Tuesday, December 12, 2023
When you think about your future healthcare needs, does it ever cross your mind that you may not be able to get the care you need when you need it due to a lack of healthcare professionals? Maybe you are already experiencing this through longer wait times for specialists or even for your primary care provider. A number of factors have contributed to the shortages. The solution is for schools to provide exposure now to health science programming and careers.
How Did We Get Here?
Wisconsin’s supply and demand for health care professionals over the next 20 years is a cause for concern, especially in rural and urban underserved areas. The reasons contributing to the healthcare workforce crisis are largely due to:
- retirements in the industry,
- fewer young people to attract to the field,
- increased care needs of a large aging population,
- young and middle-aged adults leaving healthcare due to burnout and the polarized political environment affecting healthcare delivery, and
- lack of strong K-12 health science career pathway programs around the state.
These workforce issues have been exacerbated by factors in the general population, such as rises in chronic disease, the increased need for mental health services, and baby-boomer retirements. While workforce shortages are affecting many industries, the one CTE area we can’t leave behind is Health Science. People’s lives depend on it!
Address Barriers to Health Science Programs
Health science programs in K-12 schools came on the scene later than their CTE counterparts such as business and agriculture education–by as much as 25-50 years depending on the content area. This has led to higher costs in starting up a new CTE program than in years past. Even so, K-12 programs in the health science space are rapidly emerging, with about 60 percent of districts offering a regional or local career pathway. Let’s look at how schools are addressing barriers.
Health Science teachers. Health science is unique in that there are varied DPI licenses that may be approved to teach a health science course, but no traditional teacher education program exists as in other CTE content areas. Because of this “informality,” those with an approved license to teach a health science course don’t always identify as a “health science” educator or take ownership of the career pathway. As districts recognize this, they are tapping the appropriate educators and getting creative in how they can offer health science. In addition, teacher preparation and licensing is being revisited on the state level.
Partner with the community. Postsecondary institutions and the health industry may be eager to support new or expanding programs in their communities. They recognize that high school students can fill many careers in healthcare before they graduate. Business and industry and complementary groups are working together to address the impending crisis. Reach out to learn about the health landscape in your community.
Introduce health careers early. All students need earlier exposure to health careers, especially before gender stereotypes and biases of the jobs girls and boys “should” or “shouldn’t” do take hold. A highly visible, quality program in middle and high school can make the difference.
In 10 to 20 years, we do not want to look back and regret not having done something sooner. Let’s act now to offer more health science programming earlier.
—Submitted by Christina Patrin, Health Science Education Consultant, Wisconsin HOSA Advisor, Career and Technical Education, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction