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ALL:Health Care Careers (HST)

Main Core Tie

FCS 6th Grade
Strand 6

Time Frame

2 class periods of 45 minutes each

Group Size

Large Groups

Life Skills

  • Communication
  • Employability

Authors

Denise Abbott
Melvin Robinson

Summary

Students will explore a variety of health care careers in each of the five National Health Care Career Pathways (Therapeutic, Diagnostic, Health Informatics, Support Services and Biotechnology Research and Development). Students will be introduced to the National Health Care Foundation Skills Standards.


Materials

1- Health Care Careers Poster
2- Careers for the 21st Century Video "Health Technologists & Technicians"

Delphi Productions 1-888-443-2400 ISBN 1-57998-009-0
www.delphivideo.com
3- National Health Care Foundation Skill Standards document
4- National Health Care Pathways document
5- Organization of Health Care document
6- National Health Care Pathways and Careers document
7- Utah Health Science & Technology Education Conceptual Model


Background for Teachers

Attachments

Websites

One Health Care Careers video per school was given to the Team Leader at the 2002 summer ATE conferences. All teachers will use this video.

The health care occupations (careers) have been divided into five pathways. These pathways include diagnostic, therapeutic, support services, health informatics, and biotechnology research and development.

  • Diagnostic Serviceshelp to create a picture of patient health at a single point in time by identifying the presence of disease, infection, or a medical condition.
  • Therapeutic Servicestreat patients to maintain or change the health status of the patient over time.
  • Support Serviceshelp in the delivery of heath care by providing a therapeutic environment.
  • Health Informaticshelp to document and support patient care.
  • Biotechnology Research and Developmenthelps to improve both diagnostic and therapeutic activities in health care by advancing by science and technical knowledge.
In a booklet entitled Utah's Top Ten Health Care Careers, the ten most needed careers in Utah include:
  1. Registered Nurse - Therapeutic Pathway
  2. Pharmacist - Therapeutic Pathway
  3. Radiologic Technologist - Diagnostic Pathway
  4. Clinical Laboratory Technologist - Diagnostic Pathway
  5. Therapy (Respiratory, Speech and Language, Audiologist) - Therapeutic Pathway
  6. Dietician - Therapeutic Pathway
  7. Surgical Technologist - Therapeutic Pathway
  8. Medical Coder - Health Informatics Pathway
  9. Physician - Therapeutic Pathway
  10. Patient Care Support (Medical Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant, Home Health Aide)- Therapeutic Pathway


Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will examine health care careers in the following pathways: Diagnostic, Therapeutic, Support Services, Health Informatics, and Biotechnology Research and Development. Students will be introduced to the National Health Care Foundation Skills Standards.


Instructional Procedures

Attachments

Websites

Day One:

1. Explain the importance of the National Health Care Foundation Skill Standards. (the first attachment entitled Careers_NHCSS_HST.doc). These standards represent the knowledge all health care workers should know and the skills they be able to perform. It is important to know these standards were developed by professionals from both education and the health care industry.

2. Using the attached National Health Care Pathways document,(the second attachment entitled Careers_Pathways_HST.doc), put students in groups to brainstorm characteristics and purposes of each pathway. Students may also share personal experiences of contacts with different health care occupations.

3. Show the relationship of health care careers by pathway to the National Health Care Foundation Skill Standards, (the fourth attachment entitled Careers_Organization.doc).

4. Discuss specific health care occupations (careers) with the students, using the fifth attachment, (Careers_Specialty_HST.doc), showing the variety of work available and their corresponding pathways. Help students realize nursing or medical specialties are not listed separately. For example, nursing careers may also include a nurse midwife or a nurse practitioner while physician specialists include surgeons and pediatricians. You may want to assign students to do reports, posters, or displays on different health care careers. Posters or reports should include a description of the career, education, salary, work environment, licensure requirements, etc. A good idea is to use the Career Health Display competitive event from HOSA (Health Occupations Students of America). The web site is www.hosa.org. Click on competitive events, then click on category IV, and then find career health display. You may also want to invite students to select their top three health care careers. Have students share their choices and explain why. Assign students to discuss their choices with their parents/guardian. You may also choose to show the attached powerpoint which introduces sample careers in the five pathways.

4. Discuss with students how many basic education classes for health care occupations (careers) can taken in Utah high schools. Use the third attachment called Careers_UT_Flow_HST.doc to show the progression of health care related classes in the state. Encourage students to continue their exploration and interest in health care careers by taking these classes while still in high school.

Day Two:

1. Review the five health care career pathways and the National Health Care Foundation Skill Standards presented on Day One.

2. Show the appropriate clip (approximately five minutes each) from the Health Technologists & Technicians video.
**Tech - Clinical Lab Technologists & Technicians
**Tech - Nuclear Medicine Technologists
**Tech - Opticians
**Tech - Radiologic Technologists
**FACS - Licensed Practical Nurse
**FACS - Emergency Medical Technician
**FACS - Dental Hygienist
**BUS - Medical Records Technician

Note: Technologists and Technicians are mid-level careers requiring bachelor's degrees and associate's degrees respectively. Additional career videos can be obtained from Delphi Productions (see contact information listed in the materials section). A Delphi Productions career video catalog was provided to your team leader with this video.

3. Groups of students should identify the pathway where the careers shown on the video should be assigned. Teams share their results.


Extensions

Refer students to the Health Care Careers poster. Explain those students interested in pursuing a career in health care need to begin preparing now by successfully completing higher levels of English/Language Arts, Mathematics and Science. Additionally, be aware most high schools in Utah provide Health Science courses/programs. These courses/programs are based on the National Health Care (Foundation) Skill Standards.

Note: The Health Science and Technology Education Conceptual Model handout is provided to assist with your understanding of course/program offerings in Utah.

Now What?

Students interested in a health care occupation (career) should be encouraged to participate in job shadowing experiences, interviews, research via the Internet, etc. to gain a better understanding and expectation of desired career(s) and plan to include Health Science and/or Technology Education courses/programs into their four year Student Education Occupation Plan (SEOP).


Created: 07/29/2002
Updated: 02/05/2018
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