Health

HE A LTH • Winter 2019 17 • Assisted Living Residence • Skilled Nursing Facility • Long Term Care Center • Residential Memory Care • Short Term Rehabilitation • Adult & Pediatric Hospice • Adult & Pediatric Palliative Care • Educational Resource Center NOTRE DAME HEALTH CARE 555-559 Plantation Street, Worcester, MA 01605 (508) 852-5800 notredamehealthcare.org EMBRACING ENHANCING ENRICHING EMPOWERING Giving you the peace of mind you need and deserve, in your own home or on our beautiful campus. Home health aides 26,041 35,851 38% $30,830 Statisticians 3,092 4,213 36% $108,670 Solar photovoltaic installers 295 389 32% $53,310 Health specialties teachers, postsecondary 3,753 4,872 30% $111,230 Nurse practitioners 6,299 8,031 28% $122,740 Physician assistants 3,031 3,862 27% $108,700 Nursing instructors and teachers, postsecondary 1,586 2,018 27% $87,970 Personal care aides 76,801 97,330 27% $29,080 Software developers, applications 29,064 36,629 26% $109,130 Information security analysts 3,325 4,172 26% $108,400 Source: Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor & Workforce Development Fastest-growing Massachusetts jobs Employment Employment Percent 2018 average Title 2016 2026 Change salary Worcester Business Journal WBJ Worcester Business Journal Know Central Mass. Business Stay informed, engaged and connected with a print + digital subscription to the Worcester Business Journal. You'll receive bi-weekly issues, special publications and full online access. Subscribe online: wbjournal.com/subscribe, Or call: (508) 755-8004 gain of more than 2,500 positions. Lauren Katz, administrative chief of advanced practitioners at Worcester- based Reliant Medical Group, said the organization has been increasing its employment of both kinds of medical professionals over the eight years she's been on the job. As Central Massachusetts faces a shortage of primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants help fill the gap. At Reliant, Katz said, primary care doctors now often work in teams with these providers, who can offer many kinds of care traditionally provided by physicians. She said this system works well for providing continuity of care. "It's actually better for the patients," Katz said. "If the physician's out of the office, the hope is that the nurse practitioner or the physician assistant is there." The system helps Reliant serve more patients while creating teams to work together to review cases or lab results. And Katz said nurse practitioners and physician assistants can take on their own caseloads, and work in specialties as well as in primary care. Educating healthcare workers Of course, as demand for highly educated health professionals rises, so does the need for the people doing the educating. The state numbers show positions for postsecondary nursing and health specialties teachers are both on the rise, with a projected growth of more than 1,500 jobs over the decade. Joan Vitello-Cicciu, dean of the Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Medical School in Worcester, said she just learned the average age of faculty teaching nursing is 65. "'Whoa,' is all I could say," she said. "Many of us will be retiring in the next 10 years, so there's going to be a lot of wisdom that goes out." To fill those positions, Vitello-Cicciu said, schools need to encourage more nurses to earn either Ph.D.s or doctorates of nursing practice, either of which can qualify them to teach and do academic research. So far, she said, the UMass nursing school has had a relatively easy time filling its openings, unlike some of her colleagues from around the country. She credits her faculty with making hiring and retention easier. "They are embracing of new people," she said. "It's a very strong sense of community here." Still, Vitello-Cicciu said, as retirements increase, she's looking for ways to make sure students continue to learn from teachers who have both academic and clinical experience. One potential method is to encourage long- time nurses with advanced degrees to stay engaged on a very part-time basis even after they're mostly retired. "If I was worrying that I was losing a lot of experienced people, I'd ask them to come back and at least teach one course, maybe online," she said. "We could have them mentor new faculty, coach new faculty." Lauren Katz, administrative chief of advanced practitioners, Reliant Medical Group Joan Vitello-Cicciu, dean, Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Medical School H

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