Learn what led to an essential soft skills gap as well as methods to help healthcare workers improve.

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When improving health requires patients to change behavior, virtual humans help providers get results.

Contributors: Mark Beaufait, Toya Moore, Betsy Conrad

The problem: There are not enough certified medical assistants in the labor market.

Every 11 seconds, an older adult is admitted to the emergency room for a fall. Approximately 80% of older adults have at least one chronic disease, and 77% have at least two. Additionally, one in four experiences some form of a mental health condition, including depression and anxiety disorders, and dementia—a number expected to double by 2030.¹ As the United States’ aging population grows, increasing healthcare needs are creating more pressure on healthcare providers and their teams.

At its core, Career and Technical Education (CTE) prepares students to enter the workforce job-ready in growing fields such as healthcare. The reality is that CTE goes far beyond this one goal, providing pathways for upward mobility into many professions that do not require a four-year college degree. Today, CTE health science programs exist across the U.S. in urban, rural and suburban settings, providing both high school students and adult learners with access to specialized technical training.

How Advanced Skills are Moving the Industry Forward

It’s no surprise that the dynamics of healthcare have shifted in recent years. Patient demand for convenient, cost-effective healthcare continues to increase. Large health systems and pharmacy organizations are increasingly looking for new ways to meet these needs, which has led to a rise in convenient care clinics and the popularity of telemedicine. Among this growing body of innovative healthcare delivery methods is the increased use of pharmacists in clinical, direct patient care roles in both inpatient and community pharmacy settings. This shift in the role of pharmacists has support from both governmental organizations and patients.^1-6

Meet the modern military family: a family that often has two working parents (one serving, one in a civilian job) with two incomes, living off-base among their civilian neighbors.

A surprising shift in career plans for a recent high school grad led to fulfilling work helping others.

Aimee Capps’ journey as a pharmacy technician has given her career opportunities she didn’t realize were possible. When Capps was first approached about a part-time opening as a pharmacy technician with her employer, a retail pharmacy, she was a full-time bookkeeper and spent her days in a back office. With a little encouragement, she applied and started working in the pharmacy a couple of days each week, still bookkeeping on weekends. It didn’t take long before Capps says she was “hooked.” She loved helping people and seeing how much of a difference medication could make.

Struggling to Help Stressed Allied Health Students Succeed Academically? Make Time for Mental Health.

The 2020 Spring semester has been a time of unprecedented stress for allied health professionals, students, and instructors. An April 2020 survey conducted by Inside Higher Ed in partnership with Hanover Research demonstrated that about 91% of leaders in higher education are worried about the mental and physical health of their students.

In this episode of OnScript with NHA, co-hosts Jeremy Sasser and Jessica Langley-Loep discuss interprofessional and interdisciplinary relationships between pharmacy technicians, pharmacy interns, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals.

Many allied health students are adjusting to remote learning environments as America works to slow the spread of the coronavirus. They are also preparing to enter a field of work that is highly respected, highly needed, and suddenly more dangerous. It's a lot to process, and addressing these students' mental health needs is urgent.