An Interview with Russell Di Gate: Where the Jobs Are- And Where are they Going to be?

7.22.10 - Michael F. Shaughnessy - There is currently some ambivalence among high school and college students about going into a health care profession. Is there simply a lack of career guidance and vocational information in the schools?

Michael F. Shaughnessy

Eastern New Mexico University

Portales, New Mexico

Robert Di Gate is currently Provost at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . In this interview he responds to questions about the job market in the health sciences.

1) There is currently some ambivalence among high school and college students about going into a health care profession. Is there simply a lack of career guidance and vocational information in the schools?

It is a combination of things. Some career guidance counselors don’t know enough about health professions nor do they realize the variety of health professions that exist, such as occupational therapy and physical therapy. They know the basics like nursing and medical school, but there appears to be little understanding of physician and healthcare extender positions. As extender positions become more of a legitimate option for young people in the future, we will need to explain this better to the guidance counselors as we go forth.

I think that some guidance counselors tend to shy away from science intensive programs. Guidance counselors may feel that because they personally don’t have a particularly in-depth understanding of the sciences they cannot make sound recommendations. The other thing is that I’m not sure most 18 year olds know what a healthcare or physician extender is at that point in their lives. Quite frankly, it’s not something their parents have a clear understanding of. There are a number of factors contributing to that.

2) Some individuals are hesitant about medical school due to this thing called OBAMA care---how does the horizon look for jobs in health care?

We have a very interesting thing happening in the economy right now. Even though the true need for healthcare extenders like nurses, pharmacists, and occupational and physical therapists, is increasing because the nation is getting older, we are also looking at the point where many, many businesses because of the financial times are contracting. So that, even though there is a need for hospital pharmacists, many hospitals are having to save money so they hold up or eliminate positions rather than extend them.

It’s not a question of whether healthcare and healthcare related jobs are going to be affected, that’s a given. Every sector of the economy is affected by the financial distress that we are in. However, if that is the case, healthcare jobs will be the first to rebound because that sector of the economy is growing and there is a need for these positions. When we come out of the funk that we are in, those are the positions that will be needed and will be hired first.

3) What can we do to increase interest in science related careers?

What we need to do is take every opportunity we have to engage students. I’d say we even need to go further and engage students as young as fourth or fifth grade. You need to prepare students for careers in science. You can’t go in and let them be overwhelmed in high school. Showing students and instilling in them a curiosity because science is about curiosity; it is about experimentation. When you put experiments in front of kids, they get captivated. It is not about memorizing a lot of different size facts. We tend to treat science the same in high school and grammar school as we do every other subject. At the end of the day, it would be much better for the kids to do cool experiments and participate in that. The real allure and beauty of science is that for every question you figure out, you generate five more questions. That is the kind of thing that we need to use to captivate the students’ interest at a young age. 

4)What background is needed for healthcare/science fields?

The primary advice I would give is that when they go into college not to shy away from the healthcare sciences. The training and preparation for the majority of healthcare professions are very similar. It’s a foundation in and understanding of those core sciences.  If they get that background then there are a plethora of healthcare related occupations that they can go into just by having a common preparation.  Having a solid foundation in the fundamentals of the major fields of science is a great start.