How Mayo Clinic creates the next generation of health care professionals

Jan. 28—ROCHESTER — When Heba Abdallah began school to become a pharmacy technician, she had her doubts about being able to juggle it all.

She was raising three children at the time, the youngest being only 2 weeks old when she started the program. But she gained confidence as the six-month program progressed and how its flexibility fit into her busy life. She found she could do much of her work at home because the first weeks were online. And the support of the program director helped keep her on track and motivated.

"I ended up enjoying every single day of the program," said Abdallah, who found a job at Mayo a month after graduating.

It also didn't hurt that the program offered by the Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences was tuition-free and included a $3,500 stipend.

Abdallah's professional journey also offers a glimpse into how Mayo replenishes and sustains its workforce. Each year, thousands of learners like Abdallah graduate from Mayo programs and schools. They include scientists, physicians, nurses, allied health staff and administrators. Over the decades, Mayo's educational role has played a vital function: Teaching and training the next generation of medical professionals.

Often obscured by its role as a medical institution, Mayo is a vast educational enterprise that educates more than 4,400 students each year.

Mayo operates five schools, all under the umbrella of the

Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Together, they make up the biggest educational undertaking in the Rochester area.

They include the

Alix School of Medicine,

the

Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences,

School of Health Sciences,

School of Graduate Medical Education

and the Mayo Clinic School of Continuous Professional Development.

They exist because Mayo's workforce needs for more physicians, scientists, nurses and administrators are considerable. Like much of higher education, Mayo has faced a nationwide, chronic decline in college students even as workforce needs have spiked.

Added to those challenges was a yearslong pandemic that exacerbated the shortage in health care workers. Offering free tuition, a healthy stipend and flexible programming is one way Mayo has sought to stimulate interest in health care fields.

Take the Mayo School of Health Sciences, a key component of Mayo's workforce development strategy. It's been around for 50 years. Today, it produces nearly 500 graduates to become technicians, technologists, therapists and practitioners.

The scope of these programs ranges from a nine-week-long program in phlebotomy — training students how to draw blood — to doctoral programs and beyond.

The school is a key player in its efforts to address, if not solve, Mayo's workplace shortages. It has, for example, expanded enrollment to address the need for more respiratory therapists, nurse anesthetists and pharmacy technicians. In some programs, full-tuition and financial stipends are offered. New pathways are also being developed, including creating opportunities for high-school students to launch health care careers by preparing them for entry-level positions.

Dr. Tiffany Wu is a third-year fellow in the Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education. She specializes in gastroenterology and hepatology. A gastroenterologist diagnoses and treats diseases related to the digestive tract, the liver being just one, while a hepatologist's focus is limited to only the liver and bile ducts.

Wu graduated from Texas A&M University College of Medicine, then completed her internal residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center before becoming a fellow at Mayo. Doctors use fellowships to gain expertise in a specialized area of medicine, such as transplant surgery.

Early on, Wu developed a passion for treating the underserved. Her focus was on global health efforts, her aim to improve the care of populations with low resources. She interned with the Rice 360 Institute, where she engineered and field-tested a low-cost health care device called a hand-powered centrifuge in Malawi. Later, she pursued a nine-month fellowship with Unite for Site, a nonprofit global health organization.

Fellowships allow a doctor to follow a specialist closely to learn more in a single field of medicine. Not all physicians complete a fellowship, but those who do are seeking to become top doctors in their field. Wu's goal is to improve the care for patients with advanced liver disease.

"I hope to develop innovative solutions in digital technology to detect early disease, predict liver decompensation and deliver personalized treatment," Wu said. "Mayo was the perfect fit for my goals."

Some programs have been restructured to reduce the time it takes to earn a degree. Others have simplified the admissions process. Multiple enrollment start dates liberated learners from the traditional academic year calendar.

Mayo trains and educates students from around the world, but most of the 60,000 alumni of Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science are from the United States. About 10% come from other countries. Mayo's "education shield" spans all of Mayo Clinic, including Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Mayo Clinic Health System, Mayo Clinic in Arizona and Mayo Clinic in Florida.

The exact number of Mayo learners who graduate and take or return to Mayo jobs fluctuates, said Dr. Fredric Meyer, the Juanita Kious Waugh executive dean of education of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and dean of the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine. But even those who fly to other pastures bring a benefit to the entire health care system.

"We take pride in all of our graduates, whether employed at Mayo Clinic immediately or employed elsewhere, because they continue to practice the Mayo model of care," Meyer said.

And new programs are being created or are evolving as health care and technology advances. The Mayo Clinic School of Biomedical Sciences was the first in the U.S. to implement a master's and Ph.D. graduate track in regenerative sciences. A graduate track has also been developed in artificial intelligence. Significant investments have been made in simulation training, so students, nurses and learners can develop their skills and demonstrate competency before ever being involved with patient care.

"Over a century ago, the Mayo brothers introduced the integrated, team-based approach to medicine, and that continues today with vital contributions from all our learners," Meyer said.