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

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 ...

The Role of Physician Assistants in Health Care Delivery

Physician assistants (PAs) play a broad and expanding role in the health care system, working in a variety of practice areas and settings because of their adaptably and lower cost, ...

The Role of Dental Hygienists in Providing Access to Oral Health Care

Basic oral health is an important determinant of overall health, yet access remains a challenge for many Americans. Dental hygienists can play a critical role in improving access to high-quality ...

The Role of Nurse Practitioners in Meeting Increasing Demand for Primary Care

One way states could increase access to primary care for their residents is to consider easing their scope of practice restrictions and modifying their reimbursement policies to increase the role ...

Strategies for States to Encourage and Fund Community Care Teams

Strategies for States to Encourage and Fund Community Care Teams outlines the role that community care teams can play in improving the quality and value of health care provided by ...
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