http://youtu.be/sCarLsBOYsw
Healthcare is the fastest-growing sector in the United States and with an aging baby boomer population, the demand for qualified professionals is set to increase sharply.
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment of healthcare occupations to grow 18 percent between 2016 and 2026, adding 2.4 million jobs, more than any other industry in that span.
With that in mind, officials from Doña Ana Community College want to remind students doctors and nurses are just part of the workforce. Health Sciences Division Dean Josie Carmona said the healthcare industry requires many other occupations.
“We have radiologic technology, we have respiratory therapy, we have diagnostic medical sonography and so there’s always employment opportunities for that and so our students often times come to us and they’re seeking out a nursing field without really understanding that the healthcare industry has an array of opportunities that aren’t necessarily linked to nursing,” Carmona said.
Take Junior Dillon Cordova. Cordova was a nursing major at the University of New Mexico but after discovering it wasn’t the right career fit, he entered the dental hygiene program at DACC. He said it’s appealing to work in a preventive care setting where he can practice on his classmates during dental clinics.
“There's a lot of salivary glands inside of your mouth whether that be the lining of your cheek or your tongue and saliva actually has calcium in it and calcium mineralizes plaque,” Cordova said. “So, this plaque once it gets hit with all this calcium from your saliva is going to harden and then form calculus which is going to be kind of like a cemented-like part on your tooth that just really, really sticks there and that's really what we're looking for today.”
National certifications in the health sciences range from one semester to three years to earn, with DACC reporting pass rates between 90 and 100 percent in its programs.
Like Cordova, DACC graduate Molly McClure was interested in healthcare but not as a nurse. McClure is a diagnostic medical sonographer and part-time lab instructor at the college. But McClure said she had no interest in health sciences in high school or college, instead getting her bachelor’s degree in engineering.
"I worked as an engineer for about six years after I got out of college and then I stayed home for several years, many years with my kids before I decided that I really needed to join the workforce again and that was when I started exploring and trying to decide what to do and at that point, I think maybe as an older adult the idea of taking care of people a little bit wasn't so... daunting, you know. So, the idea of a medical career appealed to me more and the technical aspect of sonography still appealed to the engineer in me,” McClure said.
As a sonographer, McClure said there’s much more to the job than performing ultrasounds on pregnant women. It also includes scanning abdominal organs like the liver and kidneys, reproductive glands as well as muscles, tendons and blood vessels.
“You get a really solid academic background, understanding of anatomy and pathology that you can see in that anatomy,” McClure said. “You get a good understanding of the technical aspects of what you're doing with the sonography machine. You have coursework related to patient care, you learn what you're going to be dealing with when it comes to patients because there's a pretty wide variety of patents out there. And then you get a lot of clinical time where you're out there practicing on real people."
Program officials say those opportunities to gain hands-on skills are the goal. Virginia Durant heads the school’s respiratory therapy program and said her students administer everything from CPR to breathing treatments and work with patients in critical care units.
“One thing we want them to know when I advise them coming in that they're going to see lots of death and then we also in our profession, we're the ones that disconnect them from life support,” Durant said. “So, it's important that they understand that they have to take blood. It's not from the veins, it's from the arteries and then we deal with lots of sputum. Anything from the chest up so they have to suction the patients and be used to things like that.”
Along with education, Durant said she hopes students take away a passion for caring for patients once they graduate.
“It's not about the money, it's just being able to help a patient. We lose some so we help them cope with that and how to understand it's an honor to be there and then some they can really save and do well and it's exciting to see a patient leave the hospital and do well,” Durant said.
Whichever program students may choose, each career helps contribute to a patient’s wellbeing. And for employees, financial wellbeing is a major benefit. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median annual wage for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations was $64,770 in May 2017. That’s dramatically higher than the median annual wage for all occupations, $37,690.
