Session: Training Social Work Students to Fill Healthcare Workforce Shortages in Medically Underserved Communities (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Panel Description: The United States is experiencing a severe shortage of physical and behavioral health care providers. As such, substantial federal funding has been invested in preparing the future workforce, including social work students, through workforce development programs. These programs specifically emphasize preparing a diverse workforce to address health care inequities, such as delivering culturally and linguistically appropriate care, understanding healthcare, and working on interdisciplinary teams. The purpose of this panel is to discuss findings from three federally funded workforce development programs training diverse cohorts of BSW and MSW students to work effectively within interdisciplinary teams providing behavioral and physical health care. The panel seeks to apply a scientific lens to workforce shortage programs and addressing labor shortages, consider how to effectively align policy and practice, especially under the current political climate, to fill critical gaps in care and ensure practitioners are reflective of the communities they serve. The panel includes three different programs funded by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Each program (a) trains students to work in medically underserved areas or health professional shortage areas; and (b) trains students from diverse racial, cultural, class, and geographic backgrounds, as well as diverse gender identities and sexual orientations. Two programs provided enhanced training to final-year MSW students and participants from other fields, and one provided training on health care for BSW students. The first paper uses qualitative focus group data to explore how participating in a workforce development program impacted students' understanding of the importance of research in health care. The second paper uses descriptive statistics to understand the impact of participating in a workforce development program on students' attitudes toward interdisciplinary health care teams, as well as the interprofessional behavioral health care skills and competencies gained. The final paper also employs descriptive statistics to measure students' attitudes, skills, experiences, and competencies from a workforce development program focusing on children and adolescent health with an interprofessional perspective. Collectively, the panel's findings offer insight into how research, policy, pedagogy, and practice can be aligned to address systemic health inequities and workforce gaps. By the end of this panel, participants will be able to describe the role of federally funded workforce development programs in addressing health care provider shortages, identify strategies for training social work students to effectively engage in interdisciplinary health care teams, examine the impact of these programs on student competencies, including interprofessional skills and attitudes toward research in health care settings, and discuss how workforce development programs can inform policy solutions to bridge gaps in care and better reflect the needs of diverse, medically underserved communities.