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

新型冠状病毒大流行加剧了现有专职医疗人员严重短缺的压力， 特别是在农村社区和得不到充分服务的人口中。包括临床实验室科学在内的职业 (CLS)和公共卫生信息技术（PHIT）的推广不如其他卫生专业， K-12学校，增加了专业课程招收本科生的斗争。关键 需要新的教育计划和培训方法，以促进和提高人们的兴趣， 高中生对CLS和PHIT领域的了解。高中2医疗保健（HS 2 HC）计划包括 一个暑期项目和一个双招生课程，教育高中学生和他们的老师， 在CLS和PHIT的职业生涯，同时指导他们发展实践技能，让他们有机会 体验这些职业所需要的东西。HS 2 HC符合NIH研究教育计划的目标 增加合格的、训练有素的卫生专业人员的数量，以满足国家的需要。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短缺， 特别具有破坏性，并寻求为服务不足的学生增加CLS和PHIT的机会 人口。我们将采用新颖的基于结果的教育方法，应用基于项目的学习 战略，以现实世界的社会决定因素的健康情景和基于工作的模拟战略， 真实的临床数据和样本。教师专业发展计划，侧重于NGSS的整合 以及CLS和PHIT内容，沿着职业意识也将实施。准实验 混合方法设计将用于评估CLS中的意识、知识和技能发展， PHIT焦点小组，从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以结果为基础的课程设计的有效性 我们使用的方法来教授跨学科PHIT和CLS内容，了解农村高中学生如何 使用我们的学习方法获得有关PHIT和CLS专业的知识，以及我们的 这种方法增加了学生的兴趣和选择职业和技术教育的学生人数 (CTE)和本科生的途径。劳德代尔独特的人口构成， 西田纳西州的麦克奈里县将提供对文化和社会差异的影响， 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经验， 不同的社区和文化背景。通过高中和社区合作伙伴关系，在线， 移动的资源我们将传播教育课程、材料和研究成果，以提高 社区卫生扫盲。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，为田纳西州制定标准。

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.