A healthy career: A look at how students are trained to enter health care fields in Southeast Missouri

Southeast Missouri educators who concentrate on training students to enter the health care field say the job outlook for students remains bright amid a wide array of career paths offered at area institutions, combined with an ever-increasing need for workers to provide direct patient care, medical-related management and other services.

The Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center has programs where students can study to become occupational therapists, physical therapy assistants and respiratory therapists, among others, but can offer only a limited number of spots in each program. The demand for all is very high, says Rich Payne, director of the center, and it correlates with a high need for those types of workers in the health care market.

This semester, 48 spots were granted to more than 300 applicants in the occupational therapy program, while the physical therapy program took 14 students out of 63 applicants. The small class sizes ensure the standards in the program are held high; the center wants only to produce students who can make the cut educationally, and later, professionally, Payne says.

"In our programs I think we are in pretty good shape as far as meeting the needs of employers," he says. "You have to keep in mind that in the medical profession, you are always dealing with someone's family members. You are taking care of loved ones. So you have to be the right type of person to do that as a job."

Instructor Brian Wilcox helps Alex Mayes, left, take Morgan Asendorf's blood pressure during the high school EMT class at the Cape Girardeau Career and Technology Center. (Laura Simon)

Heather McMillian, a faculty associate in Southeast Missouri State University's Office of the Provost, has helped develop new health care management programs for the university which are awaiting approval by the Coordination Board for Higher Education. She says she believes patients, along with health care employers, are more now than ever looking for professional-acting, highly skilled communicators to work in the industry.

Because of this, she says, more diverse medical professions are growing in popularity, which creates a benefit for students who want to work in health care but can't secure a spot in a competitive program, and a corresponding benefit for the industry, because more people are involved and working together to keep health care systems running smoothly.

"Really what we are looking to do at Southeast is to expand programming beyond hands-on patient care," McMillian says, because without certain people to do certain jobs, hospitals fail to run.

The business side of the health care industry is the university's target; there are programs in the works that cover education in areas of medical from health communication to cybersecurity to facilities management.

"The job opportunities just keep on growing," McMillian says, "so it makes sense to offer options for students, with so many of them who want to work in health care."

McMillian and Payne say areas of growth aside from nursing; where there is always high demand; currently are in medical recordkeeping, ultrasound technology and a wide variety of therapist, technician and medical assistant programs.

The Career and Technology Center is looking at adding ultrasound technician options to its programming, and the university may roll out its new programs, which are designed to be interdisciplinary, in spring 2015.

Southeast Hospital's College of Nursing also offers degrees in nursing and several certification programs for technicians. Metro Business College offers degrees for medical billing and coding and medical specialists, along with diplomas and certificates in other medical-related professions.