LITTLE ROCK – Doctors and nurses are not the only health professionals Arkansans depend on to keep them healthy. Paramedics, ophthalmic medical technicians, clinical laboratory scientists, and respiratory therapists are among numerous allied health, or health related, professions people rely on every day.

Yet national shortages in these areas of expertise are creating a greater need for students and better career opportunities for the graduates who enter the fields, said Michael Anders, M.P.H., associate professor in respiratory care and Director of the Office of Student Affairs in the College of Health Related Professions at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Allied Health Professions Week, Nov. 7-13, is a national celebration to honor the more than five million health care workers in more than 100 different fields.  UAMS offers degrees and/or certificates in 17 allied health professions – one of the largest selections of allied health programs at a university in the United States.

“Our graduates are in high demand, and most of our programs have a 100 percent job placement rate,” Anders said. “Our graduates typically get good jobs quickly and at good salaries, but many people are unaware of these opportunities available in the allied health professions.”

Since its establishment in 1971, the UAMS College of Health Related Professions has graduated almost 5,230 students – most of who have remained in Arkansas to practice – and currently has 565 students enrolled.  Many of those fields are facing major shortages nationwide.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that by 2010, the United States will have 97,000 job openings for paramedics and emergency medical technicians and 66,000 job openings for respiratory therapists.

Arkansas high school and college students who decide to go into the allied health professions can expect solid financial assistance and tremendous career opportunities. Through the Arkansas Technical Careers Student Loan Forgiveness Program students can file a notice of intent to go into any of nine health related career tracks offered by UAMS. If they complete their training and work within that field in Arkansas, $2,500 of their student loans will be waived for each year they work, up to four years.

The Federal Perkins Loan also waives loans for graduates of allied health  programs. Many hospitals and clinics also offer incentives to pay loans for graduates who come to work for them.

”Students have a wide range of health career options at UAMS, so they can choose a career that best suits their interests and needs,” Anders said. Programs range from certificates to doctoral degrees, with most being bachelor of science degrees. Some professions provide direct patient care, while others are based in offices, clinics, or laboratories. 

The UAMS Respiratory Care program offers a Bachelor of Science degree program for people who want an active, hands-on, career. Respiratory therapists work in almost every branch of the hospital, even on every Angel One helicopter leaving Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

For Jim Hammons, a UAMS respiratory therapist, the decision to enter the profession came the first year of college. “It seemed exciting,” he said. Once he observed respiratory therapists saving lives in a local hospital it “sealed the deal” for his career track. Respiratory therapists have responsibilities that range from asthma care to delivering the first breath of life to high-risk newborns.

Susan Brummett, an ophthalmic medical technologist in the Jones Eye Institute at UAMS, found her profession after working for a neighbor who was an optician. “From adjusting glasses to harvesting corneas for the eye bank to doing ophthalmic photography, it has all been a wonderful learning experience,” Brummett said.

For more information about these and other CHRP programs at UAMS, call (501) 686-5730 or visit www.uams.edu/chrp.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, five centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has about 2,170 students and 650 residents and is the state’s largest public employer with almost 9,000 employees. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of about $3.8 billion a year. UAMS centers of excellence are the Arkansas Cancer Research Center, Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, and Jackson T. Stephens Spine and Neurosciences Institute.