Career technical education (CTE) has evolved markedly over the past century to provide a viable avenue for high school students who may seek an alternative and successful academic path that leads to a well-paid future career in the workforce. Recent studies have found that Career and Technology Education can lower dropout rates among high school…

Pathway programs provide early exposure to various health careers. Positive program outcomes have been conveyed from the student's perspective. Previous studies yet to demonstrate a focus on the experiences of high school teachers who instruct in pathway programs. The primary research question for this study is: How do high school teachers…

Latinx populations experience health disparities and are underrepresented among health professionals. One strategy to address these health disparities includes increasing the proportion of Latinx health professionals. The purpose of this study was to examine barriers and facilitators for Latinxs in pursuing health professions careers in a…

Community outreach and service-learning are common components of medical and health profession programs. Outreach programs can provide diverse service-learning opportunities for students to work collaboratively with their communities. Many educational accrediting bodies require service-learning activities for students. The discipline of anatomy is…

Background: To accurately measure students' science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) career interest, researchers must get inside the 'black box' to understand students' conceptualizations of STEM careers. Aims: The aim of Study 1 was to explore whether students' conceptualizations of STEM included medical careers. The aim of Study…

Health-related career goals are popular among high school science students, yet few understand the application of chemistry and biology research to the field of medicine and its impact on society. In this five-day multidisciplinary summer camp, high school students learn about the real-world relevance of medicinal chemistry research and its…

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems across the world. High school Career and Technical Education (CTE) health science programs that rely on experiential learning activities for successful outcomes took a severe hit. Experiential learning opportunities such as internships, field experiences, and clinical rotations did not occur, and…

This Data Point uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a nationally representative study of more than 23,000 ninth-graders in 2009. Follow-up surveys were administered to the cohort in 2012, 2013, and 2016. This Data Point uses data from the initial survey in 2009 and first follow-up in 2012. Students who were…

Identifying factors influencing career preferences is relevant for faculty, education planners, and authorities when designing educational policies. However, these factors vary according to the socioeconomic context. We estimate a discrete choice model to investigate the determinants of career preferences using a survey of high school students (n…

To enter practice as an occupational therapist, one must complete an occupational therapy program at an accredited institution and then pass a national certification exam. This exam is called the National Board for Certification in Occupational Therapy (NBCOT) Exam. Individuals can take the exam more than once to achieve a passing score but must…

The labor-market payoff to workers with associate degrees in healthcare and STEM occupations is very high in Massachusetts. We examine whether this induced a growing proportion of students in MA community colleges (MACCs) to earn an associate degree (AD) in one of these fields. We do this by using multinomial logit analysis to compare trends…

Purpose: The objective of this study was to determine if exposure to a short-term ultrasound basic biology and anatomy course can promote interest in health careers and other science-related endeavors among DHH students. Design/methodology/approach: This was a single-site, prospective observational study of DHH high school students at a Southern…

The United States is experiencing a physician shortage and rural areas are especially impacted. Programs exist to recruit college and medical students to work in rural areas, but few programs are focused on the high school "pipeline." Medical students, residents and physicians who have lived in rural areas are more likely to practice in…

Health professions outreach programs are important avenues to increase interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). One aspect of many of these programs is anatomy, which can be challenging to teach due to its scope. Creative teaching methods, such as the incorporation of examples from pop culture, can help…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) Emerging Health Professional (EHP) programs are primarily populated by female students in the U.S. The development and testing of innovative educational models such as serious simulation games have been suggested for greater internalization of hand hygiene best practices behaviors for EHP students, but 50% of…