A team of eight educators from Central Technology Center and area local schools joined 18 community-based partnership teams from across Oklahoma at the Oklahoma Health Cluster Institute "Career Preparation with Results" (CPR). The institute, sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, was held in at the Tulsa Marriott Southern Hills.

The Central Tech team included: Regina Foster, Tech Prep Coordinator; Margaret Sutton and Lori Todd, Health Careers instructors; Vicki David, Bristow High School counselor; Sherri Fisher, BHS nurse; Jill McKinney, Mannford High School nurse; Debbie Fiegel, Sapulpa High School nurse; and Stefanie Stockham, SHS Applied Math instructor.

Nationally hospitals are reporting more than 168,000 openings with 126,000 of those for registered nurses. Oklahoma is experiencing its own crunch in those arenas as well.

In response to this shortage, the institute attracted 18 community-based partnerships from across the state to develop action plans addressing this growing problem in the health industry. The teams will be working toward solutions for their communities.

Career Clusters are broad occupational groupings of specific industry based jobs. In this case the health industry is the focus, according to Robin Schott, innovative initiatives and services manager at the state CareerTech agency. The cluster organizes instruction and student experiences from entry through professional levels in the health industry.

"By engaging business partners, educators can further develop and align specific health and academic courses, curriculum and work-based learning experiences for the Health Science career cluster," Schott said.

Team members include: Tech Prep coordinators, local business and industry persons from the health field, technology center administrators and teachers, a higher education representatives, and administrators, teachers and/or counselors from participating high schools in the partnership area, as well as representatives from other youth initiatives and community organizations based on local need.