AARC Participates in Health Professions Network Fall Meeting

AARC Participates in Health Professions Network Fall Meeting

October 12, 2004
The AARC brought the concerns of respiratory therapists to key stakeholders attending the Fall meeting of the Health Professions Network (HPN), held September 30–October 2 in Salt Lake City, UT.

“The HPN is a gathering of health care provider organizations, educators, accreditors, and administrators, all of whom are concerned with exploring current issues and advancing the allied health professions,” says AARC Director of Education and Management Bill Dubbs, MEd, MHA, RRT, FAARC, who represented the AARC at the meeting. “One of the key goals of the group is to find solutions to the current and future shortages of allied health professionals.”

The meeting reflected that theme, as attendees heard presentations from various public and private sector groups working to solve workforce issues in allied health.

Dubbs says Angela Dayton, who leads the Business Relations Group of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, discussed President Bush’s High Growth Job Training Initiative. The project is funding demonstration projects to increase the number of workers in 12 high growth sectors of the economy, including health care.

“The literature about this project distributed at the meeting recognized that respiratory therapists are projected to grow by 34.8 percent between 2002–2012,” says Dubbs. About $10 million has been earmarked for the demonstration projects, which will include initiatives aimed at addressing labor shortages and innovative training strategies.

“Projects that address shortages of qualified faculty to teach nursing and other skills at the community college level or that focus on new and untapped labor pools, competency models, and career ladders for specialty nursing and allied health fields are being encouraged,” continues Dubbs. A notice of availability of funds and solicitation for grant applications for the demonstration projects was published recently in the Federal Register (Vol. 69, No. 180, September 17, 2004).

The meeting also featured representatives from the National Consortium on Health Science and Technology Education and its partners, who brought attendees up-to-date on programs to increase public awareness of allied health career opportunities, including a Health Science Career Cluster Model that identifies learning activities teachers in grades K–12 can use to increase awareness of health professions among their students.

On the preparedness front, Dr. James James, director of the Center for Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response, presented an overview of national emergency preparedness. “During the presentation, he identified respiratory therapists as important providers in ensuring care during a nationwide emergency,” says Dubbs.

Other speakers included:

Richard Cooper, MD, of the Health Policy Institute at the Medical College of Wisconsin, who identified anesthesiologists and pulmonary/critical care physicians as among the physicians with the greatest shortages.

A representative from the American Health Information Management Association, who discussed the standard electronic health record and the changes it would bring for allied health.

J. Michael Miller, chief of the Laboratory Response Branch for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who outlined his agency’s activities.

Melissa Sanders, branch chief of the National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and Jenny Sermas, a public health analyst also from HRSA, both of whom addressed HRSA-related opportunities for the allied health professions.

“The meeting also featured several discussion groups,” says Dubbs, “which looked at strategies to make legislators, policymakers, and the public more aware of the importance of allied health workers, who collectively make up substantially more of the health care workforce than physicians and nurses.” Strategies to deliver the message about career opportunities in allied health to K–12 students and educators were discussed as well.