It includes Upstate Medical, Binghamton–area university leaders ALBANY, N.Y. — SUNY’s new task force on New York’s health-care worker shortage includes the leaders of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, Binghamton University, and SUNY Broome Community College. Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University; Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University; […]
It includes Upstate Medical, Binghamton–area university leaders
ALBANY, N.Y. — SUNY’s new task force on New York’s health-care worker shortage includes the leaders of Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, Binghamton University, and SUNY Broome Community College.
Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University; Harvey Stenger, president of Binghamton University; and Tony Hawkins, president of SUNY Broome are among the 11 members of the SUNY-wide “Future of Health Care Workforce Task Force.”
The group represents campuses educating more than half of SUNY’s overall health-care enrollment, per a SUNY announcement.
SUNY Chancellor John King, Jr. announced the task force Sept. 8 while addressing the Health WorkForce New York, an organization that was formed in 2014 to improve access to quality health care in underserved communities.
King is convening the group “as New York State continues to work to fill a projected gap in health care professionals, particularly in the field of nursing,” SUNY said.
“I’m grateful to Chancellor King for creating this pivotal Future of Health Care Workforce Task Force, and I am pleased to join this panel with so many of my visionary colleagues,” Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University, said in the SUNY announcement. “As an academic medical center, Upstate sees the shortage from all sides as we train the health care workforce of tomorrow and care for our patients today. I am confident that with this initiative, SUNY can be part of the solution in addressing this shortage and creating a more robust health care workforce.”
The task force will focus on expanding SUNY’s educational capacity in health-care profession shortage areas, “strengthening the pipeline” of students in professions that have been hit hardest and aligning education with health-care industry needs.
“The ongoing shortage of health care professionals poses a significant long-term threat to our state’s ability to provide high-quality care to New Yorkers, and SUNY is a key part of the solution. As such, we must take immediate and concerted steps to ensure the availability of a highly trained, diverse, and sustainable health care workforce,” King said in the SUNY announcement. “One step, which has already been taken thanks to Governor Hochul and our legislative partners, is to provide nursing students the opportunity to complete one-third of their clinical work in a high-quality simulated environment, which will further enhance their success. Through the input of this task force, SUNY will continue to advocate for expanded innovation for this life-saving industry.”
SUNY says it educates over 40,000 students through degree-granting health-care profession programs. More than 11,000 health professionals graduate each year from a SUNY institution, including one in every three medical-school graduates and nearly one in every three nursing graduates in New York state. SUNY’s influence in health-workforce education reaches further when considering workforce and continuing education programs, which offer training for essential professions such as medical assistants, pharmacy technicians, certified nursing assistants, and more.