Terry Austin, Bill Hazel and Cynthia Lawrence
Far too often, we hear of graduates who are not properly qualified for current and future job opportunities. The health care industry alone faces a current shortage of qualified workers, and it is estimated that in the next decade, more than 122,000 health care related jobs will be needed in the commonwealth.
An examination of the current health sciences curriculum in the Roanoke and New River Valleys revealed that our respective school systems are teaching in silos. If a health sciences student transfers from one school system to another, he or she would likely have to start from square one, regardless of knowledge and experience already acquired. That determination was the genesis of a regional initiative to standardize and raise the rigor of health sciences education to support the talent needs of our growing health sciences ecosystem.
Two years ago, Del. Terry Austin, R-Botetourt, went to Houston for cancer treatment. He came back without the cancer but with an idea.
The outgoing Austin chatted up many of the people caring for him and discovered many of them had something in common: Theyâd all gone through a special high school dedicated to health sciences training â the DeBakey High School for Health Professions.
For some, that was the extent of their training; for others, it was the starting point as they went on to further schooling and, in some cases, medical school.
Austin wondered whether the Roanoke Valley â which certainly isnât on Houstonâs scale but is still a medical center in its own right â could benefit from something similar. If not a stand-alone magnet school, at least some programs that would increase health sciences education in high schools and allow some of those students to earn dual enrollment credits for college before they even graduate from high school.