Local health-care educators and employers said yesterday that attracting students as early as possible - even in kindergarten - will play a key role in easing a shortage of employees.

The officials served on a panel at a two-day summit, which concludes today at Grandover Resort and Conference Center. The focus is on improving the recruitment and retention of health-care employees.

The foremost concern remains a shortage of nurses, the officials said.

Statewide, there is a vacancy rate of about 11 percent for licensed practical nurses, according to an April report by the N.C. Center for Nursing in Raleigh. The research group was disbanded June 30 after the General Assembly chose to stop its financing.

Health-care employers also struggle to fill vacancies in nonclinical settings that many students - both high school and displaced workers in retraining - do not know exist.

For example, Novant Health Inc. lists more than 475 job codes within its health-care network.

It pursues at least 18 different categories of students to fill its vacancies, according to Elizabeth Parnell, the director of student programs at Forsyth Medical Center and Medical Park Hospital.

At Novant, about 1,700, nurses comprise more than one-third of the employees at the hospital, she said.

"Many high-school students are interested in health-care jobs for the blood and guts of the emergency room or the warm fuzzy with newborns," Parnell said. "What we try to tell them is that there are so many more career opportunities in health care, some that don't involve contact with patients."

According to the N.C. Center for Nursing report, the state will need the equivalent of 108,000 full-time registered nurses in 2020.

Yet, on its current course, the state will be able to fill only 76,000 full-time equivalent positions.

That is why some panelists said that it is never too early to introduce life sciences to students.

"Kindergarteners can learn that girls can be doctors and boys can be nurses, and that they can do more than just give shots," said Bernard Roper, the coordinator of health careers for the Northwest Area
Health Education Center, which includes Northwest North Carolina in its 17-county region.

The chapter also offers a one-week "Camp Med" program in every county in the region - including two in Forsyth County - to whet high-school students' appetites for life-science careers.

"They need hands-on programs to bring these classroom cases to life," Roper said.

Suzanne Rohrbaugh, the department chairwoman for Allied Health at Davidson County Community College, has been on the front lines of the challenges and success stories of training health-care employees.

The college saw a dramatic increase in demand for health-care education in 2003 as the county's furniture manufacturers began hemorrhaging production jobs.

"We had more than 800 applicants that year" for a program that held space for about 20 percent of those candidates, she said.

The demand for health-care training has not let up.

"We had to become more selective with admissions for both displaced workers and high-school students, better match the students with their best health-care interests," Rohrbaugh said. "Not everybody is meant to be a nurse, but they can find work in health care.

"Being in a hospital setting can be intimidating for an 18- or 19-year-old, which is why we need more partnerships with middle schools and high schools to help these students know what to expect."
Studies have shown that below-market pay for public- and private-sector nurses is a major factor in the shortage.

For example, new public-health nurses for the Forsyth County Health Department are hired at 90 percent of the market rate, said Peggy Lemon, the nursing director for the department. The market rates are $51,432 to a public-health nurse I, $56,575 for a public-health nurse II, and $67,696 for a public-health nurse supervisor.

The panelists also mentioned that many students struggle to overcome financial hurdles in their pursuit of a health-care career.

Renee Batts, a health-services program coordinator for the state community-college system, said that some health-care programs have responded beyond providing scholarships and financial aid. They are also offering emergency cash "to get them to class by helping them fill up their gas tank," she said.

Parnell said she believes that trained and motivated students can evolve with technology in health care. "Our goal is for their job changes to be climbs up the health-care ladder as far as their talent and drive will take them," she said.