Health care opportunities abound as northern NY faces aging population 

Students forming the next generation in North Country’s medical fields

By Tim Rowland

At a jobs fair in Plattsburgh that attracted students from across northeastern New York, Dylan Hunt, a high school student at Beekmantown, got to feel what it was like to drill into bone with a special implement that’s used as a workaround for IVs when a patient’s vein can’t be raised.

“I want to do something in health care, because I like helping people,” he said.

The North Country needs more Dylan Hunts.

Demographics tell part of the story. In Essex County, the number of people over the age of 80 counted in 2020 will jump 50% by 2040, according to Cornell University.

At the same time, people in their 20s in the Adirondacks will decline 22%. This will result in more people in need of care, and fewer people to care for them.

Moreover, health administrators note that many doctors, nurses and other caregivers are themselves growing older, meaning that they too will be retiring during this time period, transitioning from caregiver to care needer. 

This after COVID-19 had already thinned the ranks among health care professionals.

Opportunities galore

Recruiters say opportunities abound for anyone interested in the field. Hospitals are holding recruitment fairs, offering educational assistance and improving working conditions. 

Even artificial intelligence is already making inroads into health care, both for the patient and the provider.

But in the Adirondack Park, the medical field remains as bumpy as the topography. At the Elizabethtown Community Hospital, an arm of the University of Vermont Health Network, Julie Tromblee said there is need for at least two primary care physicians, and that convincing local kids to come home and practice locally can be a challenge.

Tromblee, the hospital’s vice president and chief nursing officer, said  young people often wish to get out in the world and see how far their skills will take them.  “They have to want to work in rural medicine,” Tromblee said.

Sarah Anderson, a 23-year-old student at Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, feels a call to return home to her Moriah roots once she’s completed her education. Her mother is a primary care physician’s assistant in Westport.

“I see what an integral part of the community she is,” Anderson said. “She has to be a pediatrician, a caregiver to the elderly and everyone in between.”

In her home county of Essex, Anderson said there is one physician for every 1,960 residents compared with one for every 1,240 statewide. Yet while the numbers point to a need for more primary care, the sparse population does not support specialists, who would not find a niche even if they wanted to.

As a result, Adirondackers have lengthy waits to see a PA and lengthy trips to see a specialist. So anxiety over care can become an issue of its own. “It affects the overall health in Essex County,” Anderson said.

Still, recruitment into other health disciplines seems to be working.

At the Plattsburgh fair, Kiesha Holmes, assistant manager at the Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital’s intensive care unit, made her pitch. Work in an ICU is hands-on and presents a new experience every day, she told students.

“You never know what you’ll be walking into in the ICU,” she said. “You’ll see a multitude of things.”

Variety is among the selling points of health care, which includes not just the traditional doctors and nurses, but positions in speech therapy and administration and jobs in maintenance and automotive repair. 

Student interest

North Country students seem to be responding. “We have waiting lists like we never had before,” said Sherry Snow, student services coordinator for Champlain Valley Educational Services. “It’s refreshing, I’ve got to say.”

Those nurses can expect to earn $82,000 annually, well in excess of the region’s median household income which, in Clinton County, was $67,000. The report lists a myriad of other health care jobs, all of which promise plenty of openings and good pay, from radiology to substance-abuse counselors.

“Looking at the data, one of the biggest growth industries is health care,” Snow said. “And the opportunities are only going to grow, particularly with the changes in technology.”

So schools and hospitals are engaging in a full-court press to entice students into the field. Some of these jobs will require college degrees, but some will not. CVES offers an Allied Health program at its Plattsburgh and Mineville campuses, a two-year course that teaches high school students a smattering of skills needed for a broad array of healthcare fields. They learn about such things as patient care, medical terminology, vital signs, anatomy, infection control and nutrition.

The program offers field experiences where young people get an opportunity to see what interests them and what doesn’t.

They can leave the Career and Technical Education Division of CVES for jobs or, or continue their education to enter advanced positions.

“We focus on all aspects of health care; it’s not just a nursing based field,” said Kelly Gowett, Health services coordinator for CVES.

For those going to college, CVES offers New Visions, a rigorous one-year academic program for seniors planning on going into pre-med, biology, chemistry or a related health field. 

At Elizabethtown Community Hospital, which employs 400 people in Elizabethtown and Ticonderoga along with six Adirondack clinics, multiple programs exist to help students along, including job-shadowing opportunities with nurses. As with other professions in the park, medical recruiters in the Adirondacks must grapple with a shortage of housing and daycare and compensation that is low relative to other parts of the state. Hospitals must also work to combat the reputation for long hours and not enough home time.

“The work-life balance is important; they don’t want to work 60 hours,” Tromblee said.

But the park itself is a recruitment tool, both for young people who do not want to stray far from home and recruits from other areas who appreciate the outdoors. Many like to hike, and two of Tromblee’s nurses just became 46ers.

Gowett of CVES also said the area is attractive for people who move away for education or to get their careers started, but then want to return home. She knows because she’s one of them.

Gowett, 40, of Ellensburg, was drawn back home after going away to study nutrition.

“This is where (students) have family, and the majority want to stay,” she said. “I think we can truly help these kids find opportunities that will keep them here.”