As a result of health care reforms and new investments, it is estimated that community health centers will double the number of patients served by 2015, to 40 million annually, while creating almost 300,000 full-time jobs for primary care providers and frontline staff. Filling these jobs will be a major challenge for the centers, which experience difficulty attracting and retaining well-qualified workers in the rural and urban communities they serve. To deliver more and better care, community health centers must invest in the skills and education of every member of their health care teams, not just doctors and other high-level professionals. In particular, community health centers can expect to hire additional medical assistants and other allied health occupations, nursing assistants and physical therapy assistants, and staff skilled in information technology. They will also need staff who can deliver culturally appropriate care and services and speak the languages of growing, diverse populations in the United States.
To meet these needs, community health centers should seek ways to better train and retain the women and men who work on the front lines of care and service delivery. Jobs to Careers helped health centers develop a “grow your own” workforce solution to this challenge. Frontline employees built skills necessary for their jobs. In turn, they received immediate financial rewards and qualified to advance to new positions. Health centers built and retained talented and committed employees, while bolstering a workplace culture that supports professional development, mentorship, and collaboration. And patients received higher-quality care and services, delivered by a high-quality workforce.
