A new boarding school will aim to address Alabama’s healthcare staffing crisis, particularly in rural parts of the state, by training high school students for roles across the healthcare field, Rob Pearson, interim president of the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences Foundation, told the McKnight’s Business Daily.
Construction of the Alabama School of Healthcare Sciences, located in Demopolis, will begin next year, with the first students expected to arrive in 2026. The free, residential, specialty high school will be part of the Alabama public school system.
Thirty-seven percent of Alabama’s population lives in rural areas, but less than 20% of trained healthcare professionals live in those areas, according to the foundation.
The project, Pearson said, is one of the first-of-its-kind healthcare-focused high schools supported by a $250 million initiative of Bloomberg Philanthropies. The Alabama school will be one of 10 Bloomberg-initiated, healthcare career-focused education programs connecting educational institutions and healthcare systems in the South and Northeast areas of the country and one of only two set in a rural community (the other one, involving six locations, according to Bloomberg, will be in Northeast Tennessee). Urban locations include Boston; Charlotte, NC; Dallas; Durham, NC; Houston; Nashville, TN; New York City and Philadelphia. Some locations will use revamped existing schools.
“This was an idea that was hatched in response to a problem that we saw coming, or we see coming,” Pearson said. “It’s all over the country that people are getting older and fewer people in healthcare and all the things are lining up to mean we’re going to have a workforce shortage that’s even more exacerbated in the future than it is today. And particularly in the rural areas, which Demopolis is very much a rural area here in West Central Alabama.”
Although the school will be located in Demopolis, he said, it will draw students from all over the state. Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R), Pearson noted, mentioned the school in her 2023 State of the State address. “Y’all, when these students receive their diplomas, they will be ready to fill a broad spectrum of healthcare jobs or pursue a higher education,” Ivey said at the time, according to a copy of her prepared remarks.
Projected construction costs for the Alabama school and 400-student dormitory total approximately $80 million, with Bloomberg Philanthropies providing $26 million. Additional funding will come from the state, fundraisers and, possibly, a loan, Pearson said.
Once the school is opened, the state will cover tuition, room and board for students, who will be selected from all 67 of Alabama’s counties. Criteria for acceptance to the school, as well as the curriculum, still are being finalized.
The curriculum will align with state expectations for high school students, Pearson said, but that’s not to say that medical terminology and background can’t be included in teaching classes such as English and history. If a student decides to leave the boarding school at some point during the four years of high school, the student will have grade-level knowledge of the subjects required at all public schools in Alabama, he said.
“We’re, obviously, wanting a student who is willing to go to work as soon as they graduate high school. If a student goes on to become a doctor, that’s great, but that’s not necessarily the mission of the school,” Pearson said. “We need technicians, and we need nurses — everybody needs nurses — but you need x-ray techs, physical therapy techs, people who are coming in and really the backbone of these hospitals and clinics and nursing homes, and they’re all looking for those employees.”
There’s no guarantee that graduates will want to work in rural areas, but Pearson said that they will be “more likely to go to a rural area, where they know they can make the biggest impact.”
Enrollment will be capped at 100 students per grade level.
“A hundred students a year doesn’t meet the need, [but] if we can get it right, then we can share this information on how we’re doing it with others,” Pearson said. “Then all of a sudden, now we’ve really accomplished something.”
Source: McKnights Seniorliving
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