Tuesday, November 18, 2003

For good reason, Gov. Ed Rendell has designated Nov. 17-21 as Health Careers Awareness Week.

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The health-care sector may be growing beyond capacity. It employs 11.3 million people nationwide. In Pennsylvania, more than 580,000 work in the health-care sector, with more than 141,500 in the Pittsburgh area alone.

Demand is at an all-time high, but the health work force is shrinking -- across the country, the state and our region.

A worker shortage doesn't just jeopardize excellence in our No. 1 industry, but it also puts the health of our residents at risk.

There is no business-as-usual resolution to a mounting crisis: a severe misalignment between labor supply and demand.

In 2001, I was asked to chair and plan a summit to address our region's shortage of health workers.

We were shocked, frankly, at the size of the gap, and awed by its economic, medical and social implications.

For thousands of people requiring home nursing, rehabilitation services or immediate surgery in the future, the requisite work force may be alarmingly insufficient.

The need for health-care jobs in our region has been projected to grow by 21 percent between 1998 and 2008.

		Information Information on health careers is available at http://www.pahealthcareers.org/, or through a toll-free call to 1-888-206-2200. CareerLink information is available online at http://www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us/.

As things exist, it is unlikely that our region will be able to meet that need with qualified workers. At the 2001 summit, more than 700 people from southwestern Pennsylvania came together to explore how the community could fill the health sector's employment needs.

As a result, in August 2002 the Jewish Healthcare Foundation established Health Careers Futures, a supporting nonprofit organization, to help our region devise a long-term, systemic response to avert a crisis and also guarantee that our regional employers have the health work force they require.

HCF decided to examine how the region attracts, recruits, trains and retains health-care workers and to strengthen the pathways among the essential activities.

A coalition has been created -- including the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board, Workforce Connections, CareerLink, World Class Industrial Network, The Heinz Endowments, Community College of Allegheny County, KDKA and the Bidwell Training Center -- and is working to build and reinforce recruiting, training and placement linkages, from televised advertisements about health careers to personalized skill assessment and job search assistance.

Lancaster County already has seen success with this kind of public/private partnership. We are well on our way to creating our own model.

We proceed recognizing that our work force shortage affects a broad spectrum of health professions, beyond the widely known nursing shortage.

For example, serious shortages exist among laboratory, pharmacy and radiological technicians, sonographers and medical assistants.

To attract and retain new health-care workers, a region must start early in life.

Sparking elementary and middle school students' interest in health careers can ensure that potential health-care workers get the required high school fundamentals for advanced training. The biggest work force gap lies between the supply of high school graduates with no advanced training and the demand for workers in jobs requiring certificates or associate degrees.

Our pathways project aims to build better bridges to and from specialized training.

During Health Careers Awareness Week and beyond, we hope those interested in health careers will contact CareerLinks, our regional job resource centers, for career counseling, training and financial aid information, and job search assistance.

Given the health sector's breadth and diversity, I'd like to suggest that there is a suitable career in health for everyone. Why not begin your own exploration this week? Our region's health depends on it.