Writer: Jerrica DuBois
3 min read February 2024 — Collaboration between the education and healthcare sectors was the key area of focus for Marilyn Wiley, Rose Johnson, Dionel Waters, and Dr. Rodgers Wilson at the recent Invest: Dallas/Fort Worth leadership summit.
The second panel of the conference, ‘Closing the Gap: How educators and healthcare professionals collaborate to improve healthcare outcomes, the talent gap, and workforce wellbeing,’ took a deep dive into the synergy of healthcare and education in the Metroplex. Moderator Steve Miff, president & CEO of Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), kicked off the conversation with a discussion on how to leverage partnerships between the two sectors.
“We have to make sure we have good relationships with our academic partners,” said Johnson, administrative director of academic partnerships and nurse leader development at Medical City Healthcare. “Healthcare organizations should have a seat at the table on academic advisory boards. That is an opportunity for healthcare organizations to discuss future trends and to also weigh in on curriculum development. We also work with our educational partners to make sure we are creating really good career pathways for our employees.”
The discussion moved into the impact of technology and innovation on the sectors. As the September 2024 ending of the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding program gets closer, schools are zeroing in on their best use of technology as they face a decrease in financial resources. As reported by the Stanford Report, generative AI, immersive environments and gamification are all trends that are expected to grow in the education space. Waters, area superintendent of IDEA Public Schools, echoed similar sentiments, noting that technology is an area which the K-12 sector can improve.
“Times have changed, but the education in the K-12 sector has not changed along with it at the same pace,” said Waters. “I speak to educators that are afraid of the new technology advancements that have taken place. They look at AI and say they don’t want the students to use ChatGPT because they don’t want them to plagiarize. We’re looking at the negative side and not seeing some of the benefits we can get from AI, the benefits we can get from virtual reality, or the benefits we can get from our cell phone. We have to do a better job in leveraging technology and educating ourselves to take the technology that is improving several industries within our global society and see how we can bring it into the classroom.”
On the healthcare side, as in several other industries, professionals need to do better at sharing the opportunities. There are a number of careers in the industry from patient care and laboratory work to support and administration services. There are even some fields that only require one to two years of higher education, such as a hemodialysis technician, a medical massage therapist, or an emergency medicine paramedic. But, according to Wiley, dean of the UNT G. Brint Ryan College of Business, many students simply don’t know how many options they have.
“What I don’t think we do a good job of is telling students about the breadth of opportunity in those spaces,” said Wiley. “If you don’t want to be a doctor or a nurse, you can go into x-ray analysis and build a great model that reads data better than a human radiologist might, for example. There are many opportunities and you have to show it to people early on. It takes partnerships to do it. They need to be able to do job shadowing and have mentors in different areas. If they do those things in middle school and high school, then they are much more likely to be open to that rather than locking in to something they saw a parent or family member do.” To hear more, click here.
As the panel began to wrap up, some of the participants shared their thoughts on the importance of collaboration between the sectors as it relates to mental health. The pandemic cast a spotlight on mental health, and industry leaders continue to look for ways to provide help to those in need and get rid of the stigma associated with it. According to Dr. Wilson, national medical executive for behavioral health at Evernorth, Cigna Healthcare, programs such as Mental Health First Aid, which teaches how to recognize and respond to someone who may be having a mental health or substance use challenge, are key.
“How do we bring mental health awareness in higher education and in lower education? How do we say it’s okay to have an emotional condition,” said Dr. Wilson. “When we look at academic institutions, 80% of college students are reporting they are overwhelmed. 30% of K-12 are reporting that their mental health is not good. We have opportunities here to look at new strategies and start talking about the stress in education and how we can intervene. This engagement and collaboration is very important, not only from an educational standpoint, but from a health standpoint We have to break down walls and think of ways to collaborate.”
For more information, visit:
https://medicalcityhealthcare.com/
