A grant secured by the Douglas Education Service District will benefit Douglas County high school and middle school students to help them pursue a career in medical professions and help address the shortage of health care workers.
Randy Hubbard, the Surgical Services Purpose manager from CHI Mercy; Analicia Nicholson, the director of educational services from the Douglas ESD; and Dr. Kristina Haug, principal at Glide High School and Middle School talked about how the grant will help students pursue a health services career with host Lisa Platt on News Radio 1240 KQEN’s Talking Health program recently.
The following is an edited version of that interview.
Lisa: Can you tell us a little about the grant? Who is involved and what will the funding be used for?
Analicia: The thirteen school districts in the Douglas ESD region applied as a consortium for the Career Technical Education Revitalization grant. Umpqua Community College is one of our partners along with Umpqua Economic Employment Partnership, and the Area Health Collaborative. We have many industry partners as well.
The money will help enhance high school health programs to more closely match what the health industry is doing today. Unfortunately, most of our high schools no longer offer health occupations programs.
Randy: I’m involved in this project because we need to be more creative in how we recruit people. We have difficulty in returning people to Roseburg, so creating these pathways will be hugely beneficial downstream. For a nurse, it’s probably going to be anywhere from three to five years before we start seeing the new grads.
Lisa: How much is the grant for?
Analicia: We were awarded $432,000, and the maximum we could have been awarded was $450,000.
Lisa: By 2020, there will be a significant shortage of health care workers, and the baby boomers will be getting ready to retire in the next seven or eight years. Can you talk about that?
Randy: The Oregon Center for Nursing is predicting a 13,000-plus shortage of nurses by 2025, and within the next three to five years, 50 percent of the health care teaching faculty in Oregon will start retiring, leaving a huge gap to fill.
Analicia: Douglas County was listed on the Governor’s certified health profession shortage area, with many medical profession jobs going unfilled. In Douglas County we have a great need for new healthcare workers, as well as room for growth.
Lisa: How does the grant work?
Analicia: About a year ago, we pulled together local high schools and industry partners like Mercy, Evergreen and Cow Creek, and talked about what our needs are in the health care field. So we started talking about the shortages and what our strengths were. Then this grant came along and we decided it was the best fit to move our work forward.
Lisa: When will classes begin?
Analicia: The classes are starting next fall. We have our advisory panel, which Kristina and Randy are a part of, with about six other people. Each district has a liaison for us to work with. Part of the grant is to fund a CTE regional coordinator, and the position is posted right now. Anyone that is interested in applying can apply at Douglas ESD.
Lisa: How long is the grant for and how many students are you expecting?
Analicia: The grant runs through June 2019, so we’ve got 18 months to get this program up and running, and then we’ll work on sustaining it after that.
Kristina: In Glide, we are kind of in a unique situation because we already have health occupations classes. We’re looking for a possible 25 students that we plan to roll forward. Some of those are seniors this year. So we anticipate somewhere around 10 to 12 students graduating this year with this particular certificate.
Lisa: Randy, how is Mercy involved in this program?
Randy: Mercy is going to be a health care site where we allow kids to come in and job shadow the professionals, just to see what opportunities are there. It’s all a work in progress.
Lisa: Randy, do you want to talk about the shortages around the country, not just the physicians, but also physicians’ assistants, nurse practitioners and others?
Randy: The shortages are across the board, and with the baby boomer population continuing to retire, it’s only worsening the gaps.
Kristina: We see a definite need for this training. About 30 percent of our student population is interested in the health field. Up until now, they didn’t have the opportunity to really explore what is available to them for future employment in a health career. I’m happy to say that with this grant, that we will be able to offer students more options.
Analicia: We know there is an interest by local students to go into healthcare. In a survey of five high schools in south Douglas County, health was the fourth most selected career.
The career technical education students have a graduation rate of 81 percent for the county, which is 15 percent higher than the all-students graduation rate. So we also know if we can get kids in a CTE program, they’re likely to stay in school and finish with a wonderful set of skills to further their education or to start working, whichever they choose.
Kristina: We are unique in how we’re located here in Douglas County, with many of us being very rural, and one of the challenges we see is that students do go out and get this education, but often times they move away. One of the pieces of this grant that we’re trying to focus on is how do we provide these pathways for students to get them educated and bring them home or keep them home. So that’s one of our pushes for part of this grant.
Lisa: Can you talk about the outcomes?
Analicia: Kids will receive a certificate and they will have a better understanding of what it will take to become a nurse or other health professional. It will allow us to expose kids to health careers and the many types of jobs that are available.
Growing our own is something that we’ve always talked about, and this grant will afford us the opportunity to do more of that.
We’re fortunate enough to have a nursing school locally, and medical assisting and dental assisting and all of those great programs that UCC offers.
We don’t have a four-year university, but if we can get kids heading down a path of healthcare, and we can get them exposure to the wonderful medical clinics and hospitals that we have here, we hope that if they leave to become a physician’s assistant, they’ll come back and practice in our communities.
Randy: In the next 10 years, we’ve seen research predicting a growth of 31,000-plus jobs in health care in Oregon. Right here in Douglas County, we have 14 of the fastest growing health care jobs.
We have pharmacy techs, MA’s, dental assistants, medical records, surgical techs, lab techs, dietitians, radiology techs, cardio techs, orthotics, prosthetics, dental hygienists and occupational therapists. So there is a lot of opportunity here.
Lisa: Can you share some of the other partners?
Analicia: Yes, the Cow Creek Health and Wellness Center, OHSU, Area Health Education Center, Umpqua Community Health Center, VA Medical Center, the city of Roseburg, the Douglas Public Health Network, Umpqua Economic Development Partnership, Southwest Oregon Workforce Board, DCPSS, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math), CHI Mercy and Umpqua Community College. All of our high schools in this area are also a big piece of that.
We’re always looking for more industry partners, so if you’re in the health field and you’re interested, reach out to me at the ESD at analicia.nicholson@douglasesd.k12.or.us or by phone at 541-957-4815.
