Shortages to Solutions: Preparing a Diverse and Resilient Integrated Care Workforce.

Abstract

While the current workforce shortages are alarming, lack in the face of necessity provides fertile ground for ingenuity. Integrated care (IC) holds the potential for impactful solutions and is, arguably, the best hope on the horizon for improving access to needed care. A larger workforce is necessary but not sufficient to fully address unmet needs. We need IC teams made of health care professionals who understand and are responsive to the patients and communities they serve, the dynamic and interdependent systems in which they provide care, and each other. The way forward will require us to (a) continue the shift from siloed models of professional training and health care delivery to fully integrated communities of interprofessional learning, research, and practice; (b) develop and test theoretical models upon which IC workforce development (WD) efforts can be confidently built, adapted, and systematically studied; (c) embrace all perspectives and incorporate the input and participation of patients and community stakeholders in the design/conduct of IC research, the education and training of the IC workforce, and in WD efforts like recruitment and retention practices; and (d) use systems and design thinking to engineer healthy, supportive, psychologically safe work environments where the tools, tasks, and technology support rather than hinder the work of IC. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).