Alaska Health Workforce Coalition

The Alaska Health Workforce Coalition, made up of health care providers, state government agencies, secondary education, the University of Alaska, and professional and employer membership associations was formed to begin to address the severe workforce challenges facing Alaska:

• the shortage of physicians in the state;
• difficulty and expense of recruiting needed health care professionals;
• the aging of the current workforce;
• the special barriers to health care delivery in rural Alaska; and
• the need to create a pipeline of new workers through career awareness and planning beginning in the K-12 system.

These challenges have led to unacceptably high vacancy rates in many primary care provider professions, ranging as high as 37.4 percent for pediatric nurse practitioners. Rates in rural Alaska generally exceed the urban rates by a substantial degree. The pressures on the current workforce will be exacerbated by increases in demand brought about by health care reform and the rapid growth of the population age 65 and older.

The Coalition’s Website is located at https://sites.google.com/site/alaskahealthworkforcecoalition.

Alaska Health Workforce Coalition Action Agenda 2012