The college recently won a first place award in workforce development
BY: RYAN WINZEN
Staff Writer
St. Louis Community College (STLCC) was the winner of the 2024 Bellwether Award in the workforce development category.
The Bellwether Award is a nationwide award for community colleges that have implemented innovative practices or programs. The college’s health science department submitted an application that focused on the changes made to the health care programs that aim to help the shortage of healthcare workers in the St. Louis area.
District Dean of Health Sciences William Hubble, who is based out of the Forest Park campus, talked about the scarcity of healthcare workers in St. Louis.
“There is a severe shortage of healthcare workers in the St. Louis area. It’s putting a strain on the system,” said Hubble.
According to a 2023 survey by the Missouri Hospital Association, there is an 18.4% vacancy rate, with 3,116 vacant positions for registered nurses.
A team consisting of Hubble, Division Dean of Nursing Jordan Cooper, Chancellor Jeff Pittman and Student Placement Coordinator Kim Kraft worked together on making a proposal for the Bellwether Award. The proposal included information about the shortage of healthcare workers in STL and how the district is aiming to fix the problem.
According to the application created by the team, the district has a plan that includes three main goals: to expand the nursing program capacity across the three largest campuses, to promote student success and to increase the number of successful graduates from the programs.
Hubble mentioned how the district has eliminated obstacles for students wanting to pursue careers in health care.
“Well I think foremost, there are financial obstacles,” he said. “We want to align them with our clinical partners so they can be trained for these jobs. This allows students to work while going to school, helps pay for their education and guarantees them a job.”
Hubble also brought up how instrumental the district’s clinical partners are with helping students.
“The hospitals are the programs, that’s where the tires hit the road,” said Hubble. All of the students who go through the health program do clinical practices.”
While nursing is one of the most popular health care programs at STLCC, many more important programs are offered. These include the following programs:
- medical assistant
- patient care technician
- repository care
- paramedic technology
- emergency medical technology
- occupational therapy assistant
- physical therapy assistant
- dental hygiene
- surgical technologist
- clinical laboratory technology
- central sterile processing
- clinical coding
- health information management,
- radiologic technology
- diagnostic medical sonography
- funeral service education
Hubble talked about the importance of some other health care professions.
“We train a lot of people that people don’t think about. When covid came out and people struggled with respiratory issues, there was a need for respiratory technicians,” said Hubble.
These changes were not implemented overnight.
“This was really more of a 5 year project. It’s still ongoing. We are still looking for ways to recruit and train more students for healthcare professions,” said Hubble.
Since 2018, there has been an increase in the number of AAS nursing graduates from the program.
Hubble mentioned how STLCC winning the Bellwether Award made him feel.
“I’m very proud of STLCC and its entire community,” he said. “What we are accomplishing here, is good for our students and [for] the St.Louis region.”
Featured photo courtesy of Bellwether College Consortium on X.
