In an effort to address a critical need for more medical professionals, DHR Health and Region One have partnered with GEAR UP, a program that focuses on increasing college and career readiness, to provide career advice for those who are venturing into the medical field.
Dr. Sohail Rao, executive vice president at DHR Health, spoke candidly Tuesday about the hospital’s need and how DHR Health and Region One are addressing the issue.
Counselors need to be a “catalyst for change,” he said, adding that the new partnership will give counselors a firsthand look at the “crisis” that exists, while also helping them guide their students appropriately as they go into different areas of the healthcare workforce.
Rao highlighted data about the career opportunities at DHR and the shortages it is encountering at an event announcing the partnership Wednesday.
As of Feb. 17, DHR has 598 open positions in various clinical areas, of those, 203 are for registered nurses.
To prevent the gap from continuing to grow, Rao provided a digital handbook of the various careers in the medical field to all the counselors who attended the event.
The digital handbook includes information about the courses students need to take when pursuing a career in medicine, as well as providing any further information the students may need.
Rao believes that by providing detailed information to high school counselors about the career opportunities available, they will be better equipped to pave the way for change in order to bridge the gap in healthcare.
According to the data presented by Rao nationwide, the health care system is made up of approximately 800,000 workers. By 2026 the U.S. will need a 10% increase in health care workers in order to maintain a stable physician to patient ratio.
But by 2026 approximately 400,000 workers are expected to leave the medical field due to retirement, Rao said.
“I can tell you that a sizeable number, about a third of physicians, are at the retirement age right now in the Valley,” Rao said.
He urged high school counselors to share these statistics with their students to further emphasize the need for more healthcare workers.
“It’s going to be a catastrophe if it doesn’t get fixed, the nurses as you know are taking early retirement, they are burnt out, particularly in the last two-and-a-half years,” Rao said. “It’s a tsunami waiting to happen.”
Due to the dire statistics, Rao and DHR have taken it upon themselves to conduct events for students interested in medicine.
In summer 2021 the hospital gave students the opportunity to participate in the DHR junior clinical research internship, and in November it hosted a presentation called Clinical Research and its Impact on Public Health Crisis in the Valley.
Their efforts, however, do not end there.
During Wednesday’s event Rao announced that DHR is planning to offer the junior clinical research internship this summer again starting June 6, and in September they will be hosting another presentation on research and its impact in the Valley. It will be followed by a Mental Health and Other Critical Challenges presentation and another one called Similar Programs for Disadvantaged Students. Dates for the last two events will be announced later this year.
