Case Study: How Alaska Addresses Its Health Care Workforce Challenges

Like many states, Alaska continues to face health care workforce shortages that are particularly challenging in the rural and frontier areas of the state. Through cross-agency collaboration, however, Alaska has made significant inroads to address its challenges of education and training initiatives, recruitment and promoting retention of healthcare workers. State successes include: implementing registered apprenticeships for healthcare occupations; providing Medicaid reimbursement for non-traditional healthcare workers; creating core competencies and training tools for direct support workers; conducting readiness assessments of state staff and behavioral health providers; and implementing a loan repayment program. A case study from the National Academy for State Health Policy highlights how Alaska has utilized this multi-sector, cross-agency collaboration to bolster healthcare workforce development.