New web app helps teens explore health careers
Rockford researchers helped develop a new online tool to get middle and high school students thinking about which health profession best suits them. Health Careers Guide at healthcarecareers.guide is a first-of-its-kind, free web application that uses a student’s identified preferences to support health career exploration.
Hana Hinkle, PhD, MPH, assistant dean for rural health professions and a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine Rockford, was a co-principal investigator on the project.
“Young people today don’t want a printed career handbook to read,” explains Hinkle. “This new, mobile-friendly website lets students answer a few questions about their personality and preferences and then generates an individualized profile of health careers to explore.”
Students can access this web application through any browser on a phone, tablet or computer to browse more than 50 health career options and learn more about what those careers entail and the education needed. They can even check out current job openings in that field to get an idea of demand and salaries.
Shortages of health care professionals are widespread, says Hinkle, who is director of UICOMR’s National Center for Rural Health Professions and its federally funded Illinois Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) Network. These centers have programs to interest students in going into a health care profession, especially in an underserved area. These programs, as well as school teachers, guidance counselors and parents around the nation, can use this website to educate students about health careers and how to best prepare for them.
Beth Squires, MPH, MCHES, assistant director of external and pipeline programs for the National Center for Rural Health Professions, assisted in creating and testing the website. Her role focuses on opportunities to connect high school and college students to education and opportunities that get them on a pathway toward a health career.
“Students in our pipeline programs want to know how much money they can make and how much it will cost to be trained for certain careers,” says Squires. “This app now lets us provide this information in an easy, interactive format tailored to a student’s interest.”
The project to advance innovations in health professions pipeline education was developed through Community Health Advocacy, a partnership between the University of Illinois Chicago and OSF HealthCare. Noël Adams, MBA, vice president for academic collaborations and operations at OSF HealthCare, was the co-principal investigator on the project, which uses technology developed by the OSF Innovation Medical Visualization team.
“We received many positive comments from youth test groups about how we’ve used pictures to explain information related to careers instead of having too much text in the application,” says Adams.
The researchers hope to expand the number of careers featured in the web application and to provide more direct mentorship from health care professionals to students interested in particular careers.