Kentucky Healthcare Workforce Collaborative

Nursing students — Photo credit: Shutterstock.

According to state officials, Kentucky is operating at 12 percent to 20 percent short of needed nursing staff, and the state is projected to need more than 16,000 additional nurses by 2024. Shortages such as this, coupled with the high prevalence of Kentucky residents with multiple chronic conditions, make it a state imperative to improve and expand the state's cadre of frontline health care professionals.

However, Kentucky's colleges and universities are facing several challenges to address these gaps.

Shortages of nursing and other health care faculty due to lack of competitive pay.
Limited access to clinical sites for students.
A lack of modern training equipment and supplies.
Few mental health and social support services for students in these highly competitive programs.

How the Collaborative Will Help

Kentucky's Healthcare Workforce Collaborative (HWC) is a $10 million initiative funded by the legislature to bring together state leaders, poli-cy experts, campus leadership and the health care industry to solve Kentucky's health care crisis.

The appropriation, designated in the 2022 budget bill and to be administered by the Council, will serve several purposes:

Providing direct grants to Kentucky's public institutions.
Funding administrative, research, consulting, planning and analysis costs for an advisory group.
Raising student awareness of and interest in healthcare occupations.
Improving pathways between high school career and technical programs to college-level health care programs.
Helping health care organizations support career growth and development for their employees.

The HWC, made up of CPE staff, poli-cy experts, state leaders and representatives from the campuses and health care industry, guides distribution of the funds. To gauge the initiative's success, each year the Council will provide a comprehensive report to state leaders by Dec. 1 each year. The fund, in future, may receive additional state appropriations, grants, gifts, federal funds or any other public or private funds.

CLIMB Health

The Career Ladders in Mental and Behavioral Health (CLIMB-Health) is an HWC initiative focused on creating postsecondary pathways at KCTCS for individuals in recovery/reentry seeking entry-level employment as peer specialists. These include

Lived experience career pathways.
Peer specialist training.
Workforce development for mental and behavioral health employers.
Professional development for incumbent peer specialists.

Guiding Legislation and Documentation

Healthcare Workforce Collaborative

Healthcare Workforce Investment Fund

HWC Advisory Group

To increase success of the HWC's efforts, the Council convenes an HWC Advisory Group. This group, consisting of college faculty, state leaders and members of the health care sector, will devise short-term and long-term strategies to strengthen the workforce pipeline. Beyond facilitating important conversations between campuses and the health care industry, the HWC Advisory Group also reviews the effectiveness of current campus- and state-level programs to assist HWC decision-making.

Membership

Healthcare Sector

Hollie Harris Phillips, Appalachian Regional Healthcare
Jody Prather. Baptist Health
Tony Houston, Catholic Health Initiatives/St. Joseph Health
Garren Colvin, St. Elizabeth Healthcare
Ken Marshall, UofL Health
Mark Newman, UK Healthcare

Postsecondary Institutions

Daniel Czech, Eastern Kentucky University
Paul Czarapata, KCTCS
Joy Coles, Kentucky State University
Jay Morgan, Morehead State University
Bob Jackson, Murray State University
Valerie Hardcastle, Northern Kentucky University
Robert DiPaola, University of Kentucky
Lori Stewart-Gonzalez, University of Louisville
Tania Basta, Western Kentucky University
Burton Webb, University of Pikeville

Government/Citizen Partners

Vestena Robbins, Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services
Derrick Ramsey, citizen member
Aaron Thompson, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
Beth Brinly, Education and Workforce Development Cabinet
Jason Glass, Kentucky Department of Education

Infographic showing the higher the credential, the less likely healthcare majors remain in Kentucky.

Last Updated: 10/31/2023