The California Community Colleges system has the opportunity to alleviate the health care worker shortage that continues to plague the industry post-pandemic.
That’s according to educators, industry leaders and students who gathered at El Camino College Tuesday, Nov. 7, for a summit to address ways to improve equity and economic mobility in health care.
“There’s a tremendous shortage, period,” Sonya Christian, chancellor of California Community Colleges, said in an interview shortly before the summit. “So how do we increase the capacity of our community colleges so we can get more students graduating with a degree in nursing, a degree in respiratory care.
“In nursing, you have the certified nurse assistant, you have a medical assistant, you have the licensed vocational nurses, and then the registered nurses,” she added. “So there is so much need.”
The focus of the all-day event, co-hosted by the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and El Camino College, was “Vision 2030,” a seven-year roadmap that aims to guide field practice, remove systemic barriers and usher in policy reforms in the community college system.
Among the goals of Vision 2030, which the California Community Colleges Board of Governors recently approved, is to create equitable baccalaureate attainment, as well as equitable workforce and economic development, Christian said.
They will be achieved through strategies such as expanding dual enrollment, creating more partnerships between community colleges and industries to provide apprenticeship programs and prioritizing careers in healthcare, climate, STEM and education.
“We’re all doubling down on thinking about accelerating the training options, so we are tackling the various barriers and we’re trying to pull them down,” Christian said.
She pointed to El Camino College’s new Bachelor of Science degree in respiratory care as an example of an alternative pathway for students to obtain a baccalaureate degree.
The 18-month accelerated program, launched this fall, marks the first baccalaureate degree program offered by El Camino College in the institution’s 76-year history.
Brenda Thames, president/CEO of El Camino College, said the program provides an opportunity for students at the college, many of whom have families and cannot go through a four-year education, to further their education while working.
“We can provide that opportunity (for them) to continue to support their families, earn and learn, but also have economic mobility through their career pathways” she said.
The healthcare sector is one of the largest employers in Los Angeles County, according to Jermaine Hampton, vice president of workforce development and special projects at the L.A. County Economic Development Corporation, a speaker at the summit.
Employment in the industry exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2022. As of July 2023, there were 45,000 new jobs opening in the industry in Los Angeles County, Hampton told audiences at the summit.
That trend is expected to continue with each healthcare subsector predicted to add jobs between 2021-2026. Ambulatory Health Care Services will represent 75% of the increase, Hampton said.
There are many people who are interested in these job opportunities, Christian said. The question is how to enhance the capacity for training to improve the healthcare pipeline and therefore alleviate the workers shortage.
One way to alleviate the shortage of clinical faculty is having nurses go through a short professional development program and become clinical faculty for the community colleges, she said.
Another idea is to use simulation labs to provide immersive learning experiences for healthcare practitioners and students. This practice could help reduce barriers to required clinical placement opportunities, Christian said.
“The board has said, go forth and create simulation labs, and a certain percentage of your clinical experience can be in simulation labs that, by the way, are getting much more sophisticated now with the technology and with generative AI,” Christian said.
Deepening existing partnerships between community colleges with local hospitals is another way to enhance clinical education experience with students, she added.
“For example, can we expand the clinical rotation by not just doing it from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.,” Christian said. “What if we had a late evening rotation from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. We could take more students,” she said.