Title: Legislating Physician Shortage: Health Policy, Moral Injury, and Family Medicine Workforce Decisions in the Mountain West Following Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization

Program: Public and Population Health Leadership PhD

Committee Chair: Mac McCullough

Committee: Mac McCullough, Taylor Neher, Ellen Schafer

Abstract: Idaho has long faced important healthcare provider workforce shortages. This dissertation examines how recent health policies passed in Idaho, including restrictions on provision of abortion or gender affirming care and new parental consent requirements, influence physician career decisions and workforce distribution. The dissertation uses three complementary methods — surveys of family medicine residents in Idaho and Montana, qualitative interviews with recent graduates, and a scoping review of existing literature — to measure real-time decision-making during a natural policy experiment created by the 2022 Dobbs decision.