Healthcare Workforce

The NGA Center for Best Practices works with states and territories to strengthen their healthcare workforce with the goals of improving health outcomes and reducing costs, generating high quality data, and fostering an accessible, flexible and skilled healthcare workforce. A competent workforce is critical to ensuring that care improves the health of residents and is safe, high quality, available and affordable across a state or territory. The NGA Center works with states and territories to plan for and build a workforce that can meet the needs of a transformed health care system and increase economic activity. This work involves providing technical assistance around key workforce priority areas, including:

  • Health care workforce planning and redesign
  • Identifying strategies to better collect and analyze data to inform and evaluate policy
  • Aligning education and training outcomes with population health needs
  • Building workforce capacity in rural and underserved areas through training, recruitment, retention and technology
  • Aligning licensure and regulation with healthcare workforce goals
  • Identifying mechanisms and implementing state policies to allow providers to practice at the top of their license

Next Generation Of The Healthcare Workforce Project

Concerns about healthcare workforce supply and preparing the next generation of the healthcare workforce have been building for several years for a variety of reasons. In response the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) launched a project to support Governors’ offices and other senior state officials in implementing strategies to strengthen and grow the next generation of the healthcare workforce. By learning directly from other states and national experts, the participating states gained an understanding of innovative and evidence-based policies, programs, and practices to create a positive environment for an enduring healthcare workforce.


Contact Us

For additional information about NGA’s Healthcare Workforce work, please reach out to:


NGA Resources

State efforts to expand the healthcare workforce

State efforts to expand the healthcare workforce

Governors have celebrated the healthcare workforce and called for an increased focus on their recruitment and retention, as well as renewed equitable access to medical career pathways. by Nathan Le ...
States Collaborate to Combat Health Worker Shortage

States Collaborate to Combat Health Worker Shortage

14 states join National Governors Association (NGA) program focused on strategies to grow and retain the next generation of the health care workforce. WASHINGTON – California, Colorado, Missouri and Wyoming ...
Help Wanted: Building a Pipeline to Address the Children’s Mental Health Provider Workforce Shortage

Help Wanted: Building a Pipeline to Address the Children’s Mental Health Provider Workforce Shortage

There is no silver bullet for the mental health crisis but reducing workforce shortages of these critical providers can go a long way to solving the problem. by Jessica Kirchner ...
State Strategies for Sector Growth and Retention of the Direct Care Health Workforce

State Strategies for Sector Growth and Retention of the Direct Care Health Workforce

This issue brief provides a series of multi-sector state and employer strategies to address recruitment and health sector retention of direct care workers while balancing workforce needs, job quality and ...
Webinar: State Strategies for Sector Growth and Retention of the Direct Care Health Workforce

Webinar: State Strategies for Sector Growth and Retention of the Direct Care Health Workforce

This webinar, held Oct 14, 2021, discusses the NGA publication "State Strategies for Sector Growth and Retention of the Direct Care Health Workforce" Direct care workers, including nursing assistants, home ...
Supporting A Trained Direct Care Workforce In Facility Settings During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic

Supporting A Trained Direct Care Workforce In Facility Settings During And After The Covid-19 Pandemic

The direct care workforce is a critical component of a well-functioning health system. These occupations are reliable entry points into the health sector, but limited wage potential as well as ...
Informing Health Care Workforce Policy by Leveraging Data: A Toolkit for States

Informing Health Care Workforce Policy by Leveraging Data: A Toolkit for States

By collecting standardized information on licensed health care professionals, states can streamline health care workforce data collection and analysis to address key policy questions and improve health care access and ...

Health Care Workforce Redesign

Scope of Practice Scope of practice defines the types of services that a particular health care worker can provide as well as the circumstances under which such services can be ...

Health Care Workforce Planning

An accessible, well-trained and flexible health care workforce is vital to governors to improve the health of residents, control cost and accelerate economic development within the state. An adequate workforce ...

Rural Health Learning Collaborative: Improving Access to Behavioral Health Care in Rural Areas

August 9–10, 2017 | Washington, DC The National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) Health Division hosted a multi-state convening as part of the Rural Health Learning Collaborative ...

States Improve Rural Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment

The National Governors Association (NGA) today announced that three states, Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, will participate in an NGA learning lab to help combat the opioid epidemic. The project ...
The Expanding Role of Pharmacists in a Transformed Health Care System

The Expanding Role of Pharmacists in a Transformed Health Care System

Pharmacists have the professional expertise to address key challenges facing the health care system, including the prevalence of people who have multiple chronic conditions and the increased use of more ...

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