Health Services Research Work Force and Educational Issues (1995) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 The Health Services Research Work Force
3 The Health Services Research Work Force
Pages 43-54
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 43... ...
These paths include master's, doctoral, and clinical degrees as well as fellowships, on-thejob training, and summer or other short-term programs. Employment settings are also varied and include universities, academic health centers, government agencies, health care delivery and insurance organizations, consulting firms, and freestanding research organizations.
|
From page 44... ...
The discussion illustrates the complexities created by the multidisciplinary character of the field, its relative youth, and the diversity of its membership. THE CURRENT WORK FORCE A major objective of the current study was a more comprehensive count of current health services researchers than has been available in the past.
|
From page 45... ...
A second arid related difficulty is that academic researchers, a major component of most research work forces, are not concentrated in identifiable health services research programs. Rather, they are widely scattered across a variety of disciplinary departments (e.g., economics, sociology)
|
From page 46... ...
To strengthen its qualitative understanding of the demand for health services researchers, the committee also conducted telephone interviews with 28 individuals representing several categories of health-related organizations including insurers, pharmaceutical companies, integrated health systems, state government agencies, and consulting firms. (Although the committee made an effort to contact a range of organizations, those participating were not a random sample, and responses may not be representative of the larger universe of organizations.)
|
From page 47... ...
. California, with 567 health services researchers, has the largest state contingent, followed by Maryland (423)
|
From page 48... ...
In sum, AHSR membership is not a good indicator of the size of the health services research work force or its growth. Supply in Relation to Demand The data Fathered by the committee did not allow quantitative assessments ~, of the relationship between the current supply ot and demand tor neaten services researchers.
|
From page 49... ...
Others indicated that they looked for people who are well-trained in specific disciplines because they feel that knowledge about health services can be taught on the job. THE FUTURE WORK FORCE Estimating the Future Supply of Personnel To develop a rough estimate of the health services research pipeline, the committee combined information found in the 1991-1992 FHSR directory of graduate programs with responses to its own canvass of these programs.
|
From page 50... ...
The committee, therefore, chose not to attempt numerical projections of the size of the future health services research work force. It also did not attempt to calculate the number of new entrants that would be needed to maintain the supply of researchers at a particular level.
|
From page 51... ...
Unfortunately, the health services research field lacks easily accessible information to project short-term demand. The committee's surveys of those employing health services researchers did, however, provide some qualitative perspectives on future demand as described below.
|
From page 52... ...
In telephone interviews, those with experience in state government cited civil service hiring restrictions, policymakers' skepticism about researchers' sensitivity to the policy considerations, and pressures on state budgets as reasons to be cautious about hiring at the state level. In addition, although health care reform initiatives may have increased demand for health services researchers (at the master's if not the doctoral level)
|
From page 53... ...
Many of the employers interviewed by committee members, particularly those representing integrated health systems, pharmaceutical companies, and private consulting groups, stated they planned to double their complement of health services researchers during the next five years. In response to the written survey's request that employers predict their recruitment plans for the next five years, more than 60 percent of responding organizations indicated that they anticipated recruiting more health services researchers in at least one of the 13 identified areas of research.
|
From page 54... ...
CONCLUSION The committee's success in achieving the study's objectives of describing the current size and characteristics of the health services research work force and projecting the future supply and demand for researchers was limited by data inadequacies. One priority became additional data collection to identify more completely the existing work force and, to a lesser extent, to gauge short-term demand for health services researchers.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.