REB partnership is preparing for healthcare job needs
Date: 3/9/2010
March 10, 2010.By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
SPRINGFIELD -- Hampden County has a shortage of health professionals and people are in need of good jobs in the county. The goal of the Healthcare Workforce Partnership is to bring jobs and people together.
The Regional Employment Board of Hampden County (REB) offered a status report to area legislators, business people, health professionals, educators and employment experts at a meeting Friday.
The partnership includes 23 organizations including area medical centers, colleges and workforce development agencies.
J. William Ward, president and CEO of REB, said, "There is no other partnership like this in the Commonwealth."
Commenting on both the needs of the healthcare industry as well as the economy, he added, "We can not afford to allow a single healthcare opening to go begging."
Kelly Aiken, director of the REB, said in Hampden County 16 percent of the workforce has jobs in healthcare. She noted the challenges are to identify what positions employers need to fill not just now, but in the future as well. How to educate people for these jobs is the other concern.
The changing technology of healthcare also complicates the process, she said.
Aiken said the effort to prepare people for jobs in healthcare must begin in elementary and high schools, as well as ensuring adult literacy skills.
The partnership has been concentrating on assembling information on nursing and allied health occupations over the past two years, she said. The forecasts indicate there will be needs for additional registered nurses, medical assistants and medical records personnel, she said.
Aiken said if nothing were done to add more nurses into the system, by 2015 there would be a gap of 354 vacant positions. By 2020, that gap would grow to 771 unfulfilled jobs.
Dr. Kathleen Scoble, director and chair of nursing at Elms College, said the shortage of nurses could be attributed in part to the lack of nursing instructors.
She said, "A perfect storm is brewing."
Scoble explained a new scholarship program was formed to help encourages nurses to go on to earn their advanced degrees and be eligible for teaching positions. Ten area nurses have received $15,000 scholarships and so far, eight have completed their course of study and will be teaching.
She added ways to retain nurses are also needed, although the recession has actually helped retention issues.
Springfield native Robert Calaf spoke about how his healthcare education and employment turned his life around. The 25 year-old had a difficult childhood and after his father died when he was 18 he "slid into a dark spot in my life."
Admitting he was "doing what I shouldn't do," Calaf said the death of a friend at the hands of another person he knew made him change his life.
"I chose the legal route," he said. "I had job after job after job after job. I couldn't get myself to focus."
Volunteer opportunities and encouragement through the Puerto Rican Cultural Center, followed by education at the Massachusetts Career Development Institute and the partnership's Certified Nursing Assistant program and help in applying for jobs at Futureworks changed his life.
"[The employment] process was a very, very long process," he said.
He is now a patient care technician at Baystate Health.
"I actually enjoy the work," he said. "It's very fulfilling."
"It is stories like this that show our collaborative efforts are having an impact," Aiken said.
For more information about occupations in healthcare, go to
www.explorehealthcareers.org.
