As we step away from the most important public health challenge of the last century, the vital role of health systems and the people who care for them has never been clearer. Despite COVID-19 becoming an increasingly endemic disease, we continue to process important lessons learned regarding the needs and challenges of future healthcare workforce education. ours.
The pandemic has increased the damage that health organizations across the country are still struggling to weather. Adding to this challenge is the fact that supplier shortages most negatively affect our most vulnerable and underserved populations, who already face challenges. health care equity challenges. To address these issues and the opportunities they offer, the Prime Healthcare Foundation, a nonprofit with over $1 billion in assets, is working to serve the community through initiatives from charity and education. The foundation is affiliated with Prime Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest health systems with 44 hospitals in 14 states. Its vision to address severe physician shortages, reduce health disparities, and meet the needs of the underserved led to the founding of the California University of Science and Medicine. CUSM was founded in 2018 in one of the poorest regions of the country, San Bernardino County, California, with the mission of creating a legacy through medical education that will serve impoverished communities permanently.
The university, which recently celebrated the opening of the MD class of its graduates, can serve as a model for other health systems that want to contribute to the future of medicine through education. Health care is a fundamental part of people’s lives and provides diverse jobs on many levels, but severe shortages persist while demand for services continues to grow. . The health system is uniquely positioned to train the clinical leaders of tomorrow and meet the needs of our nation’s healthcare workers. What are some of these priorities?
We need a large, well-trained workforce that reflects the diversity of the many communities our healthcare system serves. The pandemic has highlighted the fact that although we are all in the same storm, we are not all in the same boat. Every market, every community, every health system has its own needs and challenges. What works in Southern California may not work in central Michigan or rural Texas.
The workforce draws from and reflects the characteristics of the communities they serve that have been shown in studies to deliver higher quality, more cost-effective and relevant health care. more culturally appropriate. The majority of CUSM students come from Southern California, belong to historically underrepresented groups in the medical profession, and demonstrate a commitment to caring for the underserved in their communities.
We need a large, well-trained workforce that will continue to learn and adapt throughout a career spanning four to five decades. The pandemic underscores the need for our healthcare professionals to innovate, adapt, and be able to continually acquire new skills and knowledge to address evolving challenges in science. and medicine. They need to be learners from the day they start until the day they retire.
We need a large, well-trained, comfortable and tech-savvy workforce. Much of the last century in healthcare has been defined by the rapidly expanding role of technology. Healthcare workers need not only to be “comfortable” with technology, but also to be “tech savvy”. Those skills are no longer optional and the educational experience should reflect this core competency.
We needed a large, well-trained workforce that could operate at both the system level and the community level. Delivering critical healthcare interventions requires highly functional, integrated, adaptive health systems that are able to share information quickly and efficiently. Healthcare professionals will need to feel comfortable working in systems-based delivery models and will require leaders with the skills, knowledge, training, and experience to lead. direct those systems.
We need a workforce dedicated to service and mission. The dramatic images over the past two years of the pandemic have made it clear once again that a career in healthcare is fundamental to serving others. There has never been a time when taking care of your health has been more important. We are surrounded by heroes who put their health and safety at risk every day. We have also delivered on a unified commitment to health equity and better access to care.
At California College of Medicine and Science, every student understands the noble calling inherent in taking on a role in health care. Whether in the emergency department or small rural doctor’s office, from holding a patient’s hand during a difficult diagnosis to reading a routine X-ray, every member of the healthcare team is dedicated to service.
The health system has a profound opportunity. Training the next generation of providers can start there.
