What Commute Patterns Can Tell Us About the Supply of Allied Health Workers and Registered Nurses


  • Abstract

    Information on the available supply of workers in a local job market is important when determining whether there are qualified workers to fill health care jobs in demand. The American Community Survey (ACS), a publicly available annual survey of over 3.5 million households conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, has been a regular source of information for mapping the geographic distribution of a wide range of occupations, describing the time, duration and distance of workers’ commutes, and identifying common forms of transportation for commuting. In this study, we explore what the ACS can tell us about commuting patterns among selected allied health occupations and registered nurses (RNs) as well as how these patterns may inform discussions of health workforce supply.


  • Authors:

    Dahal A, Skillman SM, Patterson DG, Frogner BK

  • Journal/Publisher:

    Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington

  • Edition:

    May 2020.

  • Documents:

    Full Report
    Policy Brief

  • Citation:

    Dahal A, Skillman SM, Patterson DG, Frogner BK. What Commute Patterns Can Tell Us About the Supply of Allied Health Workers and Registered Nurses. Center for Health Workforce Studies, University of Washington, May 2020.

  • Related Studies:

    Commuting Patterns of Allied Health Workers and Registered Nurses