From High School to Health Care: Lab and Data Science Pathways for Success

新冠肺炎疫情加剧了现有专职卫生专业人员严重短缺的压力， 特别是在农村社区和服务不足的人口中。包括临床检验科学在内的职业 公共卫生信息技术(CLS)和公共卫生信息技术(PHIT)的推广情况不如 K-12学校，加大了专业项目招收本科生的难度。批判性 需要新的教育计划和培训方法，以促进和增加 高中生对CLS和PHIT领域的了解。高中二年级保健(HS2HC)计划由以下几部分组成 一个暑期计划和一个双重招生课程，教育高中生和他们的老师关于 在CLS和PHIT的职业生涯中，同时指导他们发展实践技能，使他们有机会 体验一下这些职业需要做些什么。HS2HC与NIH研究教育计划目标一致 增加合格、训练有素的卫生专业人员的数量，以满足国家的需求。我们的节目 目标是田纳西州西部的农村社区，那里的专业医疗保健一直短缺 极具破坏性，并寻求为服务不足的学生增加CLS和PHIT的机会 人口。我们将使用创新的成果教育方法，应用基于项目的学习。 健康情景的真实社会决定因素的策略和基于工作的模拟策略 真实的临床数据和样本。关注NGSS整合的教师专业发展计划 CLS和PHIT内容以及职业意识也将得到落实。一种准实验 将使用混合方法设计来评估CLS中的意识以及知识和技能发展 PHIT焦点小组，双招生课程和暑期课程的定量内容分析，以及 教师和学生的访谈将被用来评估基于结果的课程设计的有效性 我们用跨学科的方法教授PHIT和CLS的内容，了解农村高中生 使用我们的学习方法获取有关PHIT和CLS专业的知识，以及我们的 这种方法提高了学生的兴趣，增加了选择职业和技术教育的学生数量 (CTE)和这些职业的本科生途径。我们在劳德代尔的独特人口构成和 田纳西州西部的麦克奈利县将深入了解文化和社会差异对 学习CLS和PHIT概念的获取，从而使我们能够独特地定制我们的体验 不同的社区和文化背景。通过高中和社区伙伴关系，在线，和 流动资源我们将传播教育课程、材料和研究成果，以增强 基于社区健康的扫盲。我们将鼓励将我们的计划加入NGSS和CTE 通过与教育工作者和政策制定者的沟通，制定田纳西州的标准。

The CoVID-19 pandemic amplified the stress of existing critical shortages of allied health professionals, especially in rural communities and underserved populations. Careers including clinical laboratory sciences (CLS) and public health information technology (PHIT) are less well promoted as other health professions in K-12 schools, increasing the struggle for professional programs to recruit undergraduate students. Critical needs exist for novel educational programs and training methods that promote and increase interest amongst high students about CLS and PHIT fields. The High School 2 Health Care (HS2HC) program is comprised of a summer program and a dual enrollment course that educates high school students and their teachers about careers in CLS and PHIT, while guiding them in developing hands-on skills that give them the opportunity to experience what these careers would entail. HS2HC aligns with the NIH Research Education Program goal of increasing the number of qualified, trained health professionals to meet the nation’s needs. Our program targets rural communities in West Tennessee where professional health care shortages have been exceptionally damaging and seeks to enhance opportunities in CLS and PHIT for underserved student populations. We will use novel outcomes-based educational approaches that apply project-based learning strategies to real-world social determinants of health scenarios and work-based simulation strategies with real clinical data and samples. A teacher professional development program focused on integration of NGSS and CLS and PHIT content, along with career awareness will also be implemented. A quasi-experimental mixed methods design will be used to assess awareness and knowledge and skills development in CLS and PHIT focus groups, quantitative content analysis from a dual enrollment course and a summer program, and teacher and student interviews will be used to assess effectiveness of the outcomes-based curricular design approach we use to teach interdisciplinary PHIT and CLS content, understand how rural high school students acquire knowledge regarding PHIT and CLS professions using our learning approach, and whether our approach increases student interest and the number of students choosing Career and Technical Education (CTE) and undergraduate pathways in these careers. Our unique population compositions in Lauderdale and McNairy Counties in West Tennessee will provide insight into the impact of cultural and social differences in learning acquisition for CLS and PHIT concepts, thereby allowing us to uniquely tailor our experiences to different community and cultural settings. Through high school and community partnerships, online, and mobile resources we will disseminate educational curricula, materials, and research outcomes to enhance community health-based literacy. We will encourage the addition of our program into the NGSS and CTE standards for Tennessee by communication with educators and policy makers.