Sponsored by Pfizer
Investing in a diverse healthcare workforce is imperative to closing gaps in care for historically marginalized and underserved communities.
Research – as well as personal experience – tells us that when our healthcare workforce doesn’t align with patients—whether in ethnicity, personal values, or even communication style—patients receive lower-quality care and have lower levels of trust.
To achieve greater representation in healthcare—in terms of ethnic and racial backgrounds, languages, gender identities, sexual orientations, neurodiversity, and more—we need to strengthen workforce pathways, including education, training and employment practices to cultivate and retain the next generation of practitioners.
Given the importance of fostering pathways for a diverse healthcare workforce, in recent years Pfizer’s Multicultural Health Equity Collective has explored solutions in collaboration with the health equity community. This included a recent two-day, Health Equity in Action (HEiA) Summit connecting students and health equity leaders, as well as the development of a practical community-led resource by practitioners and policymakers working in this space, An Action Guide to Disrupt Inequitable Health Outcomes. The following distills three key priorities and available resources to help support continued action.
Creating a representative labor force is not a one-generational change; it requires sustained, community-based professional development. Several development programs across the federal, academic, non-profit, and corporate sectors demonstrate the benefits of sustained investment and merit continued support.
Since 1972, the National Health Service Corps (NHSC), a program that incentivizes healthcare professionals to work in underserved communities, has demonstrated the upside of long-term support. The cost of pursuing a medical career is a significant barrier for students, particularly for those from low-income backgrounds, and the NHSC has supported more than 20,000 primary care medical, dental, and behavioral providers through scholarships and loan repayments.
Current and future practitioners also have access to wide-ranging learning opportunities through mentoring, education, and training, providing a direct pathway for students to become healthcare professionals in the nation’s most underserved communities.
The NHSC has directly fostered a more diverse healthcare workforce, with a quarter (25 percent) of its students identifying as Black or Hispanic/Latinx, compared to just 11 percent of those currently working in the field. Investing in robust national programs like the NHSC is critical to improving our healthcare workforce and health outcomes.
Beyond recruitment, training and retaining staff is imperative to sustaining workforce advancements. The healthcare profession suffers from pervasive institutional racism as much as any other institution. Physicians of color are much more likely to face racism and discrimination from patients, colleagues, and institutions, resulting in decreased job satisfaction and increased burnout. Clinicians of diverse backgrounds deserve safe and inclusive environments and the resources needed to create them.
To help expand clinician support networks and resources, the Association of Clinicians for the Underserved’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Initiative works to improve the health, well-being, and resiliency of healthcare providers. The JEDI Initiative provides education and training, assessments and strategic planning and technical assistance support for organizations, as well as current and future clinicians.
Health equity experts and advocates have rightly called for new grant-funding opportunities to boost the retention of Black and Latinx students and professionals. Presenters at the HEiA Summit noted the “invisible burden” placed on professionals from disadvantaged groups who mentor new students and professionals without recognition or support of their increased workload. Clearly, we can do more to intentionally transform our workplaces into more inclusive and supportive environments.
From kindergarten to graduate school, students from historically disregarded communities face extensive barriers receiving quality education. Earlier investment in quality, low-cost education for these students makes it more likely for them to succeed. Greater exposure to health professions may also encourage students to pursue higher education and expand the clinician pool.
Federally supported Area Health Education Centers (AHECs) and tailored private-sector programs offer hands-on learning experiences for underrepresented students and are key examples of how we can better engage students at a younger age.
Developed by Congress in 1971 to recruit, train, and retain a workforce committed to underserved populations, AHECs encourage students from historically disregarded communities, building enthusiasm and opening access to healthcare education, support, and resources. In 2021–2022 alone, AHECs engaged more than 248,000 students in healthcare pipeline programs—42 percent were from disadvantaged and 18 percent from underrepresented backgrounds. Programs like AHECs can be modeled by others in the healthcare sector. The Pfizer School of Science Initiative offers hands-on learning opportunities, field trips, and unique insight for diverse New York City middle school students and shows how the private sector can help inspire the next generation of STEM leaders.
Finally, while there are 155 accredited medical schools in the U.S., historically Black medical schools produce the majority of Black doctors. A ten-year, $100 million Morehouse School of Medicine and CommonSpirit Health partnership revealed the exciting potential of innovative academic–healthcare system partnerships to connect diverse healthcare providers and communities by recruiting students from underserved communities and providing them with community-based training.
Undoubtedly, we can achieve high-level, universal benefits if we increase diverse representation in the healthcare workforce. To do so we need to prioritize long-term funding for workforce development across the healthcare ecosystem, from signature federal education programs like the NHSC and AHECs, to innovative multisector collaborations. Supporting these programs is a smart investment in more equitable healthcare—and better health outcomes for everyone.
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