Tacoma Pierce County Health Dept. Health Occupations Promotion Program /Job Shadowing Project

In summer 2001, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department (TPCHD) created the Health Occupations Promotion Program (HOPP) to help increase underrepresented populations in the healthcare professions in Tacoma and Pierce County.

Participants are 14-19 year-olds, especially those enrolled in health occupation classes or other similar courses. The Department recruits through high schools and other community-based organizations.

The program is year-round; recruitment/selection occurs in Dec., Mar., Jun., and Sept., and program sessions run Jan-Feb; Apr-May; Jul-Aug; and Oct-Nov. They have 4 to 5 students at a time, and 10 to 12 students a year. Each student commits to two months during the summer at 25-32 hrs/week or to three to four months during the school year (with fewer hours/week). They receive an hourly pay of $8-9/hr.

Most students are interested in patient care, but the program provides rotations throughout the health department or other contract agencies, including a local public health clinic. Students are not involved with programs where safety or appropriateness is an issue (needle exchange, sex ed-related, etc.). Activities include:

Dental Program

Update dental referral lists, assist with coordination of dental health conf and events, manage dental health info booth, and assist with dental health exams.

Media Literacy & Tobacco

Assist with class instruction, edit and produce peer PSAs, assist with Operation Storefront, participate in compliance checks, conduct tobacco-free surveys

Communicable Disease

Assist, plan, and attend meetings for teen health summit, assist with planning and organizing health info booths, organize, prepare, and distribute teen referral/resource packages, tour state laboratory in Seattle, design and develop peer-focused campaign (posters, brochures)

Food & Community Safety

Attend food safety class, assist with youth hand washing safety booth and other public safety campaigns, shadow Department staff on swimming pool and food facility inspections

Tips for setting up this kind of program.

1. Partner with other health organizations to collaborate on the effort and combine resources.
2. Set aside a specific area (a break/work room) for participants, where they can feel at home.

Challenges

Finding ways to reach out to minority/low income kids is a challenge. In addition, the coordinator, Hakeem Shakoor, often finds he must spend time outside of the program trying to meet other student needs (counseling, for example, to stay in school; addressing possible abusive relationships, and so on).

Although they haven't done an official evaluation, informal follow-up shows that of the 20 students who enrolled in the program, 18 completed, and 90-95 percent of those completing the program went on to college and are in health related careers.

Job-Shadowing

Beside the HOPP internships, the Department offers high school seniors an unpaid one-day job-shadowing experience (4-8 hrs), which students can use to satisfy their senior requirement for a job site experience. Mr. Shakoor interviews the students for area of interest and sets up the job shadowing with an appropriate job/person.

Both programs are funded by the Department.

For more information about either program, contact Hakeem Shakoor, Public Health Educator, Tacoma Pierce County Health Department, 253 798-3484, hshakoor@tpchd.org.

Partnering with a Local Junior High School to Introduce Health Careers to Minority and Low-Income Youth

Partners Program, Veterans Administration, Seattle, Washington

The VA Partners Program, in Seattle, Washington, hires junior high and high school students, in a partnership with Mercer Junior High School, which is next door to the VA hospital. The director of the six-year-old program, Frankie Manning, suggested it to the school principal as a way to intervene with the kids who were vandalizing staff cars. The program has a formal contract with the school. The majority of the students are minority and low income, as are the students in the junior high school.

Currently 30 students are enrolled in the program; about 60 have gone through the program since its beginning in 1997. The goal of the program is to encourage more students to go into nursing, but the students get exposure to a full range of health careers, so they can see what opportunities are available in the VA and in the community.

Students do typical entry level activities (take blood pressures, pass out water, stock the medicine room, make beds, answer call lights, etc.) Students are encouraged to interact with the patients, since another of the program goals is to promote awareness of veterans' accomplishments.

The students start as volunteers for two to three weeks, while completing training, and then if they are committed to participating, they get a stipend (around $6.80/hr) until they're 16. If they continue in the program, they get a part-time appointment at $9/hr.

Students work full-time during the summer and up to 16 hours a week during the school year. They have to maintain their grades to stay in the program. If students have problems with grades, Ms. Manning meets with them.

The parents are also expected to be involved in the program. For example, if the students act out, the parents have to meet with Ms. Manning and discuss how to handle the problem. Parents also have to come to the biannual student and parent gatherings.

Some of the students are helping support the family—buying food and helping paying rent, for example—with the money they earn in the program, and occasionally Ms. Manning has to encourage parents to let their children keep some of the money they earn.

Funding

Funding is a constant challenge, says Ms. Manning. She used her own money to start the program. Currently funding comes from foundations, including the Gates Foundation, as well as private donors, who donate through the Alliance for Education, the program's fiduciary partner. They also get funds through a Seattle summer youth employment program, which helps pay for the younger students, since she can't pay the 14 year olds with federal funds.

Results

Of the original students, the majority have completed high school, and some have gone on to higher education. Three students are now in nursing, one is in pharmacy, and one is in radiology.

Ms. Manning is working with the U of Washington School of Nursing to help her evaluate the program this year.

Future

As an extension of the program, Ms. Manning wants to connect students by computer with home-bound VA patients. She is also developing a formal nursing assistant program in partnership with Renton Vocational-Technical School. Students would do their clinical experience at the VA hospital.

For more information, contact Ms. Frankie Manning, Nurse Executive, VA Hospital (S-118), 1660 Columbian Way S., Seattle WA 98108; frankie.manning@med.va.gov; 206-764-2626; http://www.puget-sound.med.va.gov/