How to fill the sick care non-college educated workforce gaps

The latest election laid bare the gaps between college educated and non-college educated voters further exacerbating political polarization and the lack of civil discourse.

Things have been made worse by inflation, student debt, the exploding costs of higher education and many questioning its value.

In the meantime, there are significant unmet workforce needs in Sick care, USA, but is an unrealistic expectation that they can all be filled by college educated workers.

Over one in three adults (35 percent) had attained at least a bachelor's degree.

Where are the opportunities and how can we fill them with non-college educated workers?

There are several healthcare jobs that don’t require a college degree, many of which involve specialized training or certification programs that are quicker and more affordable than earning a degree. Here's a partial list (ChatGPT):

Clinical Roles

1. Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
2. Medical Assistant
3. Phlebotomist
4. Dental Assistant
5. Home Health Aide (HHA)
6. Patient Care Technician (PCT)
7. Emergency Medical Technician (EMT)
8. Optician
9. Data navigators
10. Community health workers
11. Patient Care Coordinators
12. Patient Service Representatives
13. Behavioral Health Coaches
14. Obesity Management Coaches
15. Healthcare Social Media Influencers
16. Loneliness helpers
17. Behavioral health pet support technicians

Non-Clinical Roles

1. Medical Biller/Coder
2. Pharmacy Technician
3. Healthcare Receptionist/Administrative Assistant
4. Sterile Processing Technician
5. Medical Transcriptionist
6. Health Information Technician
7. Dietary Aide
8. Transportation aides

For example, Rhode Island is collaborating with community health workers to expand their role in creating a better-integrated health and social care system and addressing root causes of health inequities.

Creating non-college-educated healthcare jobs involves developing roles that require certifications, on-the-job training, or short-term vocational programs rather than traditional college degrees. Here’s a guide to creating these roles:

1. Identify the Need for Non-Degree Roles

• Analyze gaps in healthcare services where non-degree workers can be effective, such as administrative tasks, basic patient care, or technical roles.

2. Develop Certifications and Training Programs

• Partner with community colleges, industry internships, vocational schools, or online training platforms to create short-term programs. Most new community college enrollees are high school students taking community college courses.
• Offer job-specific certifications (e.g., Certified Nursing Assistant [CNA], Emergency Medical Technician [EMT], or Pharmacy Technician certification).
• Focus on practical skills and industry requirements.
• Use hybrid, AI driven tools to create and deliver educational programming that track to clearly defined competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities and measure the outcomes.
• Include courses in medical innovation and entrepreneurship

3. Leverage Apprenticeships and On-the-Job Training

• Establish healthcare apprenticeship programs that allow individuals to learn while earning.
• Create mentorship structures where experienced professionals train new workers in real-time.

4. Expand Opportunities in Support Roles

• Roles like medical assistants, medical coders, or patient care technicians often don’t require a degree but are critical to healthcare systems.
• Provide career advancement pathways for these roles, making them more attractive.

5. Simplify Entry into Healthcare

• Reduce barriers to entry by subsidizing training costs, addressing student debt or offering scholarships.
• Partner with governments or nonprofits to fund and promote these roles in underserved communities.
• Give entrants adequate job previews and counseling and exit ramps to alternative roles if he first one is unsuccessful

6. Leverage Technology and Remote Work

• Train workers for roles in telemedicine support, remote patient monitoring, or medical transcription, which often require less physical presence and fewer credentials. Use advanced training simulators to validate competencies.
• Use digital tools for training and role execution.
• Upskill the workforce to make them data literate and date dextrous including artificial intelligence

7. Promote Public Awareness

• Use campaigns to raise awareness about opportunities in healthcare that don’t require a college degree.
• Partner with high schools and workforce development organizations to identify potential candidates early.

8. Create a guiding coalition of stakeholders who have the most to gain or lose by filling the gaps including patients and business owners

9. Design, develop, and deploy a platform, not just a product that provides personalized, AI driven pedagogical techniques, but training, lifelong development and future career decision support as well.

10. Use social media for peer-to-peer support and mentoring

11. The workforce development ecosystem should include mentors and sponsors

12. Graduates need to be paid a living wage

13. The ecosystem should create a mission driven business model that secures reimbursement for services

14. Explore new business models for all the non-college educated sick care jobs that have yet to be created

15. Garner political and non-profit partners to equal the playing field and support student success.

16. Deploy a dissemination and implementation plan to overcome the barriers and that engage ecosystem stakeholders

17. Create a strategic plan with strategies and tactics and adequately fund them

18. Engage not for profit hospitals to help train and develop students as part of their community service patient care obligations that they are presently underfunding

19. Partner with academic medical center professional schools to offer volunteer mentoring and student support

20. Celebrate the champions and the heros by telling impactful stories

As sick care evolves to health care, non-college educated workers are an important force that will get the US out of the bottom of the OECD healthcare system pack.

But it will happen only if we create sustainable ecosystems that have a viable business model that delivers speed to value. I'm sure these non-college educated billionaires have some ideas.

Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the Society of Physician Entrepreneurs on Substack