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New Supply and Demand Data Reveal Pathways to Address Health Care Workforce Shortages in North Carolina In November 2024 the NC Health Talent Alliance released new analysis of supply and demand data for key health care jobs in North Carolina. The data, which quantifies the depth and breadth of our talent challenges, is the cornerstone of the NC Health Talent Alliance’s efforts to develop a demand-driven workforce system tailored to North Carolina health care employers’ unique needs. The NC Chamber Foundation and the NC Center on the Workforce for Health formally launched the landmark NC Health Talent Alliance public-private partnership in 2023 to address the state’s critical health care workforce shortages. Regional Healthcare Workforce Profile – Northwest AHEC In February 2024, the North Carolina Health Talent Alliance, a project of the NC Center on the Workforce for Health, distributed an annual workforce demand survey to NC healthcare employers. The survey focused primarily on nursing positions. The goal of the survey was to understand current workforce information (primarily filled and open positions), former workforce information (number of hires, exits, and total employment), and future workforce information by profession, by geography. 211 unique organizations provided 433 responses across the state. Responses from Northwest AHEC are below. |
HTA Employer Survey Data Summary – NW AHEC Region
Information about Survey Responses- Response Count: 33 unique organizations provided 66 responses. A response represents an organization’s workforce by county, which is why there are more responses than unique organizations.
- Position Count: 16,157 total nursing positions (filled+open) are represented in the survey data responses.
9,151 RN positions
1,240 LPN positions
4,319 CNA positions
1,447 MA positions - Facility Count: 120 facilities (estimated) represented in the survey responses.
- Facility Types: The survey responses represent different facility types, categorized below. When asked, “what types of facilities does your organization operate?”, the responses answered as follows with a few exceptions. For those entities that represent large systems operating more than three different facility types, this summary placed them in a “multiple facility types” category.
- Responses by County: The responses represent all counties in the Northwest AHEC region. More densely populated counties have a higher response count.
What is the NC Health Talent Alliance?
We are facing a critical shortage of health care professionals and personnel in North Carolina. The goal of the NC Health Talent Alliance is simple – eliminate those shortages and create a sustainable statewide talent pipeline.
The NC Health Talent Alliance is a statewide talent solution that will aggressively address the state’s critical health care talent shortages. Under the management of the Alliance, the Northwest AHEC employer-led collaboratives will collect and analyze real-time data to coordinate employers, training providers, employees, and community partners to address these key gaps.
The NC Health Talent Alliance will:
- Establish and operate professionally led regional collaboratives to lead this work;
- Generate real-time employer demand data for health care talent in critical positions;
- Organize regional public/private partnerships to recruit and retain qualified talent;
- Identify gaps in training availability and effectiveness, and coordinate actions to eliminate those gaps;
- Create systems of support to help more individuals complete the needed trainings to join the health care workforce; and
- Work with employers to identify practices for improving retention of their employees.