Opinion Editorial:
Stockton’s School of Health Sciences Seeks to Create a Positive Impact for Surrounding Communities
This article presents to the community our new School of Health Sciences at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. Despite today’s economic challenges and rising unemployment, health professionals are in high demand. A health professional is described as “a person who helps in identifying or preventing or treating illness or disability”1. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics projects jobs in education and health services will grow by 18.8% by 2014; it further states 7 of the 20 fastest growing occupations are health care related”2,3.
For decades, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey has graduated hundreds of health graduates which fulfill workforce needs in the community and region. Since 2000 alone, over 900 undergraduate and graduate degrees in the health professions have been awarded. The new School of Health Sciences, created last July, brings Stockton’s health professions: nursing, public health, speech pathology and audiology, physical therapy and occupational therapy, into the same academic area. One primary advantage to having a separate school for health professions will be improved visibility of health sciences programs to future students, and in helping represent and address health care workforce and health issues in New Jersey. The School has established an external advisory board which consists of leaders in the health care community to help guide its progress and promote accountability with our community partners.
Stockton’s health sciences faculty and students have long-standing traditions of service to the community. Just a few of the activities this school year include: organizing food drives, hosting drive-through flu vaccination clinics, serving as volunteers to help elementary students with their reading, language and literacy skills, creating a support group for cancer patients and to promote cancer awareness, mentoring and education sessions for persons living with mental illness, providing support services for children living with autism, sanitation and public health advocacy, the creation of alternative plans to New Jersey park closings, participating in walk-a-thons to raise funds for ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), breast cancer and Alzheimer’s research. The service provided to the community by the health professions complements Stockton’s Office of Service-Learning through which students, staff and faculty have provided over 130,000 service hours toward improving communities in New Jersey since 1991.
Whether contributing to the healthcare workforce, providing community service, or adding its voice collaboratively with others involved in health care, the new School of Health Sciences seeks to create a positive impact for the residents in South Jersey.
Reva Curry, Interim Dean, School of Health Sciences, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
1WordWeb Online,
2Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Handbook, 2008-2009 Edition, Tomorrow’s Jobs, Chart 4.
3Bureau of Labor Statistics, Career Guide to Industries: Health Care, pg. 1