Imagine you need emergency medical assistance and there is not an EMT to take you to a hospital. Or, when you get to a hospital, you cannot receive immediate care because of a lack of nurses and doctors.
These scenarios could become a reality if we don’t address the projected shortfall of healthcare workers to fill important, in-demand jobs within the industry in the next 10 years.
According to the World Health Organization, we’ll be short 10 million healthcare workers worldwide by the start of the next decade. In the United States alone, we’ll need approximately 1.8 million healthcare workers by 2032.
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That’s a lot. And, time is of the essence to fill these roles. So what can be done? In education, an increased emphasis on healthcare-related career and technical education programs can help solve this critical issue.
What’s causing the shortage?
As outlined in the recent iCEV report, “Bridging the 10 Million Health Worker Gap: The Impact of CTE Educators,” there are many contributing factors to this shortage: healthcare employee churn, The Great Retirement, challenges in attracting—and retaining—new talent, and even increased life expectancy. With more and more people living longer given medical advancements—especially compared to just a century or two ago—more healthcare workers are needed to care for more people.
As a society, overcoming these obstacles and filling the healthcare workforce pipeline must be addressed now. This is where CTE comes in.
Prioritizing healthcare in CTE programs
CTE is—and will be—critical in filling healthcare positions.
There are practical and actionable steps leaders at the district and school level can take to further prioritize healthcare as part of their programming and, in turn, engage more students in the pathway. As outlined in the report, this includes:
- Securing partnerships with local healthcare institutions for access to work-based learning internships, expensive and/or large healthcare equipment, and information about trends in the healthcare industry.
- Offering a wide variety of industry-recognized certifications.
- Encouraging students to take multiple courses in a health science program of study.
- Offering dual credit programs for healthcare CTE strands.
- Training school staff in best practices for CTE placement, focusing on student interest and prerequisite skills.
- Creating evaluation and vetting committees composed of CTE educators and administrators to review instructional materials, curriculum, resources, and vendor services.
- Developing relationships with employers to learn about job-readiness expectations and incorporate work-based learning skills into CTE courses.
As healthcare leaders increasingly look to K-20 education to inspire, motivate and train the next generation of healthcare workers, district and school leaders must prioritize and increase learning opportunities related to healthcare careers as part of their CTE programs. This starts with educating more students on healthcare careers—the positions out there, understanding what’s required for those positions, the pathways to securing those positions and the skills needed to succeed in the industry.
All educators—especially CTE educators at the middle and high school level—can play a pivotal role in making this happen.
Supporting CTE educators
For CTE educators to be successful, district and school leaders need to provide them with resources—curriculum, lab activities and career exploration materials—to inspire and engage students in hands-on and experiential learning.
We also have to prepare students for industry certifications and work-based learning opportunities. These resources are just as important for CTE educators as they are for students themselves, and can go a long way in propelling students to join the healthcare industry. Equally important is providing educators with ongoing and robust professional learning opportunities to grow and improve their instructional skills, especially as it relates to health sciences.
CTE educators have the potential to shift the trajectory and provide our nation—and our world—with highly qualified and motivated students eager to enter into healthcare professions. We are already seeing many districts offer innovative healthcare-based CTE programs and we encourage other districts to replicate these efforts so that, together, we can impact the number of students pursuing healthcare careers substantially.
Let’s give educators the support they need now to make this a reality.
