Training healthcare workers in Alaska: UAA works to keep up with demand.

• Author: White, Rindi
• Position: SPECIAL SECTION: Healthcare

Jobs in the healthcare industry have the highest projected growth. In October the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development Research and Analysis Section in its October Alaska Economic Trends publication released ten-year industry and occupational forecasts by Paul Martz that showed healthcare will dominate both from 2014 through 2024 in terms of job growth. It is estimated that, in 2014, the state had 45,387 healthcare and social assistance jobs, both in the public and private sectors, and that by 2024 the number of jobs would grow to 52,563, a nearly 16 percent rate of growth. In addition to the projected 7,176 new healthcare and social assistance jobs, there will be thousands more openings for replacement workers.

Physicians' offices, outpatient care centers, and home healthcare services--the ambulatory health category--are expected to grow by 22.2 percent, or four thousand jobs, according to Martz.

Another big area of growth, Martz states, is likely to be in the social assistance field, as more nursing care facilities and retirement communities pop up to accommodate the projected 68 percent growth in the senior population. Jobs in those fields are expected to grow by 38.3 percent, or a little more than six hundred jobs. In contrast, hospital jobs are only expected to grow by about 8 percent.

Demand for Workers Surpasses Training Slots

It's difficult for the state to produce and recruit enough workers to meet the demand for many of those jobs. The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is the primary place Alaskans go for healthcare training, and its College of Health is working with industry in an attempt to train and provide enough workers.

College of Health Dean Bill Hogan says the university's philosophy is "Grow our own, close to home."

"The intent is to keep students here in Alaska," he says.

More than 4,800 health and behavioral health students are enrolled statewide each fall semester, and about 1,000 graduate from health programs each year, with about 350 more graduating from training programs.

UAA offers about seventy programs, ranging from certifications to medical education programs in which the university partners with Outside schools to help students get medical training.

"Nursing is our biggest program. We are graduating two hundred students a year, at all levels, from associate to bachelor's and master's. There is still a need for more [graduates]," Hogan says.

UAA has nearly 1,300 pre-nursing majors--students...