrate new technology into classes, serve on committees, and contribute to your discipline and professional association. Current systems, policies, and practices within higher education often fail to recognize the unique contributions of faculty members, especially those who might not reflect the traditional perspectives that have been put in place for decades. Rather, there remains a strongly guarded tradition of what is valued and rewarded within higher education. Hence, higher education needs to transform its organizational culture, valuing individual contributions, meeting workforce demands, and ensuring the health of the education system and society. The Solution The field of human resource development (HRD) with its interdisciplinary roots and expertise in learning, leadership, organizational change, and culture is uniquely poised to not only inform this conversation, but also to critique and contribute to the transformation of faculty work and associated expectations. This Issue addresses and identifies where changes are needed at the individual, organizational, and societal levels to transform the role of faculty members so that it is better aligned with the current environment and context of higher education. The Stakeholders Scholars, practitioners, administrators, and community who recognize that the health of the broader community is affected by the quality of higher education and, in particular, faculty and the way that they teach and prepare students to be scholar-practitioners.

Using Evidence-Centered Design to Support the Development of Culturally and Linguistically Sensitive Collaborative Problem-Solving Assessments

Collaborative problem solving (CPS) ranks among the top five most critical skills necessary for college graduates to meet workforce demands (Hart Research Associates, 2015). It is also deemed a critical skill for educational success (Beaver, 2013). It thus deserves more prominence in the suite of courses and subjects assessed in K-16. Such inclusion, however, presents the need for improvements in the conceptualization, design, and analysis of CPS, which challenges us to think differently about assessing the skills than the current focus given to assessing individuals’ substantive knowledge. In this article, we discuss an Evidence-Centered Design approach to assess CPS in a culturally and linguistically diverse educational environment. We demonstrate ways to consider a sociocognitive perspective to conceptualize and model possible linguistic and/or cultural differences between populations along key stages of assessment development including assessment conceptualization and design to help reduce possible construct-irrelevant differences when assessing complex constructs with diverse populations.

Using Data To Enhance Decision Making: Graduation Initiative 2025

The California State University launched its Graduation Initiative 2025 in January 2015 with a clear goal to increase graduation rates for our 475,000 students across all 23 campuses. The Graduation Initiative 2025 will add 100,000 more baccalaureate degree-educated citizens to California over the next ten years and begin to meet workforce demands. Increasing graduation rates, particularly for first-generation students, requires a strategic, data-driven approach. California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) faces particular challenges as 81% of our undergraduate population are first-generation college students, 63% receive Pell Grant, and 56% of incoming first-year students require some form of developmental coursework in English, math, or both. Data-driven decision-making must be used to focus graduation efforts. CSUSB organizes data regarding college readiness, and enrollment characteristics as preparedness have a direct influence on time to degree. Data on persistence and progress towards the degree are also important to track when examining graduation rates as it helps identify areas to improve. Finally, data on completion and post-graduation are indicators to track the progress of the initiative and meeting workforce demands.

Educational Model to Increase the Number and Diversity of RN to BSN Graduates From a Resource-Limited Rural Community.

Increasing the number of BSN-prepared nurses at the bedside is directly linked to improved health care outcomes. However, employers are challenged to find enough BSN graduates to meet workforce demands. This article presents an educational model that uses evidence-based practices to increase enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of RN students in a BSN program (RN-BSN) in a resource limited rural community. This exemplar may equip nurse educators with strategies to adopt in their own communities.

The Experiences of Nurse Educators in Developing and Implementing Concurrent Enrollment Associate Degree in Nursing–Bachelor of Science in Nursing Programs

There is a critical shortage of bachelor of science-prepared nurses. Efficient pathways for bachelor of science completion, such as concurrent enrollment associate degree-to-bachelor of science programs, are needed to meet workforce demands. This article shares findings from a study of the experiences of nurse educators in developing and implementing concurrent enrollment in associate degree-to-bachelor of science programs. Detailed accounts of their experiences may facilitate an understanding of the process and assist educators in implementing similar programs.

Advancing open data: Aligning education with public sector data challenges

ABSTRACTLIS education has invested heavily in workforce development for data services in research institutions, however little work has been done on open data competencies needed in public libraries and government agencies. The Open Data Literacy (ODL) project is working to prepare students to build infrastructure and to curate and sustain open data resources for the public by advancing data curation and data science curriculum and providing field experiences in collaboration with city and state agencies. To determine the expertise students need to meet workforce demands, we are examining the current data challenges faced by these public sector organizations. Based on the first year of student field experiences, we found that data organization and access, data quality, and data visualization were prominent areas of competency needed across the sites. While these areas are captured to some degree in current frameworks meant to catalog “data expertise” we find that additional competencies are required, in particular the need for developing and following metadata standards, evaluation and use of storage and cloud services, APIs, law and ethics, and public sector and not‐for‐profit organization knowledge. In future work these emerging areas of data expertise will be prioritized and deepened in our curriculum and better articulated for application in data education more generally.

Changes in Chinese higher education: Financial trends in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan

The cost of higher education (HE) continues to grow at an unsustainable rate in many country contexts, including in East Asia. With recent and projected HE growth in this region, HE administrators are increasingly faced with how best to provide cost-effective delivery while at the same time addressing how to meet workforce demands of increased quality, accountability, and international standards of excellence. In this article, we examine good and best practices of HE finance models in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. A primary objective of this article is to highlight a select number of exemplary models of HE financing that can reduce or at least help level off this unsustainable trend. We conclude with recommendations to assist policy makers, government planners, and HE administrators in their attempts to meet the financial challenges of today and in the future.

The Changing Roles of Community Health Workers

To examine what different types of employers value in hiring community health workers (CHWs) and determine what new competencies CHWs might need to meet workforce demands in the context of an evolving payment landscape and substantial literature suggesting that CHWs are uniquely qualified to address health disparities. We used a multimethod approach, including a literature review, development of a database of 76 programs, interviews with 24 key informants, and a qualitative comparison of major CHW competency lists. We find a shift in CHW employment settings from community-based organizations to hospitals/health systems. Providers that hire CHWs directly, as opposed to partnering with community organizations, report that they value education and training more highly than traditional characteristics, such as peer status. We find substantial similarities across competency lists, but a gap in competencies that relate to CHWs' ability to integrate into health systems while maintaining their unique identity. As CHW integration into health care organizations advances, and as states move forward with CHW certification efforts, it is important to develop new competencies that relate to CHW-health system integration. Chief among them is the ability to explain and defend the CHW's unique occupational identity.