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Rocketing Science
Companies partner with educational institutions to meet critical worker shortages in bioscience, medicine
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Business New Haven
8/7/2000
By: Linda Mele
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If you're looking for a job in the biotech or medical field, there's good news out there. But if you are the one doing the hiring, the news isn't so great - it's a seller's market.
“It's definitely a candidate's market,” says John Barrett, executive director/microbiology for Bristol Myers Squibb in Wallingford.
“It's a very competitive market out there,” Barrett says, adding that qualified college graduates are corralled before the ink is even dry on their degrees.
Barrett says that his company has three critical needs: industrial M.D.s, people with experience in the new technologies, and chemists.
“There's a world-wide shortage of chemists,” Barrett explains, “and the competition to recruit them is tremendous.”
Becky Horton, spokesman for the New Haven-based CuraGen Corp., says her company's 300-plus employees have education levels that range from high school graduates to Ph.D.s.
“We can always use talented people with or without actual experience,” Horton says, “but the ideal would be college graduates with some related experience.”
According to Horton, candidates with at least master's-level degrees in the sciences and computer backgrounds are highly coveted. Successful job candidates with Ph.D.s should have completed their post-doctoral work.
The company also has developed a partnership with Middlesex Community College to help train people who could then be hired by CuraGen.
Middlesex Professor Jonathan Morris coordinates the MCC program. He says, “There aren't enough graduates to meet the needs of the industry. That's especially true for entry-level technicians.
“New biotech companies are opening every day, and the demand for all kinds of workers on all levels is, and will continue, to grow,” Morris says.
According to a Connecticut United for Research Excellence (CURE) report, from 1995 to 1999 the state's bioscience industry showed an increase is R&D expenditures from $1,513,075,000 to $2,645,045,106, a 75-percent hike. Over the same period, the number of employees rose from 8,455 to 12,020, an increase of 42 percent.
“Connecticut's bioscience cluster is experiencing unprecedented growth that significantly exceeds the national average,” the CURE reports says, and “few, if any other industry, generates as much positive impact on the general economy as bioscience, with its highly educated and compensated workforce.” In 1999 alone, more than 1,000 new jobs were created and all companies are reporting vacancies.
The report also says the average R&D job in the state pays $54,000 per year, compared with $39,000 for the general population, according to 1997 figures from the state's Department of Labor.
CURE spokesman Paula Bender says the state's pharmaceutical and biotech companies need “credentialed and experienced professionals with degrees in biochemistry, chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, pharmacology and related medical/biological computer science.
“We collaborated with the state Department of Higher Education on a study of the state's colleges and universities,” Bender says, “and discovered that they are graduating a steadily increasing number of students with bachelor's degrees in the life sciences, while the number of people earning master's degrees increased only slightly, and the number of Ph.D. candidates remained slack.”
Shortages in the medical field - hospitals, nursing homes, etc. - aren't as critical overall.
However, Connecticut isn't the only state where a critical shortage of nurses plagues the industry.
“If you're talking about health specialties,” says Griffin Hospital Vice President William Powanda, “there have been pockets of need during my 25 years at Griffin, but there's always been a need for more nurses. And that's especially true now - here and throughout the country.”
Powanda says there's also a shortage of physical therapists, pharmacists and radiological technicians, but there isn't as severe a shortage of them as there is of nurses.
“We attribute the shortage to a variety of reasons,” Powanda says. “First, the work isn't as satisfying as it once was, and the people who are admitted to the hospital are more sick than ever.
“For example, we don't admit people for testing anymore, and those who are admitted to the general floors probably would have been in intensive care just a few years ago,” says Powanda. “So the care level has become more acute.
“Also, the average stay has decreased,” Powanda adds. “Twenty-five years ago, only two percent of patients had same-day operations. Today, 60 percent of patients are treated on a same-day, in-and-out basis, and the overall length of stay for patients is down 50 percent.”
According to Powanda, nursing isn't a nine-to-five job, and many positions exist that don't require night, weekend and holiday duty.
“There are also many opportunities for nurses outside the hospital or nursing-home arena,” Powanda says, “jobs that pay more.”
Pat Colby, senior human resources consultant for the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven, says the shortage will remain acute until at least 2006.
“My opinion is that it will last forever,” Colby says, “because there are other, less stressful jobs out there that don't require as much as is required of nurses.”
Colby attributes the shortage to the same reasons as Powanda, as well as to the fact that in recent years three of the state's nursing schools closed their doors.
“St. Raphael's School of Nursing closed in 1978,” Colby notes, “and St. Francis in Hartford, St. Mary's in Waterbury and Ona M. Wilcox in Middletown closed in the last two or three years.”
So health-care facilities look for create ways to take up the slack.
Lynelle Abel, St. Raphael's director of volunteer services, says her hospital's volunteer corps has been a strong one ever since the hospital opened in 1907.
Abel says the hospital currently has about 800 volunteers in 90 different departments. She also notes that the role of the volunteer has changed dramatically over the years.
“Today, [volunteers] work right alongside the nurses in the emergency department and as patient liaisons and patient advocates in addition to other, more traditional duties,” Abel says. “They don't have direct, hands-on care responsibilities, but some positions require more sophisticated skills.”
According to Abel, about 200 students from schools and colleges throughout the state are signed up this summer to work at the hospital. Internships are offered to both high school and college students.
Nevertheless, volunteer and internship programs alone cannot compensate for a stark demographic reality: The average age of an R.N. in Connecticut is 48. Nationally, the figure is 44.
“We call it the greying of the nurse - and there aren't enough young people, female or male, entering the field to replace all those who will retire in a few short years,” Colby says.
According to Colby, St. Raphael's employs about 700 full-, part-time and per-diem nurses, “but we can always use more.” Colby says her hospital also needs licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and experienced clinical technicians.
Bridgeport Hospital spokesman John Capiello says the Bridgeport School of Nursing (established in 1884 by P.T. Barnum and the oldest nursing school in the state) graduated 50 students this year. “And we offered jobs to every one of them.”
“While we're making good progress filling the vacancies,” Capiello explains, “fewer people are entering the field and the need is critical in every state.
“The nursing schools can't turn out nurses fast enough to meet the demand,” adds Capiello.
Yale University's assistant director of public information for institutional issues Thomas R. Violante says the Yale School of Nursing's current enrollment includes 217 females and 24 men.
Colby says more men are entering the field of nursing as salaries have become more competitive.
“While nurses' salaries are based on their education and experience, nurses can and do earn an income that would support a family, so it's a bit more attractive [now] to men,” Colby says.
Chris Richter, account executive at Jackie Matchett Personnel Services in New Haven, says the need for medical support staff, medical assistants and phlebotomists “far outweighs the number of candidates looking for work in those fields.”
Richter's firm supplies temporary workers and others on a “temporary-to-hire” basis. The firm doesn't handle licensed personnel, but does place workers in hospitals, doctor's offices, laboratories and other medical settings.
“Shortages in the different disciplines [are] cyclical,” Richter says, “but we're always looking for experienced people.” So, is there enough being done to address these shortages?
Actually, yes.
Capiello says Bridgeport Hospital recruiters have gone as far away as Canada to find qualified nurses, paid hiring bonuses based on where the nurse wants to work and have offered tuition reimbursement for those who want to continue their education.
“We pay higher bonuses for operating-room nurses because they are the ones we need the most,” Capiello explains.
According to Capiello, one year ago the hospital had more than 100 openings for nurses. Now that need has been trimmed to 30.
“Providing internships for students lets them explore a variety of medical careers,” Abel notes, “and a good way for them to start is by volunteering.”
CuraGen is collaborating with Middlesex Community College to train workers who can move into vacancies at the company.
“We train students to enter the field as laboratory technicians,” Morris says. “Many advance rapidly and find themselves in supervisory or training positions.”
The West Haven and Orange-based Bayer Corp. has affiliated itself with the University of New Haven and, like many other companies and hospitals, partners with elementary and high schools in their region to increase awareness of science related careers.
According to New Haven Public Schools Director of Communications Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, Bayer sends its scientists into city schools and has helped develop the system's science curriculum.
Sullivan-DeCarlo adds that Bayer intends to double the number of science education volunteers in the region from 200 to 400 by 2005.
And, according to Bayer Pharmaceutical Division President David Ebsworth, in addition to providing mentors, the Bayer Foundation is awarding a $250,000 grant to New Haven public schools that will provide seed money to support science curriculum changes in all 34 elementary schools over five years.
In addition, Hill Regional Career High School has partnered with the Yale School of Medicine and Yale-New Haven Hospital. “Students do internships at the hospital and study human anatomy in cadaver classes at the medical school,” explains Sullivan-DeCarlo.
“Since its inception, more than 1,400 students have taken advantage of Career's rich offerings,” Sullivan-DeCarlo adds.
CURE and the state have partnered to create a $3 million “BioBus” that will visit high schools and colleges to give students hands-on experience in science-related activities and to spur their interest in related careers, says Morris.
He and others say the schools in Connecticut are doing a good job educating the students who attend them.
There's no question that schools in Connecticut are graduating the kinds of students who can work in the biotech and medical fields, Morris says, but they can't turn them out fast enough and they can only graduate the number of students who enroll in science programs.
“Our colleges and universities have only been concentrating on these programs for a few years, but they've done a good job educating those who have an interest in either the biotech or medical fields,” Morris says.
Horton says CuraGen is willing to do in-house training of individuals with the appropriate educational background. The firm “always encourages” employees to seek additional education.
To help alleviate the shortage of qualified people, CuraGen employees also lecture at Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University and the University of New Haven.
Colby says she's not sure if one factor outweighs any of the others, but the reality is that those who enter nursing schools can and do find jobs - and to an extent have their pick of what's out there.
Powanda notes that the average turnover rate for nurses across the country in 1999 was 18 percent, and, “It seems to be more acute in the Northeast and in Connecticut particularly.
“We work hard to recruit and retain nurses,” Powanda says, “and our turnover rate last year was 4.7 percent. “Our overall workforce is solid,” Powanda says, “and we believe that's because of the care model we follow. We have a tremendously high patient satisfaction rating, which translates to high employee satisfaction. “I think the industry has to look at job satisfaction as a primary consideration of potential employees,” Powanda adds.
And, with competitive salaries in the biotechnology industries being what they are, perhaps potential employees in that industry will be looking at more than money when they decide to enter the field or accept an offered position. BNH
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