Susan Dentzer, senior health policy adviser for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former on-air health correspondent for the PBS News Hour, was the keynote speaker at the Employment Relations in Healthcare Conference held on March 14-15, 2014 in Rutgers' Labor Education Center.
During her talk, "Take This Job and Change It: How The Transformation of Health care May Alter Patterns of Employment," Dentzer spoke with more than 60 Rutgers faculty, students, and researchers about work and employment relations in the U.S. health care system.
“The health care industry is predicted to grow to 22 million in 2022, with a 2.6% annual growth rate,” said Dentzer, citing projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
While the growth in job opportunities is promising, Denzer stressed the need for better health care at lower costs, nurses who are willing to work in hospitals, and the reduction of premature deaths before age 50.
“It may be many years until we drive unnecessary care out of the system, but that’s the goal and what we should aim for,” said Dentzer.
She also noted the growing interest in community health care professions, which she deems as the workforce of tomorrow. SMLR’s new Community Health Worker Program, through which anyone can become a frontline public health worker, was cited as evident of this growth.
The Employment Relations in Healthcare Conference was sponsored by Rutgers Centers for Global Advancement and International Affairs, Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations' Center for Work and Health, and the School of Labor and Employment Relations at the University of Illinois.
Please see the special issue of the ILR Review for articles on work and employment relations in health care, including an introduction co-authored by SMLR Professors Adrienne Eaton and Rebecca Kolins Givan.
