1-866-295-3104 | A New Trend in Public Health: Dangerous Symptom or Healthy Development?
Welcome to ground zero; where the rubber meets the road. Welcome to the emergency room on a Saturday night. Two gang-bangers with gunshot wounds are sprawled on the waiting room floor. An accidental poisoning victim bursts through the ER doors on a gurney. Two heart attack patients are in route to the hospital. But, only one cardiac suite is available.
On the upper floors, MRI machines whirl to life. Dialysis, chemotherapy, and heart-lung modules sustain precious life in the dark night, and somewhere in the nexus of patient rooms and treatment facilities, public health administrators labor diligently to keep the whole operation running smoothly. Like generals in the war room, their cool hands and steady planning play a key role in the battle to save lives.
Somewhere far from the din and clamor of the hospital, tucked away behind laptops and glowing monitors, the next generation of public health administrators prepares to take the reins. Far from the proving ground of the sick and injured, these future industry leaders are training from home.
What sort of commentary is this on one of America's fastest growing economic segments? How do we reconcile the fact that public health administrators are being educated far from maternity wards and emergency rooms? What does it say about the health of America's health care system? Contrary to what you might think, it's great news for public health in America.
To wrap your brain around the situation, think about this: a perfect storm of demographic change is driving growth in the public health industry and it's not heart-clogging foods or an increase in street violence. No, this perfect storm is better known as the Baby Boom generation. As Baby Boomers age, they are beginning to place overwhelming stress on public health for two primary reasons.
The first reason is relatively simple. Medical issues come with age. It's a straightforward fact that as America's largest generation ages, their need for treatments, procedures, screenings, and medication will increase. The second reason is perhaps less obvious. As Baby Boomers age, they're vacating the very public health jobs that are needed to sustain adequate health care for all Americans.
The situation is compounded by the blinding advance of medical science. New therapies and technologies are extending life expectancy beyond anything ever witnessed in the modern world. The paradoxical result is a sort of positive feedback loop. It works like this: advanced treatments allow people to live longer, and the longer they live, the more treatments, procedures, and medical attention people need. So rather than a cure, advanced medical treatments actually increase the need for future medical treatments.
So there you have it: fewer people in the workforce combined with more people who need more health care for a longer period of time. All of which has spawned a dire need for supplementing the public health sector.
Public health administrators are uniquely poised to solve some of America's most pressing health dilemmas. By focusing on administration, personnel, and financial management, public health administrators can ease the tremendous burdens on the system, and with environmental, epidemiological, and disaster planning, they can anticipate and minimize threats to public health.
But, as the old saying goes, "Good help is hard to find." As Baby Boomers retire from the industry, competent public health administrators are increasingly hard to come by. Therefore, in recent years, market forces have placed upward pressure on health administrators' salaries. Increased salaries have stoked the interest of medical professionals, many of whom are now training online to fill health administration vacancies.
This brings us back to our original question. Is training public health officials online a healthy development or a dangerous symptom for America's health care system. The answer can be found in two relatively simple concepts: demand and efficiency.
The demand part is simple. The industry needs more qualified professionals, so the demand for new public health administrators remains high, and because these officials typically come from within the industry, it makes sense that they should train online. Online training allows medical professionals to continue working in their current capacities until they graduate and advance to administrative positions. These workers stay in the workforce, so the industry retains the precious human capital it needs to survive. In a time of spiraling demand for health workers of all kinds, this is just the sort of creative solution that gave American ingenuity its name.
