The Changing Roles of Community Health Workers

Overview

Journal Health Serv Res

Specialty Health Services

Date 2017 Jan 28

PMID 28127766

Citations 46

Authors

Mary-Beth Malcarney

Patricia Pittman

Leo Quigley

Katherine Horton

Naomi Seiler

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Objective: To examine what different types of employers value in hiring community health workers (CHWs) and determine what new competencies CHWs might need to meet workforce demands in the context of an evolving payment landscape and substantial literature suggesting that CHWs are uniquely qualified to address health disparities.

Study Design: We used a multimethod approach, including a literature review, development of a database of 76 programs, interviews with 24 key informants, and a qualitative comparison of major CHW competency lists.

Principal Findings: We find a shift in CHW employment settings from community-based organizations to hospitals/health systems. Providers that hire CHWs directly, as opposed to partnering with community organizations, report that they value education and training more highly than traditional characteristics, such as peer status. We find substantial similarities across competency lists, but a gap in competencies that relate to CHWs' ability to integrate into health systems while maintaining their unique identity.

Conclusions: As CHW integration into health care organizations advances, and as states move forward with CHW certification efforts, it is important to develop new competencies that relate to CHW-health system integration. Chief among them is the ability to explain and defend the CHW's unique occupational identity.

Citing Articles

"I feel like my job is to give patients hope" - perspectives of Community Health Workers and employers in Iowa: a mixed methods study.

Sursely A, Kazmerzak D, Appelgate W, Walkner L, Hiros S, Hileman R BMC Health Serv Res. 2025; 25(1):386.

PMID: 40089724 DOI: 10.1186/s12913-025-12536-9.

A Social Network Lens to Community Health Worker Influence and Impact.

Yousefi Nooraie R, Naghibi D, Hernandez-Torres R, Cupertino P J Prim Care Community Health. 2025; 16():21501319241306706.

PMID: 39791944 PMC: 11724407. DOI: 10.1177/21501319241306706.

Integrating community health workers into HIV care clinics: a qualitative study with health system leaders and clinicians in the Southern United States.

Fuller S, Arnold E, Xavier J, Ibe C, Steward W, Myers J BMC Health Serv Res. 2024; 24(1):1339.

PMID: 39487486 PMC: 11531124. DOI: 10.1186/s12913-024-11381-6.

Community health worker perspectives: examining current responsibilities and strategies for success.

Kowalczyk M, Yao N, Gregory L, Cheatham J, DeClemente T, Fox K Arch Public Health. 2024; 82(1):94.

PMID: 38907308 PMC: 11191347. DOI: 10.1186/s13690-024-01313-5.

Community Mental Health Workers: Their Workplaces, Roles, and Impact.

Heetderks-Fong E, Bobb A Community Ment Health J. 2024; 60(8):1547-1556.

PMID: 38896213 DOI: 10.1007/s10597-024-01306-2.

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