Rob: If current trends continue, in just another four years, Oklahoma will
have a shortage of three thousand nurses and another fifteen hundred
health care workers in allied fields.
Experts say it's a solvable problem, and the answer
may lie in today's classrooms.
Rob: It may look like an ordinary health care training class, but for
some students at Francis Tuttle Technology Center in Oklahoma City, it's a
second chance, at a career.
Max Brodie-Mends: I worked with Firestone for about seven years.
I was in their chemical department, the Bamberry, and I had no idea that
it would shut down.
Suddenly, we were out of jobs, and I had to make a change, and that's how
I got into this.
Rob: Max and his classmate, Robert Adams, are embarking upon new
careers in respiratory therapy, completing a two-year training course,
for a lifetime of job security.
Robert Adams: When you come out of this program, you will be fully
qualified to assume any position in the respiratory care field.
There will never be a time when you'll be out of work.
Rob: But they're the lucky ones.
A shortage in qualified health educators is causing a growing shortage
in the number of healthcare workers throughout our state.
A concern of the Oklahoma Health Care Workforce Center, a group of public
and private organizations working to solve the problem.
Sheryl McLain is the center's executive director.
Sheryl McLain: We have interested people who want to pursue a career in
healthcare, but they can't get into courses because there's not enough
instructors to teach them.
Rob: So what is the driving force behind this nursing shortage?
McLain: One of the big issues is, nurses can get more income working in a
service setting, in a provider setting, than they can teaching.
And I think until we address the disparity between salaries for
nursing educators, and for nursing leaders, and nursing workers, and
hospitals, I think until we solve that issue, this is going to continue to be
a concern and a challenge for us.
Rob: And I guess it's important to know, whether it be a young person
looking at this field, or maybe someone returning to the workforce,
that these are good jobs.
McLain: They're excellent jobs, and they pay higher than average incomes
for Oklahoma.
If you look at the average income, you look at healthcare;
we pay higher than average.
So, it's a really good place to be, and once you get a degree and a career
in healthcare, you can go anywhere in the world and use that skill set.
Rob: Training that can be received at Oklahoma CareerTechs as well as
universities across the state.
Debbie Blanke is associate vice chancellor for the
State Regents of Higher Education.
Debbie Blanke: The State Regents were really taking a bold action.
In 2006, they dedicated 4.5 million dollars to institutions to expand
capacity, to try to focus on creating new faculty, as well as expanding how
many students they can take in those classes.
That was a really bold move for them, and it's been regionally
distributed to institutions around the state.
Rob: A collaborative effort that's pumping
new life into Oklahoma's healthcare future.
Rob: According to Oklahoma's State Regents for Higher Education, in
their latest reporting period, over 11,000 people applied to nursing and
allied health programs, and of those, seventy-nine percent were deemed
qualified, but in actuality only fifty-seven percent were admitted
because of space limitations.
Now to meet a young lady who has turned this need for new nurses into an
opportunity, just head to our website and click on this week's value added.