ABSTRACT
The healthcare provider sector workforce is composed of widely varying arrays of professional clinical specialties, support staff, and administrative personnel. These professionals and staff work not just in hospitals but also in nursing homes, home health agencies, physician offices, clinics, pharmacies, emergency services, hospice programs, ambulatory settings, diagnostic labs, and other settings. Concurrent to the growth of the healthcare provider sector, the demand for trained allied health clinicians (a broad term that includes nurses, laboratory and radiology technologists, pharmacists, therapists, and other licensed clinicians) has grown and continues to grow. Estimates that we discuss later in this chapter suggest that the United States will be significantly lacking in certain licensed clinical professions (e.g., nursing) by the end of this decade.
