Washington Oral Health Workforce Tracking Program


Description:

This program’s goal is to provide relevant and objective information about Washington’s oral health workforce that can be used to guide practice and policy that will help ensure the state’s population has access to needed oral health care. Toward that goal, the program’s objectives are to:

  1. provide ongoing assessment of the supply and distribution of, and demand for, Washington State’s oral health workforce,
  2. conduct studies to describe the demographic, education, and practice characteristics of occupations engaged in providing oral health care and to improve understanding of workplace factors that influence workforce recruitment and retention of this workforce, and
  3. display and disseminate findings through a public facing website dashboard and through Findings Briefs accessible from the website, among other methods of dissemination.

Key questions to be addressed by the Program include:

  1. How does Washington’s oral health workforce supply compare with other states?
  2. What occupations comprise Washington’s oral health care workforce, how are they distributed across the state, and how has that changed over time?
  3. What are education/training pathways into Washington’s oral health workforce and to what extent are they contributing to supply?
  4. How is oral health workforce demand changing across the state and in what ways, and how does workforce adequacy affect the population’s access to oral health care?

A multidisciplinary Advisory Committee of oral health leaders throughout the state help guide the Program in our work to achieve the goals and objectives outlined above and address the key Program questions.

 

Project Director: Susan M. Skillman, MS; skillman@uw.edu

Operations Director: Samantha Pollack, MHS; sampo@uw.edu

Analytics Director: Ben Stubbs, MPH; bstubbs@uw.edu

 

Funder:

Delta Dental of Washington and the Washington State Legislature

 

Status:

In Progress

 

Publications/Presentations

Authors Title Type Date Documents/Media
Guenther GA, Pollack SW, Stubbs BA, Frogner BK, Skillman SM Characteristics of the Current Dental Hygienist Workforce in Washington State PUBLICATION 08-08-2024 Article
Pollack SW, Guenther GA, Stubbs BA, Patterson DG, Frogner BK, Skillman SM Characteristics of the Current Dental Assistant and Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary Workforces in Washington State PUBLICATION 05-20-2024 Article
Pollack SW, Guenther GA, Patterson DG, Skillman SM, Stubbs BA Using the Washington Oral Health Workforce Tracking Program to Improve Understanding of Washington’s Dental Assistant Workforce PRESENTATION 07-01-2024
Pollack SW, Guenther GA, Patterson DG, Skillman SM, Stubbs BA Understanding Washington’s Oral Health Workforce PRESENTATION 07-01-2024
Skillman SM Improving Access to Oral Health Care for Rural, Tribal and Underserved Communities PRESENTATION 01-12-2023 Media
Slides