Posted on January 10, 2008

Health

While the healthcare system in the U.S. is expected to grow over the next four years, the number of health professionals in Colorado may not be enough to meet the demand. As part of its Health Professions Initiative, the Colorado Trust conducted a survey that explored a number of promising strategies to address the situation, including creating awareness of the problem among students, supporting and expanding training opportunities, and promoting employer efforts and community partnerships to recruit and retain healthcare professionals. But according to the report based on that survey, Solving Colorado's Health Professionals Shortage: Initial Lessons Learned From the Health Professions Initiative Evaluation (32 pages, PDF), the key to facilitating an increase in healthcare professionals in the state is a greater focus on the development of an infrastructure that can support enough students at all stages of the training pipeline.