The diversity of the health workforce and their role in the delivery of equitable health care are the focus of the October 2021 Supplemental Issue of Medical Care, the official journal of the medical care section of the American Public Health Association. Papers examine diversity of the health workforce, geographic disparities in health care, tools for health workforce planning during the pandemic, roles of underutilized health care workers such as dental therapists, medical scribes, and community health workers.
Director Bianca Frogner led a study titled, “Examining Wage Disparities by Race and Ethnicity of Health Care Workers,” funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration through the UW CHWS Health Workforce Research Center on Health Equity. A notable finding this study was that Black nurses, aides, and assistants were expected to make more than their White peers based on sex, age, and education, but they did not in fact make more, signaling the possibility of pay discrimination. Read more here.