How can Texas address workforce shortages in health care?

Texas faces a significant health care workforce shortage, threatening access to care statewide, according to Texas educators and workforce advocates.

The crisis is compounded by Texas having the nation’s highest uninsured rate at 21.6% for adults, with Dallas leading the state at 24% uninsured, said Wayne White, president and CEO of Communities Foundation of Texas.

In Dallas County, for example, the county-level life expectancy was 78.3 years, but ZIP code-level life expectancy ranged from 67.6 years (75215) to 90.3 years (75204), according to a 2022 Dallas County Community Health Needs Assessment that cites 2019 data from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

White’s remarks occurred in June at a Communities Foundation’s event, during which the organization awarded $9.7 million in grants to several nonprofits working to expand access to health services across North Texas. (Communities Foundation of Texas is a supporter of the Future of North Texas initiative at The Dallas Morning News)

Texas’ health care workforce shortage stems from multiple factors, including an aging population, pandemic-related talent losses and population growth that has outpaced workforce development, according to advocates.

Registered nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners are among the top growing occupations facing greater demand than supply, according to the Texas Workforce Commission.

The last two occupations are among the top six projected to grow fastest through 2032 in the North Central Texas, Dallas and Tarrant workforce development areas, according to the commission.

Texas also faces an estimated shortage of over 57,000 nurses by 2030, Tetsuya Umebayashi, vice provost for Dallas College’s School of Health Sciences, said in an interview with The News.

The Healthcare Workforce Task Force, created by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board at Gov. Greg Abbott’s request, released a report last October with recommendations to address the shortage. The proposed solutions include investigating the feasibility of establishing a workforce development initiative in Texas Medicaid and establishing startup funds for apprenticeship program sponsors.

Health care training programs

Aware of this crisis, several institutions in Texas are developing programs and partnerships to heal the labor gap.

“We’ve saved nursing students $25 million by providing low-cost or no-cost digital materials,” Wynn Rosser, commissioner of higher education for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, told The News.

The Dallas Regional Chamber hosted a higher education forum featuring Wynn Rosser, the Texas Commissioner of Higher Education, who delivered the keynote address in his first year leading the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The luncheon event took place at the Dallas Regional Chamber offices in Dallas, June 24, 2025.

Tom Fox / Staff Photographer

State leaders and universities are trying to fill those gaps with sweeping investments in health care education and workforce development.

In June, the Texas Legislature passed several laws aimed at strengthening Texas’ health care workforce pipeline by studying educational gaps in health physics, creating resources for workforce development and streamlining coordination efforts through new councils focused on health care and nursing jobs.

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston announced in June that its Future Nurses Fund will provide free in-state tuition and fees to qualifying students in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at their Cizik School of Nursing, beginning in the 2026 spring semester.

In July, the St. David’s Foundation, the philanthropic arm of one of Texas’ largest health systems, announced it is investing over $10 million across 10 grants to support schools, employers and community organizations in order to enroll over 1,200 students annually into health care certification and credentialing programs.

Dallas College in July announced a partnership with Tarrant County College, Navarro College, Hill College and the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council to provide training and more than $1.3 million in tuition assistance to health care students for the next four years.

Dallas College previously expanded its allied health programs and added a bachelor’s degree in nursing program, Dallas College Chancellor Justin Lonon told The News. The school provides fast-track programs in phlebotomy and medical assistant fields, among others, with some courses limited to 15 students per class, according to the college.

Leslie Johanson (right), IV instructor, assesses Cheryl Robin (left), second semester student, as she demonstrates placing an IV in a mannequin arm at the Dallas College Brookhaven Campus in Dallas, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

Liz Rymarev / Staff Photographer

On Wednesday, Dallas College signed an agreement with American College of Education to let Dallas nursing students concurrently enroll in the online college’s graduate program, reducing time and cost for a master’s degree.

Kerri Briggs, executive director of the Communities Foundation’s Educate Texas organization, told The News that Educate Texas and the HCA Healthcare Foundation have worked with high schools, colleges and health care employers to create 157 health care programs at Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools and Early College High Schools, creating career opportunities for over 10,000 students statewide.

Premier High School in DeSoto offers tuition-free health care career training programs, including a phlebotomy program and a certified medical assistant program planned for the 2026-27 school year, according to Elizabeth Camarena, brand superintendent for TexasWorks, in a statement to The News.

The school is co-located with TexasWorks, which provides the same phlebotomy certification course to adults ages 18-50 as part of a statewide tuition-free program launched last year to combine high school diploma completion with career certifications, according to Camarena.

This fall, the Uplift Education charter school network and Baylor Scott & White Health are opening a health care career technical program at the Uplift Grand school in Grand Prairie, according to Baylor Scott & White Health officials. A similar program, the Uplift Heights Healthcare Institute, opened last August in West Dallas.

Phil Kendzior, vice president of workforce development programs at Baylor Scott & White Health, told The News that beyond creating a skilled workforce, these programs can help maintain and expand health care options in communities statewide, as well as help residents obtain jobs that can give them enough money to take care of themselves.

But workforce advocates and educators also need to show students how health care also includes careers in radiology, pharmacy, phlebotomy, and marketing, among others, Kendzior said. Not all of them require a four-year degree or higher.

“There’s more to health care than doctors and nurses,” said Kendzior.

“There’s hundreds and thousands of different jobs that you can have in health care.”

Medical student weighs in

For aspiring health care professionals, the medical students enrolled at the Dallas College Brookhaven Campus advise young people to get their ducks in a row before starting a college program. They should also research different medical fields to find the job that best suits them.

For Angelica Baldazo, a career in medical imaging emerged from an unexpected professional pivot. Working as a patient care tech at Children’s Health, Baldazo initially wanted to become a nurse before discovering radiology. She became fascinated by the diagnostic role imaging professionals play in patient care.

“We are part of the diagnosis, part of a patient’s care,” the 24-year-old told The News. After researching programs, she chose Dallas College, attracted by smaller class sizes and affordable tuition.

The program’s rigor requires significant commitment in time and financial management, she said. Her long-term goal is to specialize in mammography or MRI, fields she believes will allow her to contribute meaningfully to medical diagnostics, particularly in areas like breast cancer research.

“I applied twice before getting accepted into the program,” she said. “Just because it’s one ‘no’ doesn’t mean it’s going to be a forever ‘no.’ Just keep trying.”

Students scan each other’s ankles as they learn radiology at the Dallas College Brookhaven Campus in Dallas, on Thursday, Feb. 27, 2025.

Liz Rymarev / Staff Photographer

This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.