The Center for Rural Health has developed a statewide health care provider tracking system which includes physicians and dentists with the ability to create and maintain a comprehensive inventory of North Dakota’s critical health care resources. The purpose of this program is to collect, maintain, and disseminate health care provider information and to support policy decisions, health care workforce planning, recruitment, and educational planning. The NPC project would add Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Certified Nurse Midwives to this important database resulting in the ability to define and project the status of these health care providers on the health care delivery system in North Dakota.
Goals
Findings from this study will provide the data needed to assist in health needs planning and forecasting for the NPC providers.
Activities
Survey 510 NPCs in North Dakota. After the data is enter into the Health Workforce Tracking Program, an analysis will be conducted determine demographic, educational background, practice profiles, practice arrangements, and retirement plans for these disciplines. Statistics will also be graphed and mapped to provide an overall picture of the distribution of these health care providers in the state.
Legislation & Policy
Information from this project could be used to inform the state legislator of the distribution of NPCs across the state and the need for a better loan repayment program to attract new providers to North Dakota.
