Onward and Upward> Careers in medicine offer security, rewards

Melanie Clauson is a student nurse in Bangor who puts in more than 50 hours a week studying, attending classes and taking part in hospital clinics. Her schedule is hectic, and the academic regime is intense in the associate-degree nursing program she takes at Eastern Maine Technical College. Her effort will pay off, literally, next spring when Clauson graduates with an R.N. degree.

Clauson, who is 24, wants to work in a small hospital, preferably in her hometown area of Southwest Harbor. Despite a slight lull in nurse recruitment last year brought on by uncertainty over health care reform, Clauson can expect to have several job offers and start work at a full-time salary of $500 to $550 a week, according to information provided by Marilyn Lavelle, EMTC nursing director. When she seeks to upgrade her skills — a movement popular in nursing today — Clauson can be assured of returning to college for a baccalaureate degree in nursing with her tuition paid by her employer.

Health care professions continue to rank high on the list of careers that are in demand in Maine and the nation, according to information from local colleges and from the U.S. Department of Labor.

Want job security? Become a technician in a hospital or work with older people, who have many health care needs, in nursing homes and hospices, according to information from career-placement experts at colleges statewide. The training may take from two to six years beyond high school — longer in some cases — but the returns will include a lifelong benefit of job security.

Graduates from four-year college programs who don’t want a life in health care can find jobs in retail sales and management or in service-related professions, which are expected to grow through the year 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Career explorers can find jobs working for nonprofit agencies or in human services, but the quickest route to good-paying, permanent jobs in Maine will be through the health care professions for quite a while to come.

“Health care is the fastest growing industry in Maine. You can tell that by looking at the classifieds,” said Alice Kirkpatrick, director of public affairs for the Maine Technical College System.

In a recent survey conducted by the six-campus technical college system, it was estimated that 66,717 Maine people would be employed in health care by the year 2000, an increase of 16,000 employees from 1989-90.

Higher salaries will go to specialists, and the job market is expected to remain strong at least through the year 2005 for nurses, technicians, physical and occupational therapists, and other related careers.

Chronic shortages are expected to continue in health care occupations using new technologies, according to the survey. The Maine Medical Center in Portland recently took almost a year to fill a position for a sonographer in cardiology. Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor has been plagued in recent years by its failure to recruit an adequate number of nuclear medical technologists.

Training programs do not exist in the state for careers in ultrasonography or nuclear medical technology, “occupations in which, by conservative estimate, I believe there to be at least 200 people employed in Maine,” said Paul Kelly of EMMC, whose comments were included in the technical-college career survey.

Retail sales and management are the second-highest job getters in Maine, according to information from college recruiters.

The University of Maine is getting big pitches from retailers who want graduates to enter their management-trainee programs. Sears, K-Mart and Wal-Mart are actively recruiting on campus this year, according to Patty Counihan, assistant director of the Career Center. The only problem Counihan said, is getting students to take an interest in the jobs which offer “real opportunities” and starting salaries in the mid-20s, Counihan said.

“A lot of kids say, `I didn’t go to college four years to work at K-Mart,’ ” Counihan explained.

The labor force — people 16 years old or older holding or seeking jobs — is expected to increase by 24 million nationally by the year 2005. Information is not available on the latest job and labor-force projections for Maine. The state Department of Labor is behind schedule in issuing its updated information on the topics, mainly because of the varying job market, said Wendy Nelson, an economic research analyst.

Maine trends are likely to follow the nation, according to Nelson, which means the average age of the state’s labor force will increase as the baby-boomer generation hits middle age and late middle age. Nationally, the number of workers older than 45 hit a record 19 million in 1993, according to information from the U.S. Department of Labor.