Examining higher education's role in health care - educating personnel for allied health services - special report: health sciences

Black Issues in Higher Education, Nov 28, 1996 by Gwendolyn Glenn

To meet health industry needs for thousands of

physical therapists, occupational therapists and

other trained health professionals, colleges and

universities have revamped their course offerings.

Even so, they turn down more students than they

accept.

"Schools are being swamped with applicants,"

says Dr. Judy Barr, President of the

Association of

Schools of Allied

Health Professions

(ASAHP).

Howard

University, the first

historically Black

college or university

(HBCU) to establish

a College of Allied

Health, fits in that

category.

"We had sixty-five

qualified students applying for thirty-two

spaces in physical therapy," says Dr. Gene

Gary-Williams, dean of Howard's College of Allied

Health Sciences. "We had to turn them down. If we

had more resources and facilities, we could be twice

as large as we are now."

At Florida A&M University (FAMU), 500

applicants vied for sixty slots in last year's

physical therapy program. Because of increased

demand, FAMU had just increased its physical

therapy program student population from last

year's class of forty-five. According to Dr.

Jacqueline B. Beck, dean of the School of Allied

Health Sciences at FAMU, "When we recruit,

everyone wants to be a physical therapist."

The National Commission on Allied Health

claims that allied health professionals are the

largest component of the health care workforce.

More than 250 jobs are listed under allied

health--ranging from physician assistants and

dietitians to physical, respiratory and occupational

therapists--providing more care to consumers than

doctors and nurses. And the high demand for these

programs is causing many community colleges to

add on physical therapy (PT), physician assistant

(PA) and occupational therapy (OT) programs.

Barr says, "Programs for physician assistants

are doubling in numbers, in terms of new programs.

Institutions see the demand for them. There was

also significant growth in programs for

occupational therapy."

A Lack of Programs, Faculty

But for most HBCU's, adding new majors is

harder because of the funding these programs

require. Fewer than ten HBCUs have allied health

schools or offer allied health courses in other

departments.

Dr. Elaine Williams, president of the National

Society of Allied Health (NSAH), believes that the

reason is, "These programs are expensive to

operate--which is why there are few at HBCUs.

You have to have a strong clinical component,

which increases the cost of training, because

students have to be trained before they go into

clinical settings.... The [schools'] clinical settings

have to be similar [to hospitals, HMOs, clinics,

etc.] so the students

will have the expertise they need to do well

[in their internships]."

Williams says that at Los Angeles's

Charles Drew University, where she is the

interim dean of allied health, many programs

are funded by grants and not dependent on

tuition only. "Tuition would be prohibitive

for minority students if the programs were

tuition-based only," she suggests.

As president of NSAH, a group of

African Americans in allied health, Williams

says that in addition to funding, the society is

also concerned that so few African Americans

are seeking careers in allied health at all. Fewer

than 4 percent of allied health professionals

are African American.

"Physical therapy and occupational

therapy are less representative with

minorities. We plan to implement them at

Drew," says Williams.

Beck said increasing the number of

African Americans in allied health is a major

concern of hers as well. "We've got to get

them in the programs. In physical therapy,

1.7 percent of students nationally are African

American."

She also criticized those who say they

cannot find qualified minority students with

strong backgrounds in math and science, a

prerequisite for the programs.

"You can get African-American students

and you don't have to get them as special

students. You can do it.... In the early years,

it was hard. But we've changed that by

recruitment and we keep them once they get

in," Beck says.

According to figures released this year by

the American Medical Association (AMA),

of the 42,000 degrees given in all accredited

allied health programs in the

1994/95 academic year, fewer than 3,600 were

awarded to African Americans. The program

with the largest number of degrees granted to

African Americans was the medical assistant

(MA) program which had nearly 1,200 Black

graduates. The duties MAs perform range

from receiving patients and preparing medical

records to CPR and assisting doctors in

examinations. Most graduates of the program

receive two-year associate degrees or one-year

certificates.

AMA reports that "more medical

assistants are employed by practicing physicians

than any other type of allied health

personnel." Although job opportunities in

this field are said to be unlimited, the

salaries are low, averaging only $16,500 last

year.

The second highest number of allied

health degrees granted to African Americans

in allied health was in the areas of respiratory

therapy (RT) and respiratory therapy

technicians (RTT). In these high-demand

programs, 400 and 330 degrees

were granted, respectively. Although these