Healthcare Graduates

With federal Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) funding, the RILDS Center partnered with Rhode Island’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to support of its Health System Transformation project. The RILDS Center harnessed data linked through the RILDS to analyze employment outcomes for graduates in healthcare-related fields at the state’s public colleges and universities.

Following direction from EOHHS, the RILDS Center identified graduates earning degrees or certificates in healthcare-related fields of study from Rhode Island’s institutions of higher education in academic years 2013-14 through 2015-16. The RILDS Center determined counts and percentages of these individuals employed in Rhode Island within one year of graduation. The RILDS Center detailed these figures by relevant industries of employment.

The project fit within the WDQI goal of building out a seamless education and workforce data infrastructure that can inform policy and guide future programmatic and resource decisions. The data have been used by EOHHS to document a portion of the state’s investment in Health Workforce Development and have been presented to the state’s Medicaid-Higher Ed Partnership.

EOHHS identified the Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) codes and presented them to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a key part of the Claiming and Tracking methodology. Some CIPs or entire CIP families, such as Residency Programs did not produce any graduates who then entered employment in one of the targeted industries.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), the standard used by the federal government in classifying business establishments, groups employers into sectors (2-digit groupings), subsectors (3-digit groupings), and industries (4-digit groupings). This analysis targeted industries in the Health Care and Social Assistance and Education sectors, as well as selected industries in other Sectors, like Health & Personal Care Stores, where many of our pharmacy graduates work.

This visualization shows, by institution, the total number of graduates in each CIP family, the number of graduates employed in Rhode Island in any industry within one year of graduation, and the number employed in one of the target industries. Health Professions and Related Programs, not surprisingly, produce the most graduates. Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) and Rhode Island College (RIC) graduates of those programs are more likely to be employed in state.

This collaboration with EOHHS analyzes graduates across three academic years. The RILDS Center explored whether these graduates were employed one year following graduation and whether they were employed in the target industries. Since there was no obvious difference in employment, the RILDS Center didn't conduct bivariate or correlation analyses. Hospitals are the largest employer by far, with a roughly equal number of healthcare graduates coming from all three higher education institutions. Note that hospitals includes state and local, but not federal entities.

In examining industries closely, we see that General Medical and Surgical Hospitals are employing the highest number of healthcare graduates. CCRI produces many healthcare graduates who primarily enter employment in skilled nursing facilities and, secondarily, in other ambulatory care settings. Since this project focused on graduates, it does not capture students who continue their studies. 

The above chart shows the overall number of graduates employed in each subsector--over 500 individuals in both hospitals and in ambulatory care services, across the three years and three institutions. Psychology and social work programs are feeding graduates into most subsectors. Few graduates from 1) mental and social health services and allied professions and 2) clinical, counseling, and applied psychology are finding quick employment in these target industries. This project does not track whether graduates retain employment in state or with the same employer. 

There's a slight decline in the number of University of Rhode Island graduates employed in general medical and surgical hospitals over the three year period, and a slight increase in RIC and CCRI graduates entering the same industry.

The most popular healthcare field of study across the three public higher education institutions is registered nursing. Not surprisingly, most registered nurses (RN) are employed at general medical & surgical hospitals and in skilled nursing facilities. Note that there are few RNs employed in the education services subsector and the social assistance subsector.