• Overview
• Agenda
• Speakers
• Pre-Work
• Sponsors
• Results

Event Overview

WHEN: May 2-3, 2008
WHERE: Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Boulevard NE

Advances in medicine, technological innovations and discoveries, as well as current best healthcare practices lengthen and improve American lives at an astounding rate every day. However, without adequate access to dedicated healthcare providers at all levels, these advances remain on a shelf out of reach of many Americans and particularly New Mexicans.

Nationally, the number of healthcare providers per capita continues to increase, but whether that number is enough to meet the current and impending demand for healthcare provider services remains doubtful. As a primarily rural state New Mexico feels this shortage of healthcare providers even more acutely. Every New Mexico county except Los Alamos is designated as a medical, dental or behavioral health “Professions Shortage Area” by the federal government.

For these reasons, the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center Office of Diversity and the University of New Mexico Hospital, in partnership with other stakeholders throughout the state, held a two-day forum to identify solutions and address the issues surrounding the challenges that New Mexico faces in educating, recruiting, retaining, and diversifying the pipeline for health careers.  The event highlighted best practices and participants worked to develop concrete recommendations for policymakers and leaders within the education and healthcare communities.  

Who Attended?

• Educators
• Students
• Employers
• Practitioners and professionals
• Policymakers
• Community members

What Happened during the Forum?

This was not a typical conference with day after day of presentations. There were speakers to help set context for the issues. The bulk of the forum was comprised of small group discussions among people who care about the topic and want to resolve it.

Prior to the event, participants received a background report. This report provided valuable information and best practices on health careers pipeline issues. It also served as the basis for discussions during the forum.

New Mexico First was chosen to facilitate this forum. Using their proven consensus-building process, the two-day forum asked participants to share their best ideas and practices for growing and diversifying the pool of people entering—and remaining in—health careers in New Mexico.  On day one of the forum, participants will divide into small groups to discuss the issue. On day two, they refined their ideas and finalized concrete, actionable recommendations for policymakers, educators, and private sector leaders.