Health is more than healthcare. The social determinants of health – where a person is born, lives, works, plays, worships and ages – has an outsized impact on a person’s long-term health outcomes, well-being, and quality of life. Economic stability and education quality and access are major contributors to the social determinants of health. Improving a person’s career prospects can lead to a better career and better health outcomes, which makes addressing the social determinants of health a healthcare issue as much as it is a social welfare issue.
Northwell Health has the unique opportunity to impact the social determinants of New Yorkers’ health. As the state’s largest private employer and an innovator in healthcare, Northwell Health is using its position as an industry leader to empower an entire generation of potential healthcare workers with better education, training, and career opportunities. In partnership with FutureReadyNYC, a program by the NYC Public Schools that combines classroom learning with meaningful on-the-job work experience as a pathway toward economic security for New York high schoolers, Northwell Health is providing high school students with pathways to rewarding careers in healthcare.
“As people live longer, there is a big need for labor in healthcare,” says Brian Aquart, Vice President of Workforce and Community Education for Northwell Health. As part of Northwell’s Center for Learning & Innovation, Aquart partnered with Senior Vice President, Community and Population Health Debbie Salas-Lopez, MD, MPH and a team of workforce readiness and community & population health professionals to help develop new careers for New York’s younger generation. “This was truly a team effort and I’m so thankful to have collaborated with Ines Vanboom, Ruqayyah Abdullah, Stacey Isaacson, Michelle Raider and Christine Essig to make this initiative come to life.” Aquart said. The partnership with the internship component of FutureReadyNYC, an eight-week program that began in April 2023, gives students real-world experience in healthcare fields like nursing, emergency services, and lab technology. Northwell Health is finding the future healthcare workers of tomorrow today.
FutureReadyNYC
Northwell Health and NYC Public Schools Team Up with the FutureReadyNYC Internship Program for High Schoolers
"Through FutureReadyNYC, we're able to now show students what healthcare is about, here's what Northwell is about. And once you get into Northwell, the sky's the limit. You get into our system, from there, you can flourish.”
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With Northwell’s labor demand and the need in traditionally underserved communities for careers that provide economic viability, there has never been a better time for Northwell’s participation in FutureReadyNYC.
Here’s how the FutureReadyNYC rolled out in 2022-23, its first year. Students in grades 9-12 from four area schools were invited to participate, including:
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“We want to get students interested in careers in health care and, specifically, careers like lab techs and medical assistants that have entry points into healthcare careers,” says Aquart.
Entry points are particularly valuable at Northwell Health, due to Northwell’s commitment to career advancement.
“Getting in the door at a livable wage with great health benefits is just the beginning here,” says Aquart, whose background before CLI was in HR and as an employment attorney. "Once they are part of the Northwell family," says Aquart, "employees can take advantage of incredible continuing educational benefits, like tuition reimbursement, which empower Northwell careers to grow. Through FutureReadyNYC, we're able to now show students what healthcare is about, here's what Northwell is about. And once you get into Northwell, the sky's the limit. You get into our system, from there, you can flourish.”
For students in grades 9 and 10 , the program began in fall of 2022 with a Welcome Event, where students could have in-depth virtual conversations about clinical and non-clinical career paths in healthcare with Northwell team members. In March 2023, these students participated in Career Discovery Week, where they heard from a Northwell executive panel, and participated in seminars, panels, and virtual interactive events. Students even received hands-on experience like learning CPR and how to stop the bleeding of an injured patient, and the rare chance to look under the microscope in a lab.
Innovation Is Not Always Technical. Inside this Program Revolutionizing Patient Care
These programs share a common mission for patient care so that patients can focus on healing.
Brian Aquart, Vice President of Workforce and Community Education
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“For 9th and 10th graders, the program is about igniting that interest and curiosity about careers in healthcare,” explains Aquart. Career Discovery Week proved effective in holding teen interest, due to the specificity of the careers on offer. “We really showed a wide spectrum of healthcare leaders and healthcare team members,” says Aquart, “from a pediatric neurosurgeon to a clinician specializing in substance use disorders to lab techs, physical therapy techs, all talking about their career, moderated by our Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer, Maxine Carrington.”
Interest in healthcare careers was then magnified for 11th and 12th graders, who recently completed an eight-week, 80-hour internship rotation where they’re seeing firsthand jobs in nursing, lab technology, and emergency medicine, plus learning general principles in a healthcare roundtable setting. Northwell hospitals like Lenox Hill, Lenox Health Greenwich Village, and Long Island Jewish Forrest Hills have welcomed students to experience what a career in health care truly looks like. Even when some settings weren’t accessible, like certain medical lab sites, Northwell brought the labs to the students so they could gain an authentic experience. According to educational experts, this exposure helps students build a relevant skillset while providing an opportunity for them to receive advice and guidance on the professional and technical skills needed to be successful in their postsecondary pathways by clinicians and healthcare workers themselves.
“Students are loving it,” says Aquart in response. Aquart relates the story of one young woman who got the opportunity to see life being born and witness a hysterectomy. Far from being squeamish, the student was elated and commented that seeing a uterus – which she said resembled a “big muscle” – confirmed in her a desire to become an OB-GYN. Says Aquart, “There’s nothing more inspiring than seeing your actual goal in a tangible way.”
The importance and impact of the program, which is currently in pilot status, cannot be understated. According to Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health, education initiatives like FutureReadyNYC and other Northwell programs like Northwell Community Scholars – which invested $5 million to help students from underrepresented areas in and across the island – are key in making real Northwell’s goal of providing opportunity and thereby impacting health outcomes.
“If you change the circumstances of a kid from a poor family through education, you change the outlook of that particular family,” says Dowling. Self-described in his autobiography After the Roof Caved In as a lifelong learner, Dowling credits his own educational opportunities as the key driver that took him from a poor rural village in Ireland to the head of one of the largest private health providers in the country.
Educational programs that lead to equitable careers can do even more, says Aquart. “If you change the circumstances of many kids, you could impact the outlook of an entire generation.”
Northwell Health is once again proving that health is more than healthcare. Programs like FutureReadyNYC hope to offer better career pathways and, ultimately, better health for all.
Brian Aquart, Vice President of Workforce and Community Education
“For 9th and 10th graders, the program is about igniting that interest and curiosity about careers in healthcare,” explains Aquart. Career Discovery Week proved effective in holding teen interest, due to the specificity of the careers on offer. “We really showed a wide spectrum of healthcare leaders and healthcare team members,” says Aquart, “from a pediatric neurosurgeon to a clinician specializing in substance use disorders to lab techs, physical therapy techs, all talking about their career, moderated by our Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer, Maxine Carrington.”
Interest in healthcare careers was then magnified for 11th and 12th graders, who recently completed an eight-week, 80-hour internship rotation where they’re seeing firsthand jobs in nursing, lab technology, and emergency medicine, plus learning general principles in a healthcare roundtable setting. Northwell hospitals like Lenox Hill, Lenox Health Greenwich Village, and Long Island Jewish Forrest Hills have welcomed students to experience what a career in health care truly looks like. Even when some settings weren’t accessible, like certain medical lab sites, Northwell brought the labs to the students so they could gain an authentic experience. According to educational experts, this exposure helps students build a relevant skillset while providing an opportunity for them to receive advice and guidance on the professional and technical skills needed to be successful in their postsecondary pathways by clinicians and healthcare workers themselves.
With Northwell’s labor demand and the need in traditionally underserved communities for careers that provide economic viability, there has never been a better time for Northwell’s participation in FutureReadyNYC.
Here’s how the FutureReadyNYC rolled out in 2022-23, its first year. Students in grades 9-12 from four area schools were invited to participate, including:
• The Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management
• High School for Health Professions and Human Services
• International High School for Health Sciences
• Hillcrest High School
For students in grades 9 and 10 , the program began in fall of 2022 with a Welcome Event, where students could have in-depth virtual conversations about clinical and non-clinical career paths in healthcare with Northwell team members. In March 2023, these students participated in Career Discovery Week, where they heard from a Northwell executive panel, and participated in seminars panels, and virtual interactive events. Students even received hands-on experience like learning CPR and how to stop the bleeding of an injured patient, and the rare chance to look under the microscope in a lab.
With Northwell’s labor demand and the need in traditionally underserved communities for careers that provide economic viability, there has never been a better time for Northwell’s participation in FutureReadyNYC.
Here’s how the FutureReadyNYC rolled out in 2022-23, its first year. Students in grades 9-12 from four area schools were invited to participate, including:
• The Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management
• High School for Health Professions and Human Services
• International High School for Health Sciences
• Hillcrest High School
For students in grades 9 and 10 , the program began in fall of 2022 with a Welcome Event, where students could have in-depth virtual conversations about clinical and non-clinical career paths in healthcare with Northwell team members. In March 2023, these students participated in Career Discovery Week, where they heard from a Northwell executive panel, and participated in seminars panels, and virtual interactive events. Students even received hands-on experience like learning CPR and how to stop the bleeding of an injured patient, and the rare chance to look under the microscope in a lab.
The Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management
High School for Health Professions and Human Services
International High School for Health Sciences
Hillcrest High School
• The Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management
• High School for Health Professions and Human Services
• International High School for Health Sciences
• Hillcrest High School