Recruit, Train, and Retain Future Health Workers

Does your organization help recruit and train future health workers? Let us help. 

Programs and services exist to help organizations pay to increase and retain staff. There are also reference materials for managing your facility and workforce.

Resources link to websites from the U.S. federal government. We note when we link to our trusted community partners, in which case you are subject to their sites’ privacy policies. Review our external link disclaimer for more information.

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Increase your health staff

Featured Program Eligibility Criteria Coverage Goal
Strengthening the Direct Care Workforce States and service providers Financial aid and resources To recruit, retain, and offer professional development to direct care workers of people with disabilities and older adults
Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Leadership, Education, and Advancement in Undergraduate Pathways (LEAP) Training Program Domestic public and nonprofit private institutions of higher learning Support and resources To recruit undergraduate students from underserved or underrepresented backgrounds into MCH-related health professions
Substance Use Disorder Treatment and Recovery Loan Repayment Program-Approved Facility Facilities with a mental Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designation in a county with a drug overdose mortality rate greater than the national average Loan repayment for your clinicians To recruit and retain substance use disorder treatment and recovery professionals
National Health Service Corps Approved Sites Facilities in Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) providing primary care and substance use disorder treatment Loan repayment and scholarship incentives for clinicians To recruit and retain NHSC participants through the Loan Repayment, Scholarship and Students to Service programs

Find support to grow your health workforce through funding programs or applying for a special designation to send staff to your facility.

  • HRSA Health Workforce Program Grants: Health care organizations, health professions schools and programs, state and local governments, and community-based organizations can use these grants to train individuals who want to become health care workers or train existing staff in the disciplines of behavioral health, geriatrics, medicine, nursing, oral health, or public health.
  • State Loan Repayment Program (SLRP): States and territories may qualify to apply for this grant to create your own loan repayment program that rewards clinicians for their service in your region.
  • Community Health Workers for COVID Response and Resilient Communities (CCR): Funding for organizations to train over 2,000 frontline public health workers to help decrease the effect of COVID-19 on people who are most at risk and improve communities' ability to respond to public health emergencies.

To serve rural and underserved communities

Due to the shortage of health providers in rural and underserved communities, the federal government is offering special support to staff these areas.

  • Rural Residency Planning and Development (RRPD) Program: Entities including rural hospitals; rural community-based ambulatory patient care centers (including rural health clinics); health centers operated by a tribe, tribal organization, or an urban Indian organization; graduate medical education consortiums (including institutions of higher education, such as, schools of allopathic medicine, osteopathic medicine, or Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs)); and faith-based and community-based organizations may be eligible for up to $750,000 to create residency programs to increase the number of physicians in rural communities.
  • Graduate Medical Education (GME) Residency Slots: A hospital may qualify to receive full-time equivalent (FTE) Medicare-funded residency positions if the hospital is in a rural area, is in a state with new medical schools or new locations of existing medical schools, or serves areas chosen as HPSAs.
  • Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education (THCGME) Program: This payment program supports the training of physicians and dentists in community-based settings, like community health centers, with a focus on rural and underserved communities. 
  • Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP): Rural communities may use this list of community-based grant funding, technical assistance, support to rural hospitals, and policy research to support the health and well-being of your citizens.
  • Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs): Facilities with a shortage of primary, dental, or mental health providers may qualify to receive health workers from the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) scholarship and loan repayment programs.
  • Employer's Guide to Workforce Programs: This guide provides an overview for employers about programs important to increasing the health care workforce in rural and underserved areas.

For maternal, young children, and developmental health

Improving the health status of women, infants, children, and their families requires increasing the number of providers and leaders in Maternal and Child Health, such as doulas and midwives. 

For pediatric, adolescent, and young adult health

Adolescents and young adults need providers trained to help with their specific needs, and there are resources available for organizations that provide that support or training.

  • The Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education (CHGME) Program: This program funds freestanding children's hospitals. The money helps their graduate medical education programs train resident physicians and dentists, and helps them care for low-income children across the country.
  • Pediatric Specialty Loan Repayment Program-Approved Facility: Primary medical, dental, or mental/behavioral health facilities located in a HPSA or serving a medical underserved population may qualify to recruit and keep eligible pediatric staff.
  • Pediatric Pulmonary Centers (PPCs) Training Program: This program includes projects for domestic public and nonprofit private institutions of higher learning to improve the health status of infants, children, and adolescents with chronic respiratory conditions, sleep issues, and other related special health care needs.
  • Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) Training Program: This program includes projects for domestic public and nonprofit private institutions of higher learning to improve the quality of care and equitable access to appropriate health services for adolescents and young adults (AYA) by preparing leaders in AYA health through graduate and post-graduate level training.

For mental health and substance use disorder treatment and recovery

Given the rising need for mental health and substance use treatment services in the U.S., the federal government is offering programs and resources to increase this important workforce.

Get grant funding

Competitive federal grant options exist for schools, hospitals, health departments, and communities to support your facilities, enroll students to study health, and train your existing staff.

For schools and universities

Funding exists for colleges, universities, and academic programs to enroll more students in health programs:

  • Health Workforce School Loan Programs: Accredited health professions schools and educational institutions can apply for grant awards under these programs to offer low-interest loans to students seeking health degrees.
  • HBCU Center for Excellence in Behavioral Health: This program recruits students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to careers in the behavioral health field to address mental and substance use disorders, provides them with training that can lead to careers in this field, and prepares students for earning advanced degrees in this field.
  • Public Health Informatics & Technology (PHIT) Workforce Development Program: Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs), and other institutions of higher education may apply for funding to provide underrepresented minority individuals with training, paid internships, and career placement to help them enter into the public health informatics and technology workforce.

For health facilities

Grant funding exists for health facilities to recruit and train staff in certain health programs:

Train and develop your workforce

After you have recruited your health workforce, it is vital to keep them engaged with appropriate training to retain them. This is a listing of resources developed by various organizations, private and public, that you might find helpful. Linking to these organizations does not imply endorsement.

  • Workforce Planning Resource Repository: This is a resource from Solutions, Training, and Assistance for Recruitment and Retention (STAR²) Center, which receives HRSA funding to provide training and technical assistance (TTA) to health centers. This resource aims to help start health centers in creating a workforce plan to support future development and growth.
  • Health Center Comprehensive Workforce Plan: This Word document is a resource from STAR² Center that aims to provide a structure and a process for improving health center retention practices, and includes an instruction section, a template, and an action plan worksheet.
  • Workforce Well-being Technical Assistance:This is a resource which offers data-driven Technical Assistance (TA) offerings that are designed to address health center’s unique needs, informed by the HRSA Health Center Workforce Well-being Survey.
  • Health Center Resource Clearinghouse - Workforce Resources:This is a resource from the HRSA-funded National Resource Center (NRC) for Training and Technical Assistance (TTA), which provides a selection of TTA resources for health centers with a focus on professional development, training, leadership, recruitment, and retention.
  • AIDS Education and Training Center (AETC) National Coordinating Resource Center (NCRC): This center supports health organizations in developing and training your health workforce to help end the HIV epidemic in the U.S.
  • Think Cultural Health Continuing Education for Health Administrators: These free programs help health facilities provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) for your workers within all manner of patient care and health administration to treat patients from diverse backgrounds.
  • TargetHIV: This resource provides local and state health agencies who receive funds from HRSA’s Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) with access to webinars, tools, training materials, manuals, and guidelines about service delivery and agency operations.

Maintain a safe and healthy workforce

After you have recruited your health workforce, retain them by demonstrating commitment to preserving their health and well-being.

Prepare community and volunteer health providers

Health organizations and volunteer groups that directly impact your communities have access to federal resources, such as:

  • Move Your Way® Community Resources: These resources help organizations to communicate with your audiences about physical activity through outreach events or media.
  • Think Cultural Health Continuing Education for Disaster and Emergency Management: These free e-learning resources help paramedics, advanced emergency medical technicians (AEMTs), emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and first responders learn about culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) to help people from diverse backgrounds during disaster and emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
Content created by Immediate Office of the Secretary (IOS)
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