The state must build on the excellent preliminary work of the Washington state Board of Health on health disparities and health care workforce diversity. Their work identified increased diversity of the health care workforce as one way to address the issue of health disparities in minority populations.92 As Washington’s population becomes more ethnically diverse, we must recognize that unless we also diversify the health care personnel workforce, we will not have enough workers. Recruitment of diverse populations into the health professions has three benefits. It boosts the socioeconomic status of the minorities who enter health professions careers, promotes culturally competent care for patients from minority groups, and provides more workers.

The Board of Health emphasized that recruitment needs to include gender, race, ethnicity, age, and disability to reflect the growing diversity of our patient population. As discussed earlier in this report, the current lack of diversity is a signal that health professions recruitment continues to be based on the erroneous assumption that Caucasian women will continue to choose health careers at the same rates they have in the past. The state must continue its leadership in this area and should make recommendations on how to put policy into practice.