In the News

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FierceHealthcare.com

A study that looked at new physicians in New York state had discouraging news for female doctors.

The research (PDF) found that not only have differences in pay persisted between newly trained male and female doctors, the gap has grown over time.

While the number of women doctors completing training has steadily increased, the pay gap between men and women in 2016 was more than $26,000 after taking into account factors such as specialty, setting, practice location and patient care hours, researchers at the University of Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies found. The center analyzed trends in starting salaries for physicians who completed graduate medical education training in New York over the last 15 years.

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Portland Press Herald

…A decade ago, it would have been impossible for Fichthorne to offer her services without the supervision of a dentist. But in 2008, Maine passed a law allowing hygienists who have obtained a special type of license to work independently.

Since then, the number of licensed, independent practice dental hygienists, or IPDHs, in Maine has inched upward. In 2012, there were at least 37 in the state – compared with 1,196 hygienists who had a traditional license requiring them to work under the supervision of a dentist – according to a report by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the University at Albany State University of New York.

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The Leader-Herald

Anyone planning to study to become a registered nurse will be required to obtain a bachelor’s degree in nursing within 10 years of becoming a Registered Nurse, according to a bill signed into law this week by the governor.

…the proportion of active RNs ages 55 and older increased in both rural and urban areas of the state, according to the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York at Albany. Between 2005-2009 and 2010-2014, active RNs in rural areas between the ages of 18 and 54 increased by less than 1 percent, while those 55 and older increased by 26.5 percent. Active RNs in urban areas between the ages of 18 and 54 decreased by 1.2 percent while those 55 and older increased by almost a third–29.4 percent.

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DailyNurse.com

The Nurse Practitioner Association New York State (NPA) recently cited a new study outlining the increasing number and influence of nurse practitioners in the state in celebration of National Nurse Practitioner Week 2017, November 12-18.

Stephen Ferrara, DNP, FNP, FAANP, Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at Columbia School of Nursing and Executive Director of The NPA, stated in a press release, “Nurse Practitioners focus not only on diagnosing and managing acute and chronic illnesses, but also on integrating evidence based practice, health promotion, disease prevention, and patient education to help patients understand their complete health picture. We thank SUNY Albany’s School of Public Health for their study highlighting the professional credentials and expanding role of NPs as vital providers of health care to people throughout New York State.”

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HealthNewsDigest.com

ALBANY, N.Y. — Nurse Practitioners in New York are gravitating to areas around the state with the greatest healthcare need, according to a new report by UAlbany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies. With an estimated 13,000 active nurse practitioners (NPs) practicing in New York, the profession features a wide regional variation in their distribution, according to the report. Statewide, about 43 percent of NPs are working in federally designated primary health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). Among rural NPs, the figure jumps to nearly 70 percent.

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HealthNewsDigest.com

The Exit Survey, conducted annually since 1998 (excluding 2004 and 2006), provides an overview of the outcomes of training and the demand for new physicians. Among the key data points tracked by the survey include physician job market assessments, demand based on areas of specialization, and the likelihood of physicians practicing in New York after completing training.

The demand for primary care physicians has outpaced demand for specialists every year since 2008. Primary care physicians were less likely than their specialist counterparts to report difficulty in finding a satisfactory job; they received more job offers than specialists and had a more positive assessment of the regional job market. Also of note, the average increase in median starting income was four percent for primary care physicians versus 3 percent for specialists from 2012 through 2016.

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The Buffalo News

Physician shortages, especially in primary care, have become a problem throughout the United States, as fewer medical students go into the field and older doctors retire. Primary care includes internal and family medicine, pediatrics and obstetrics-gynecology.

There were about 1,500 primary care doctors in 2015 in Western New York, about 70 percent of them in family or internal medicine, according to the University of Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies. This region had 72.2 family and internal medicine doctors per 100,000 population compared to a statewide average of 85.5.

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PMlive.com

A US survey that has been undertaken every year since the early 1990s provides some illumination as to the specialties that residents and fellows completing their training in New York State each year regard as the most desirable. The work, undertaken by the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the State University of New York at Albany, USA, questions medics about their post-training plans and experiences finding a job. From the answers, the centre has developed a Demand Index, which ranks the relative demand for the 25 largest specialties.

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Oral Health Kansas Newsletter

Elizabeth Mertz, PhD, a dental sociologist and associate professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry (UCSF), did research on the dental care gap. She discussed the challenges older adults face when trying to access dental care, as well as the ways four states (California, Florida, Minnesota and North Carolina) are trying to solve those challenges.

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Naszemiasto, Bialystok News

(Translated to English) Researchers from SUNY University at Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) point out that increasing the professional competence of dental hygienists will translate into increased oral health throughout the community. Persons practicing such professions should be able to perform a wider range of oral hygiene.

In spite of the fact that dental hygienists occupy a largely independent workplace, specific procedures can only be performed on an order and under the supervision of a dentist. Not in all European countries, just like in Poland. Research has shown that the wider the range of dental hygienists the wider the country, the lower the incidence of caries and periodontal disease.

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