The severe shortage of healthcare workers is one reason that Jason Naidich is happy that the Northwell School of Health Sciences will open in September.
Naidich is the chief learning and innovation officer at Northwell Health, the healthcare system that helped develop the brand-new high school’s curriculum. The hope is that it will prepare and train students for healthcare careers, and that some students will one day work at Northwell, which employs 89,000 people at its 21 hospitals and roughly 900 outpatient facilities. Yet, the school’s mission goes beyond creating an employee pipeline to create a path to good-paying jobs for New York City residents.
“We do a lot of work in underserved communities. And when you talk to the high school students there, most don't know these opportunities even exist,” Naidich said, adding that part of Northwell’s mission is to improve the health of the people it serves, and that good-paying jobs help people take better care of themselves.
“We see this as education being a key pillar of health by providing the right education that can lead to meaningful jobs to pay a good wage,” Naidich said. “We’re also improving the health of our communities at the same time as we’re creating [jobs].”
The new school is an extension of Northwell’s partnership with the New York City Board of Education, through which it already provides various services, such as mentoring and internships, to four city high schools, and the opportunity to earn college credit and professional certifications. With a $25 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the new school is even more focused on healthcare, giving students special training in one of four medical specialties: nursing, medical assistant, mental/behavioral health, and management. They can also receive college credits, certifications, and preparation for licensing exams. For example, a student could graduate with enough classes to take the test to become a licensed practical nurse. That could lead to a job at Northwell, and access to its education funding that could help the individual become a registered nurse.
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“This is truly a transformative experience for the students that are going to attend Northwell school,” said Melanie Mac, interim-acting chief of the office of student pathways at New York City Public Schools. “And it’s, I think, also going to be helping us as educators, solve some system-wide challenges, and we’re hoping that it’s going to help spur improvements that could reach students across the city and our other healthcare pathways.”
Northwell’s efforts to develop its workforce go beyond partnerships with high schools. In 2023, it opened a School of Diagnostic Medical Sonography with SUNY Empire State University as its academic partner. It also opened a second campus of its Peconic Bay School Of Radiologic Technology.
Maxine Carrington, Northwell’s SVP and chief people officer, said the institution tries to understand why shortages exist in certain areas and then tries to create programs to fill them.
“We watch it really, really closely to try to understand is this a school problem where the schools aren’t producing enough?” Carrington said. “Is it that enough people don’t have the ability to access the training? What are the barriers to them being unencumbered to participate in training they would need to go to these professions? Is it a retention issue? Do we have leadership issues? We look at it from all angles.”