Students in Tarrant County University’s Nuclear Medicine Technology program learn how to use small amounts of radioactive material to diagnose and treat illnesses using safety-shielded syringes and proper calibration techniques.
“This is more for physiology than anatomy. You can see the patient, and it’s like watching a movie of the patient,” said Vineet Patel, one of the students in the class. He was describing an imaging technique used in nuclear medicine, in which small amounts of radioactive material are injected into the patient to peer inside the body. “You can see the blood flow. You can see how well the organs are functioning.”
There are many reasons why Patel and other students are training to be nuclear medicine technicians: They want to get into a field that’s growing. They like the amount of patient interaction. And the pay is good.
“I want a steady income and money, not just scrambling to find a way to live before payday,” said Kim Bernal of Mansfield, who has three young children and whose husband and mother help care for them while she takes classes or does clinical training at a local hospital. “It’s for their future.”
Bernal graduated from high school in 2010 and worked as a health care caseworker. When it was time to go back to school, she looked for a career with growth and income. The median annual salary for a nuclear medicine technologist in 2023 is $92,500. U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsAnd there is growth.
“We can’t graduate enough students, and we can’t graduate them fast enough,” said Tonija Pigrski, program director for the Nuclear Medicine Technology program. “The demand is so high.”
The program is small, selective and rigorous. About 50 TCC students who have completed the required courses apply each year. Of those, 15 are admitted and about 10 graduate. It’s just one program at TCC’s Trinity River Campus East Healthcare Professions Center, which offers classes in health information technology, diagnostic ultrasound and other growing fields.
“I don’t think Texas is any different than the rest of the U.S. in that the needs in the health care sector are expected to continue to grow,” said Rahul Sreenivasan, policy adviser to Texas 2036, a nonpartisan public policy research and advocacy group.
in Recent reports, Texas 2036 projects that health care jobs in the state will grow 8% from 2021 to 2026.
“This again reflects an ageing population and an increase in chronic diseases,” Sreenivasan said.
At Texas community colleges, registered nursing, licensed practical nurses, emergency medical technology, biological sciences and psychology are among the top 20 programs for applicants. At Texas public universities, registered nursing, psychology, biology and kinesiology are among the top 10 programs for applicants. April 2023 report by Texas 2036 Regarding labor force trends.
Tarleton State University in Fort Worth is set to open a new building this fall to house classrooms and labs for the College of Health Sciences, and a needs assessment was conducted to determine what programs will be offered there.
“We really surveyed the community, we listened to the community, we looked at a variety of data sets,” said Ramona Parker, dean of Tarleton University’s College of Health Sciences, “and we decided on programs ranging from nursing to clinical laboratory science to speech-language pathology to kinesiology that would lead to physical therapy and occupational therapy.”
Parker said both the Fort Worth and Stephenville campuses are addressing the local nursing shortage.
“There are very few health care workers in this area — nurses, doctors, physical therapists, occupational therapists,” Parker said. “We just want to be part of the solution.”
Universities around Tarrant County are working to find solutions to the nursing shortage. This fall, the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth will welcome its first group of students to its School of Nursing. This fall, the center will offer registered nurses a path to earn a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Next year, a general nursing degree program is expected to launch.
The University of Texas at Arlington is also set to introduce a certificate program in its School of Rural Health this fall. UTA has also expanded its social work and health care facilities, opening a new Smart Hospital/School of Social Work building in 2023 that will span more than 150,000 square feet.
TCU’s preparatory school for health professions has seen enrollment double over the past decade, and the university plans to introduce a public health major.
“We have an aging population, an aging health care workforce, and fewer people in health care than have been in the workforce throughout the entire tenure of my predecessors,” UNT Health Sciences Center Chancellor Sylvia Trent Adams said at a recent university leadership event.
Trent Adams and other local higher education leaders are developing programs to prepare students for jobs in growing industries.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report. open campusHe can be contacted at [email protected].
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