With workforce shortages in many health professions and occupations, educational institutions and policymakers are attempting to meet the challenging demand for additional personnel. Health professional associations, state governments, and higher education bodies all are involved, in one way or another, in trying to address the changing needs of the health care system. Rather than moving ahead in a coordinated and singular direction, however, there are many contradictory forces operating, often in competition with each other.
Much public and professional attention has been directed to medicine, the most influential of the health professions, and nursing, the largest health profession; far less attention has been directed to some of the other health professions and occupations, many of which are undergoing rapid change. It is these other health professions and occupations that are the primary focus of this monograph. Some of the more salient trends and issues will be examined with a view of their impact on health workforce dynamics. Health workforce regulation is a key element in understanding the health care environment, and various forms of credentialing is an underlying theme in most of the
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MAs are largely unregulated but make up an increasingly significant part of primary care. They perform a variety of both administrative and clinical functions with the nature of those duties determined by the amount and type of training and any regulations specified by the state. The administrative duties may include activities such as patient-scheduling and insurance-billing; the clinical responsibilities may involve conducting basic lab tests, administering EKGs and x-rays, giving shots, and drawing