September 2025 Common Ground Newsletter

Health Care

Workforce Updates

September 2025

DOH seeks applications to increase training capacity in statewide health care facilities

The New York State Department of Health Office of Primary Care and Health Systems Management Center for Health Care Policy and Resource Development Office of Healthcare Workforce Innovation is seeking Requests for Applications (RFA) to increase training capacity in statewide healthcare facilities. Applications are due October 14, 2025, by 4 p.m. Contact: Carrie Roseamelia, New York State Department of Health Office of Healthcare Workforce Innovation ESP, Corning Tower – Room 1696, Albany, New York 12237, IncreasingTrainingCapacity@health.ny.gov

Learn more.

Regional Health Care Workforce Consortium meeting - 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 30
Please join us for the next Regional Health Care Workforce Consortium meeting, which will take place from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 30. Jill Knittel from JK Executives will share lessons learned about workforce retention. Dr. Michael Privitera will discuss burnout and workplace violence. To attend, contact Kira Jackson, Program Assistant.

NYS Oral Health Coalition Annual Meeting - 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Oct. 16, 2025, Virtual.
The meeting theme is policy shifts and workforce strategy for oral health equity: Making sense of change and building what’s next. Keynotes on federal threats and opportunities for oral health and Medicaid, plus sessions on early childhood, workforce, and state policy. Continuing education credits available. Register here.

Building Better Health – monthly webinar series, September 2025 to April 2026
Area Health Education Centers throughout New York State are collaborating on a new webinar series called Building Better Health, set to begin in September. Participants will gain knowledge in such areas as literacy access, domestic violence, and social determinants of health. The series will consist of one webinar per month between September 2025 and April 2026. Continuing education credits will be available for Social Work, OT, PT, LMHC, and SLP. Contact jfulkerson@r-ahec.org for more information.

Certified Nursing Assistant Training Program – Oct. 2 to Mar. 5, 2026
This part-time Nurse Assisting program provides comprehensive training in essential healthcare skills. Students will learn medical terminology and vital signs measurement, while developing skills in assisting with hygiene practices, safe patient positioning and transferring, body mechanics, and infection control protocols to ensure safe and effective patient care. Classes will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. The cost is free with the full tuition scholarship. Learn more.

Free National Program Integrates Oral Health into Primary Care
Smiles for Life, a national oral health curriculum, offers a free program designed to integrate oral health into primary care. This comprehensive online and downloadable curriculum highlights the vital role primary care clinicians play in preventing and managing oral health conditions and provides practical strategies to close the oral health training gap.

Certificates are offered upon completion and include specialized modules for front-line health workers, such as community health workers, health educators, case managers, patient navigators, and others. Learn more.

FLPPS Recruiting for CPT Program Participants, Training Sites

The FLPPS Career Pathways Training (CPT) Program supports individuals in launching or advancing careers in health, behavioral health, and social care. FLPPS is actively recruiting participants for the CPT program which offers tuition assistance, educational case management, tutoring services, mentoring and career coaching, and resume building and job placement support. Please share this information with your friends, families, colleagues, and clients. Learn more.

Providers are also needed to serve as qualified service commitment sites for the CPT Program, a key part of the program’s success. NYS Medicaid-enrolled providers who serve at least 30% Medicaid and/or uninsured individuals may qualify, including organizations in health, behavioral health, and those contracted with NYS Social Care Networks (SCNs). Categories include health, behavioral health, and organizations that are part of established NYS Social Care Networks (SCNs). Becoming a qualified service commitment site means helping CPT participants fulfill their service commitment while gaining access to a pipeline of trained professionals ready to make an impact. If interested in becoming a qualified service commitment site, please email the FLPPS Partner Team at cptpartners@flpps.org for more information.

Violence (WPV) Overlap: Is This an Opportunity to Sustain Prevention of Both?Health care worker burnout and workplace violence in health care are complex issues that have an array of causes and effects. According to this research paper by Dr. Michael R. Privitera, University of Rochester Medical Center, identifying and intervening in the overlapping contributions to both worker burnout and workplace violence hold promise in being able to reduce both.

The Doctor is...Out: Shortages of Health Professionals in Rural Areas.
A new report by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli examined health care professional shortages in 16 rural counties in New York state and found alarming shortfalls in primary care, pediatric, and obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN) doctors, dentists, and mental health practitioners, with several counties having no pediatricians or OBGYN doctors at all.

Please share your health care workforce updates

If you have workforce updates to share, or any feedback or ideas for this newsletter, please contact Melissa Wendland at melissa.wendland@commongroundhealth.org.

Please share this newsletter with others in your organization who might benefit and encourage them to sign up to receive it. 
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