HJAR Mar/Apr 2021

48 MAR / APR 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS COMMUNITY HEALTH Statistics, the employment of licensed prac- tical and licensed vocational nurses (LPNs and LVNs) is projected to grow 9% from 2019 to 2029. Over the last few years, many school dis- tricts across Arkansas have witnessed the value of partnering with companies to al- low students to shadow staff members, to create apprenticeships and internship pro- grams and to provide academic credit for stu- dents enrolled in career technical education courses. These models that link learning to postsecondary pathways and possible career opportunities have proven to be very suc- cessful. They also help teach soft skills that are needed for the workforce. These soft skills teach students leadership responsibilities and how to interact and communicate with adults (and not just via text messages, Instagram or other social media platforms). A high school LPN program would al- low students to gain more experience from a quality-of-care perspective. We have placed such a high urgency on fast tracking somuch that we have lost the importance of quality healthcare services. Often, when our aca- demic institutions fast track students, there is the perception that the next immediate step is a managerial or leadership position. Such LPN programs would start with nurs- ing courses in the ninth grade, and proper coordination would be given to school coun- selors and school registers to help ensure other academic requirements are met. For example, a student interested in graduating high school with the necessary completed courses to take the LPN test would start with a nursing fundamentals course in the ninth grade and take a sequence of classes concluding with a nursing practicum in the 12th grade. The nursing practicum should be scheduled the summer before the student enters the 12th grade. Clinicians would serve as instructors. They would teach students the importance of showing up on time for work, keeping to a schedule, completing a list of tasks and being accountable while stressing the importance of providing quality patient satisfaction. This would allow many students to come out of high school after successfully pass- ing the exam to receive a certification and the opportunity to make a living wage, and it would provide them with practical work ex- perience while participating in that certifica- tion program. Research shows that working while in high school, and then later in college, leads to higher wages than just accumulat- ing more years of education. Obtaining an LPN certification prepares students to enter high-paying, in-demand healthcare careers. Such programs also demonstrate that stu- dents have acquired the knowledge to pass an aligned test. Clinicians can be very instrumental in guiding students in order to build a work- force pipeline to improve their community’s health. They can serve as mentors and match students with specialists based upon their shared interests in the medical field. If this happens in an underserved, underprivileged community, then that community has struck gold. This type of forward thinking can help influence the future pipeline’s reasoning about healthcare disparities by developing and incorporating systemic barriers and so- cial determinants of health issues within the foundational curriculum. Our call to action for our policymakers, school districts, nursing programs, commu- nity health centers and long-term care facili- ties leaders must be intentional by including the following: • Developing clinicians who lead to im- proving our communities’ health: fos- tering and offering students the oppor- tunity to become problem solvers by developing critical thinking skills and offering solutions to help address their community population health and so- cial determinants of health. • Offering opportunities for living wag- es: offering a livable wage to students who successfully pass the LPN exam. According to the Bureau of Labor Statis- tics, U.S. Department of Labor, website, in 2019, the median income for an LPN was $47,480, which is $22.83 per hour. • Taking care of our aging population: as the baby boom population ages, com- munity-level care’s overall need will in- crease. LPNs will be needed within com- munity health centers, residential care facilities and home health environments to care for older patients, especially in our rural communities. Everyone’s help is needed. We will first need to start with nursing licensure and legislative changes. There are currently 26 approved programs in Arkansas offered at community colleges, technical centers and private career schools, but these programs require a high school diploma for acceptance into a program. Incorporating LPN-oriented curriculum starting in high school is one so- lution to the workforce crisis. We could also create a medical/biological magnet school in selected medically underserved communi- ties. We could start with a single campus as a test site that would offer this LPN-oriented curriculum while offering the other magnet school curriculum to gauge interest and effectiveness. It would be a radical shift to Arkansas’ nursing licensure and legislative processes, but it would help fill a widening gap in Arkansas’ healthcare coverage. Can I count on you to start being intentional about building our future healthcare workforce? This is one way to address our nursing short- age, and it is a great way to start planning for the future. n