| Cindy Lawrence fractured her leg and foot
in a fall last year. Though she received expert care from physicians
and nurses during her treatment and rehabilitation, she was
also cared for by a broad array of other health professionals
who transported her to the emergency room, did the laboratory
work required as part of her diagnosis, and provided months
of physical and occupational therapy during her long recovery.
Allied health professionals, the largest but at times the most
invisible group of professionals in the health care field, provided
all these and other services.
The Allied Health Professions constitute 60% of all health
care providers. Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists,
Radiological Technologists, Respiratory Therapists, Speech-Language
Pathologists, Dental Assistants, Physician Assistants, Clinical
Laboratory Practitioners, Medical Assistants, Health Information
Management and some 98 other professional disciplines perform
expert assessment, provide essential services, support physicians,
nurses and dentists and profoundly influence the quality of
health care provided across North Carolina and the country.
In North Carolina The Council for Allied Health, represents
more than 18,500 allied health professionals from 30 professions.
The Council was established in 1991 by allied health practitioners,
educators and employers who were concerned about chronic allied
health workforce shortages in several rehabilitation related
professions. To answer the initial workforce concern the Council
played an important role in soliciting support from the North
Carolina General Assembly to expand educational programs and
increase the number of persons prepared and licensed to practice
in those professions.
Since its inception, the Council has been successful in achieving
goals within its mission to ensure that North Carolinians will
have access to a well prepared and well distributed allied health
workforce that is representative of the diversity of our state’s
communities. As a forum to address policy and planning in allied
health workforce development, educational recruitment and retention,
and service delivery, the Council’s goals are to:
- Monitor trends in the demand, supply, distribution of allied
health workforce in the state, in cooperation with NC Area
Health Education Centers Program (AHEC), the Sheps Center
for Health Service Research, and key professional, employer
and educational groups.
- Provide policymakers at the local and state level with accurate
information related to allied health workforce and educational
needs to make appropriate decisions regarding resources for
education and training in the state’s community college
system and four-year universities.
- Provide employers and state agencies with data to assist
them in meeting the health care service needs of the state.
- Monitor and respond to state and federal initiatives that
affect the delivery of allied health care services in North
Carolina.
- Serve as a source for public and private university systems,
community colleges, and the general public to inform them
of workforce imbalances effecting access and costs of service
as well as supply and demand issues.
- Serve as point of coordination, support, information exchange,
and crisis intervention for allied health professions, employers,
and allied health education programs in the state. The Council
is addressing such issues as the ease of movement of students
from community colleges to four-year schools: this has a direct
and lasting impact on health-care education in North Carolina.
- Promote the allied health professions as sound occupational
pathways for persons who wish to change careers.
The Council’s membership consists of practitioners, employers
and educators collaborating to meet the critical health care
needs of our state. The only Council of its kind in the United
States, its work is cited as a model of effective data collection,
provision of accurate information on workforce supply and demand,
support for allied health personnel issues, assessment of education
capacity of the public and private universities and community
colleges and promotion of quality services to the citizens of
North Carolina.
In North Carolina, as in other places in the United States,
the healthcare environment finds allied health professionals
employed in public and private sectors – not only hospitals
but also in clinics, laboratories, nursing homes, mental health
facilities, private medical practices, research institutions,
public health services, pharmaceutical companies and public
and private schools. Allied health personnel are also employed
in industry, where they administer basic health care and emergency
first aid to workers, inspect equipment and assure that safe
work practices are followed. Additionally, these professionals
act as technical advisors and representatives in the manufacturing
and marketing of medical equipment and supplies in the Research
Triangle.
The state of North Carolina is one of the nation’s best
resources for allied health personnel education and services.
Since 1999 the Council has established a survey model database
with the Sheps Center for ongoing supply and demand information
on the allied health workforce in NC. Information collected
on the following allied health professions can be found on the
following web sites: www.alliedhealthcouncilNC.org
and www.shepscenter.unc.edu/index.html.
- Physical Therapy, May 2000
- Speech-Language Pathology, June 2001
- Health Information Management, October 2002
- Radiologic Technology, July 2003
- Clinical Laboratory Science, August 2004
- Respiratory Therapy, August 2004
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the demand for
health professionals, outside of nursing, is high in many of
the allied health areas, but especially in Clinical Laboratory
Science, Radiologic Technology, Respiratory Therapy, Health
Information Management, Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy
and Speech-Language Pathology to mention a few.
Funding to support the work of the Council for the past three
years has been through a grant from the Health Care Division
of the Duke Endowment. The NC AHEC Program is requesting funding
from the General Assembly in 2005 for ongoing support of the
Council.
David Yoder may be contacted at dyoder@med.unc.edu
or CB# 7335, TR# 46, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 27599-7335.
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