Michigan industry offers stable option in shaky economy as hospitals grow desperate to fill critical shortages
That may include you -- autoworkers, social workers, accountants, computer technicians and others laid off in one of the nation's worst recessions.
As jobs evaporate, the health care industry remains a field with job growth, benefits and, usually, stability.
"It's a very strong forecast for health care for a long time to come," said Andy Levin, deputy director of Michigan's Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
But as word has spread, many college health programs are full, the Free Press found in interviews with state labor forecasters, job bank coordinators, hospital human resource officials and deans of community colleges and four-year degree programs.
Now, just to get into a college program, students may first need to take online or community college courses, or volunteer to get health care experience, educators and hospital officials suggest.
"The problem is that so many people decided health care would be a great thing to get into right now that they have overloaded our education system; there are waiting lists," said Carole Stacy, director of the Michigan Center for Nursing, part of the nonprofit Michigan Health Council.
But once accepted into a training program, many fields offer graduates a choice of positions, both in Michigan and around the country.
More than a dozen health care fields are in particularly high demand. "We call them critical occupations here," said Barb Medvec, senior vice president and nursing officer at Oakwood Healthcare in Dearborn. "In many of these fields, we have vacancies."
Besides doctors and nurses, fields with the greatest shortages include pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, technologists and technicians of all kinds, and a wide range of therapists in physical and occupational therapy.
The shortages exist all over the country, fueled by retirements and an aging health care workforce, a growing number of older Americans and technology advances that demand more specialized workers.
By 2016, jobs for health care practitioners and technical workers such as nurses and physical therapists will grow 15% to 283,390 jobs, according to the Michigan labor and economic growth department.
Health care support positions, a category that includes a wide range of medical assistance help, will increase 20% to 164,500 positions, the department says.
Overall, Michigan's health care industry now directly employs 472,300 people, more than Michigan's agricultural and automotive manufacturing sectors, the department says.
"We need people very badly" in critically-short fields, said Andrea Ferrario, director of talent acquisition for St. John Health in Warren.
The system, which laid off 300 people earlier this year in nonclinical care areas, needs people in a dozen areas, including nurses with specialty training, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians and others.
"We just opened a new hospital" in Novi and "we need to maintain employment at all the rest" of the system's hospitals, she said.
Something for everyone
Experts suggest calling a hospital or visiting its Web site's career pages, then following up with interviews with hospital job recruiters.
Not all hospital jobs require training or an interest in science. Others, such as radiology technician positions, may be good for autoworkers who enroll in two-year training programs, said Deloris Hunt, vice president of human resources for the Detroit Medical Center.
Another possible fit for people with manufacturing or business backgrounds might be a position in patient financial services, which provides benefits and $10- to $15-an-hour wages and requires no prior health care training, Ferrario said.
In January, St. John plans an event to try to find jobs within the St. John system for laid-off family members of current St. John workers. It also gives bonuses of as much as $2,000 to any St. John staffer who helps recruit a person to a critically short field, if the recruited worker stays with the health system at least six months.
The Detroit Medical Center has a similar program that pays $2,000 to $5,000 to staffers who refer people for critically short jobs.
Charlene McPeak, dean of health and human services at Macomb Community College, encouraged people to volunteer in health care to boost their chances of getting into a training program.
The school's physical therapy assistant program accepted 32 people last year among 250 applicants. Those with the highest grades and test scores had the best chances of getting in, along with those who had 40 hours of experience in the field, she said. Some volunteer just to get the requirement in.
Prospects after graduation
Already, graduates in critically short fields often finish school with good prospects.
"Our students pretty routinely are considering two to three serious job offers on graduation," said Rose Higgins, clinical coordinator of the University of Detroit-Mercy physician assistant program.
Last year, more than 500 students applied for 40 positions in the program.
Jobs for physician assistants -- who work under a doctor's supervision to provide a wide range of medical care -- have grown in the University of Michigan Health System in five years, increasing from 52 to 177 today, said Marc Moote, chief physician assistant with the health system.
Though the average annual wage for a physician assistant in Michigan is $79,240, specialists in the field can earn as much as $150,000 a year in areas such as cardiovascular medicine, Moote said.
"The demand continues to exceed the available supply," he said.
Once in health care, some advance further by getting a second degree.
Anna Kostaroff, a registered nurse for nearly 30 years, returned in 2003 to Madonna University for a master's degree in hospice and palliative studies, a field caring for terminally ill patients at home and in hospitals.
"It's an open field for people in social work, chaplaincies and nursing," she said. source
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