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Addressing Allied Health Instructor Recruitment

Lead Organization

Sierra College

Who engaged in this project?

Sierra College is partnering with Kaiser Permanente to hire current employees in phlebotomy and surgical tech, that will teach in these programs on campus.

Total Funding Received

$74,874

Type of Funding Received

Accelerator Fund

Who were the intended beneficiaries?

Students of color, low-income learners, first-generation learners, rural learners, and adult learners.

How many students were served?

20 students in the first cohort

A pilot program to mitigate instructor shortages, enabling more healthcare pathway students.

Research

Sierra College and Kaiser Permanente engaged in the Talent Pipeline Management strategy around healthcare workforce development, supported by the Roseville Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Dignity Health, Sutter Health, UC Davis Health, and Raley’s had institutional representatives who spent the prior 18 months evaluating labor market information and internal human resources job projection data across Greater Sacramento to assess real-time workforce needs in allied health careers.

This workgroup identified five allied health careers as top priorities based on projected job growth as well as recruitment challenges for qualified applicants: technologist roles in surgical and operating rooms, radiology, ultrasound, cardiovascular, and pharmacy departments. The group also identified two significant factors limiting the pipeline of qualified applicants for these high-paying jobs in the region: allied health instructor recruitment and retention, and insufficient clinical placement opportunities for students to meet state certification requirements.

How is this project reaching high-priority or underserved student populations?

Across Greater Sacramento, several allied health careers are facing serious recruitment challenges even as job demand grows. For underserved students, these high-paying careers have remained out of reach due to two persistent barriers: a shortage of qualified instructors and limited clinical placement opportunities required for state certification.

This project tackled the instructor gap directly. Through a K-16-funded partnership, Kaiser Permanente created a pathway for its own surgical technologists and phlebotomists to step into the classroom as adjunct instructors at Sierra College. Grant-funded honorariums supported their participation, making it possible for working healthcare professionals to teach without leaving their careers behind. By increasing the number of qualified allied health faculty at Sierra College, more students can obtain the certificates they need for well-paying careers in the region.

What Is Different Now Because of the Work You Were Funded to Accomplish?

This pilot charted new territory. By carefully documenting the process, challenges, and successes along the way, Sierra College and Kaiser Permanente built a replicable model that other institutions can adopt. The benefits extend beyond the classroom: participating health system professionals gained meaningful professional development, leadership exposure, and the opportunity to give back to their communities. Students, in turn, learned from practitioners who were actively doing the work.

Twenty students were served in the first cohort. As more qualified faculty join the program and clinical placement opportunities expand, Sierra College anticipates continued enrollment growth in allied health programs, creating a direct pipeline to well-paying careers for underserved students across the region.