Local retail sales are down, manufacturing is slow and the high-tech sector has laid off some 600 people this year, but you can landa job tomorrow - if you're a qualified nurse or medical technician.
Penrose-St. Francis Health Services has about 250 job openingslisted on the company's Web site, www.centura.org, everything fromcouriers to nurses and lab technicians. Memorial Hospital's Web site,www.memorialhospital.com, lists about 110 openings.
Fort Carson recently advertised a pharmacist position with astarting salary of $60,000 a year, and four nursing homes are waving$2,000 signing bonuses for any nurse who will hire on.
'There are a lot of positions and not enough qualified people,'says Lynn Hunter, who helps finds health-care jobs for clients of thePikes Peak Workforce Center. 'We have a lot of job seekers who gotlaid off in other industries now looking to train into the health-care field.'
Where the jobs are
Laurie Kennedy, human resources director for Penrose-St. Francis,can't remember when there weren't at least 100 openings at hercompany's hospitals and other clinical facilities.
Almost 800 of Penrose-St. Francis' 2,900 employees are registerednurses (RNs). Most units are staffed around the clock and the demandfor nurses follows the hospital's fluctuating patient count, or'census.'
The nursing shortage is critical, and Kennedy has one full-timerecruiter working to find qualified candidates. The average salaryfor nurses at Penrose is $22 an hour, which is comparable to nurses'salaries at Memorial.
Part of the problem is demographic - women, who once flocked tonursing as their main entree to the medical profession, are findingbetter-paying jobs elsewhere. Kennedy says the nursing shortage willonly get worse as RNs now in their 50s and 60s leave the professionover the next decade.
'Every hospital has the same problem - there are fewer candidatesfor the jobs,' she said. 'And then Colorado Springs has its ownproblem with housing costs. It's getting expensive to live here.'
Memorial Hospital is also constantly recruiting nurses, but hasjust as many openings for medical technicians. There are now about 40tech openings on the hospital's staff of 3,400. Medical techniciansperform a variety of jobs, from assisting surgeons to running MRIs.
Memorial's Human Resources Director Gordon Riegel saystechnological advances in medical treatment are changing asfrequently as the hospital's patient census. New jobs in vasculartechnology, radiography and sonography (ultrasound) are being createdall the time as new procedures, machines and protocols are invented.
Memorial is offering $12 to $20 an hour for surgical technologistsand radiographers. The top dollar for sonographers at Memorial is $28an hour.
Riegel says the health-care industry faces the demographicchallenge of aging baby boomers retiring and requiring increasedmedical attention.
'The shortage is only beginning and it's going to get worse,' hesaid. 'We are anticipating greater shortages in radiation therapists,sonographers and surgical techs.'
Competing with hospitals for job candidates are numerous nursinghomes, doctors' offices, specialty clinics and temporary-medical-staffing agencies in town.
Traveling Nurses of Colorado Springs, for example, provides bothlocal hospital systems with nurses on a temporary basis.
Traveling Nurses, founded in the Springs by Jon and CarrollSmallegan 25 years ago, actually spun off a second company, Per DiemMedical Staffing Inc., last month. Per Diem allows nurses to pick andchoose shifts on a day-to-day basis; Traveling Nurses places them in13-week contracts across the country.
Colorado Springs Health Partners PC, the area's largest doctors'group, employs almost 500 people in 11 area clinics. CSHP presentlyhas openings for nine doctors and 21 support staff, such as medicalassistants and receptionists.
Although doctors used to hire nurses for their office practices,they now rely on medical assistants to draw blood, take bloodpressure and give injections, said CSHP Human Resources Manager LindaSommervold.
Training and certification
Health-care occupations usually require training - one to fouryears for nursing or technical certificates, less time to be anurse's aid or medical assistant.
Those with training can walk into a job. Those without trainingcan get it locally.
The Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences at theUniversity of Colorado at Colorado Springs offers four-year degreesin a variety of health fields, including nursing, emergency healthservices and radiology.
Pikes Peak Community College has a Health Occupations Departmentoffering programs in nursing, pharmacy, medical assisting andemergency medical work. The RN program takes two years, the licensedpractical nurse (LPN) track takes three semesters and the certifiednurse assistant (CNA) takes just over seven weeks.
Pharmacy techs, who assist pharmacists in filling prescriptions,stocking and billing, can be certified in three semesters. Acertificate in medical office technology takes one year.
A basic emergency medical technician (EMT) certificate at PikesPeak Community College takes one semester, but there are more jobopenings for EMT-paramedics, which require three semesters oftraining.
All the college's health-care classes are held at the RampartRange campus, located almost directly across Interstate 25 from theAir Force Academy football stadium. Classes cost $60 a credit hour.
Memorial Hospital runs its own radiology school. The two-yearprogram begins every June and tuition runs $3,000. Private schoolssuch as IntelliTec Medical Institute and Blair College offer programsin medical assisting and lab work as well as certificates in medicaltranscription and coding.
Federal funds are available for laid-off workers in need ofretraining, said Hunter of the Pikes Peak Workforce Center.
- Steven Saint may be reached at 636-0190 or ssaint@gazette.com.
