When Futuro Health launched in January, we had no idea what our inaugural year held in store. COVID-19 has made the year challenging for so many, especially frontline healthcare workers. Yet, there is much for which we are thankful as we near the end of our first year. We reflect on the strong partnerships that allow us to meet the needs of healthcare providers and healthcare workers – and to do so rapidly. Earlier this year, we worked closely with our partners to develop a curriculum and launch within two weeks a pandemic-readiness course, eventually serving healthcare workers and first responders in 20 states in time for the first surge in infection. The online course remains free to all as a public service as the pandemic rages.

Even as we pivoted to equip current workers with important and timely skills like telehealth, we continued to introduce programs to help the nation meet the growing need for more allied healthcare workers. Our goal is to grow 10,000 new licensed and/or credentialed allied healthcare workers by 2024, starting in California. So far this year, we have launched four programs in areas of labor-market demand and will exceed our goal of enrolling 1,500+ students tuition-free this year through our higher education partners. The programs are Medical Assistant, Advanced Telehealth Coordinator, Care Coordinator and Health IT Specialist. Our students are overwhelmingly female (85%), with an average age of 35, and 87% diverse.

We are also working to expand the bilingual healthcare workforce. The pandemic has shown us the disparity in health outcomes and having a workforce reflective of the communities being served is a needed step in the right direction. Thirty-four percent of our students speak an additional language, other than English. To build additional awareness for allied health careers, this fall we launched tunuevofuturo.com, a pilot campaign to offer online English Readiness for Allied Health coursework free to encourage bilingual Spanish speakers to consider a future in care.

As challenging a year as it has been, we can give thanks for what we have been able to accomplish so far this year to help individuals and communities find opportunity in healthcare.

Happy Holidays from Futuro Health!

There has never been a stronger need for workers to adapt. To keep up with the speed of change, we must be prepared to shift into new job roles and pick up new skills. Traditional approaches no longer suffice. For Futuro Health’s WorkforceRx podcast, CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan interviews leaders and innovators for insights into the future of work, future of care, future of higher education, and alternative education-to-work models. We will need to draw on our collective ingenuity to uncover ways to develop work, workers, and economic opportunity.

Find all episodes here or download it on your podcast app.

“There’s not a lot of political or partisan divide on investing in the skills of somebody who’s working in a minimum-wage job so they can move into a higher-paying job or investing in the retraining of somebody whose been working at a job for 20 years and has been laid off and now has to look for a new occupation…I think our challenge is it doesn’t get on the radar screen in the way that other more controversial issues do.” - Listen Now

Podcast Episode 8: The Workforce Has Changed Forever, Eva Sage-Gavin, Sr. Managing Director, Accenture’s Global Talent & Organization/Human Potential Practice
“In private, I hear things like ‘I’m really worried about a ‘she-session.’’ I’m losing dual-career families and often the woman is the individual who’s taking the lead parent role, if they have a two-career family all in one home, with three little ones to school. Someone is having to take the lead role.” Listen Now

Podcast Episode 7: Improving Care With Virtual Environments, Walter Greenleaf, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Stanford University
“I would say to anyone who is entering into the workforce now and has an interest in anything involving clinical care: master technology, make sure you feel comfortable with technology because it’s going to be part of your career path...just learning how to master it and be very proficient and love it.” Listen Now

Podcast Episode 6: Are You Ready for the Impact of Automation, Bryan Hancock, Global Leader of Talent Management at McKinsey & Company
“Human capital is scarcer than financial impact. And it’s really the people that are required to bring new business plans to life. It’s people that are required to deliver on the front lines every day. It’s people that make the difference in whether a plan succeeds or fails. So we should think about the people side of the equation with the same rigor we think about the financial side of the equation.” Listen Now

Podcast Episode 5: Adding Trusted Community Voices to Healthcare, Dr. Rishi Manchanda, CEO of HealthBegins
“What is true for the pandemic is true for the health system writ large, right? To be able to address the racial inequities, the economic inequities that clearly are shaping COVID, but also shape every other health condition. We need to tap into trusted voices in communities to be able to augment the interventions that every other workforce is trying to implement, both from health care or the public health side.” Listen Now

Podcast Episode 4: Invest in a Culture of Learning, Jaime Fall, Director of Upskill America at the Aspen Institute
“Many more people are being forced to consider a career change right now with the economy the way it is, but, unfortunately, not much hiring is going on, so we really need to be sure that if people are going to invest in education and training, a good job is going to be awaiting them at the end.” Listen Now

When Brenda C., 23, was younger, she had a cousin with health issues that required frequent medical care. She helped take care of him and became quite familiar with the medical environment and what it takes to provide care. That experience led her to want to become a medical assistant.

“I kind of already know how it feels to have to react in a split second,” Brenda said. “I never had a doubt about not being a medical assistant.”

A long-time family friend recently put her on the path to achieving her dream. A nurse at Kaiser, the friend told her about the Medical Assistant Program at Futuro Health and referred her to the program. Brenda was admitted to the program, and on Jan. 6 will begin taking the first of two prerequisite courses for the program – and she plans to keep going after earning her Medical Assistant certificate.

“I’m not sure if I want to go toward mental health or neurology, so I’m still kind of debating which way,” Brenda said. “I can get started and at least get the Medical Assistant completed and then figure out where to go from there.”

She graduated high school in 2015 and went to work. Then she had her daughter, who is legally blind, three years ago and decided to stay home to care for her baby. Now she is ready to embark on a new journey.

“It’s getting close, so I’m a little nervous and anxious,” Brenda said, as the start of her first class nears, “but I kind of like it because it’s at home and you can have more time to study.”

She said her Navigator has been helping to keep her on track with regular check-ins to make sure all her questions are answered and all the items on the enrollment checklist have been completed.

As she prepares to start a new chapter, Brenda has words of encouragement for others considering doing the same:

“There’s nothing to hold you back,” she said. “You have the help and support from your Navigator, and you have time to prepare yourself before the course kicks in. I think it’s a great opportunity to go after.”