College hosts health-care open house
In an effort to address the growing demand for health-care workers, Flathead Valley Community College is hosting an open house Thursday to introduce students to what life in a health-care career would be like.
Night at the Broussard Center on Thursday will feature the college’s 28 health-care programs.
FVCC President Jane Karas said the event will have live demonstrations — such as a surgical technologist in an operating room — so people considering careers in health can see what niche would work for them.
“Employment in health care around the nation keeps growing,” Karas said. “As the need for workers continues to grow, we need to find people to fill those roles.”
Montana will need 40 percent more health-care workers in the next decade, according to the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
That translates to an additional 7,000 workers by 2025 to serve Montana’s growing and aging population, as well as the additional people tapping into insurance through the Affordable Care Act.
In nursing alone, the Montana Department of Labor estimated there will be roughly 349 job openings a year through 2022.
Karas said the college has had a steady interest in students interested in the medical field. FVCC has 374 students in health-care, making up more than 25 percent of the college’s student body.
She said the open house will have access to Career Coach, an online program that assesses career interests and provides data about selected jobs such as wage and employment statistics. Representatives from the college’s financial aid and admissions offices will be on hand.
Pat Wilson, Kalispell Regional Healthcare’s executive director of education services, said any time the hospital has felt a shortage in a field or specialty, it has turned to educators as a tool to help fill that gap.
She said FVCC has been one of its strongest partners, with more than 20 health-care programs tied to the hospital.
“Kalispell is lucky compared to the especially rural communities, but it’s still been a challenge,” Wilson said. “There’s lots of opportunities in health care, so we’re working together as a community to make sure we’re attracting the best and the brightest to these jobs.”
The Night at the Broussard Center is free and open to the public.
It will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Rebecca Chaney Broussard Center for Nursing and Health Science on the FVCC campus.
Reporter Katheryn Houghton may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at khoughton@dailyinterlake.com.