A work group consisting of representatives of public agencies, education, the health care industry, and unions and professional associations was formed to examine education and training issues related to the shortage of health care workers in Washington state. The group concluded that the shortage of available workers in many health care occupations across Washington is seriously jeopardizing the availability and quality of health care for the state's residents and is undermining the vitality of one of the state's largest industries. The group drafted eight objectives and 30 enabling strategies and submitted them for state and local policymakers' consideration. The identified objectives were as follows: (1) increase the number of students in training for health care occupations; (2) increase opportunities for clinical training; (3) remove barriers to training for current health personnel; (4) recruit diverse populations into the health care profession (including diversity in gender, race, ethnicity, age, and disability); (5) increase the availability and retention of qualified health care faculty; (6) increase young peoples' awareness of opportunities in health care and awareness of the math and science requirements; (7) enable local communities to address health care shortages; and (8) provide innovative leadership for solving health care labor shortages. (Contains 14 endnotes.) (MN)