Remarks to Health Occupation Students of America White House Briefing

Remarks as prepared; not a transcript.

RADM Robert Williams
Acting Deputy Surgeon General
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 

Address to Health Occupation Students of America White House Briefing

September 22, 2008
Washington, DC

Good morning.

Thank you, George (Mr. George Sifakis, CEO Axela Government Relations (HOSA’s Washington DC rep) for that very kind introduction. It is such an honor and privilege to join you today.

It’s a pleasure to see CAPT Rob Tosatto in action.  Rob is an outstanding leader of our Office of Civilian Volunteer and Medical Reserve Corps, an exemplary Commissioned Corps Officer, and maybe just a little bit crazy.  

You all have seen (and maybe some of you have tried) rock climbing, where you scale shear walls to reach a summit?  He not only climbs shear walls, he bivouacs (or camps) half-way up and sleeps in a hammock suspended from the mountainside – so when I tell folks to emulate this fine officer, I have to caveat with “don’t try this at home.”

HOSA and OSG

I always enjoy the opportunity to meet with younger folks, to sense the enthusiasm, the passion, the dedication that you have, knowing whatever career path you ultimately take, you are among our Nation’s future leaders.

As current leaders of the Department of Heath and Human Services, Secretary Mike Leavitt, Assistant Secretary for Health, ADM Joxel Garcia, Acting Surgeon General, RADM Steve Galson and I are all advocates for developing our nation's students and emerging leaders – we are impressed that you have chosen a career field through which you will be participants in the building of a healthier and more fit Nation. 

I’m also pleased to be here because of what I see as an ever strengthening bond between HOSA and the Office of the Surgeon General. 

The things that you believe in are very much the same as the priorities of the Surgeon General – disease prevention, public health preparedness, eliminating health disparities, and health literacy, or strengthening the ability of people to understand, access, and use information to make better health decisions.

To me, the value of HOSA is it provides a framework to bring your passions to life through leadership development, motivation, and recognition of your individual value to the future of health care and public health.

Public Health Preparedness

When we consider the future of public health, we cannot ignore preparedness.  Coincidentally, September is National Preparedness Month; a time to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and schools.

The Office of the Surgeon General encourages everyone to have an emergency preparedness plan, whether at home, school, work or other places you frequent.  There are steps we can all take, for example:

1. know your school plan for emergencies – if there isn’t a plan, help develop one
2. know how you will communicate with families, teachers, and fellow students during a crisis – can you rely on cell phones and texting?
3. store adequate food, water, and other basic supplies – or know where these can be found in an emergency
4. be prepared to “shelter in place,” or where to get away to if you must leave.

There are four straightforward things that any student or faculty member can do.  But in a real emergency, does it make really make a difference – does it play out?

Yes it does -  in Alamogordo, New Mexico -  there is a Junior Medical Reserve Corps with a sponsor who is quite active in preparedness education. 

Just a month ago, at 12:30 in the afternoon, the local high school and two middle schools received simultaneous bomb threats.  The schools were cleared immediately and searches begun by the authorities. 

It was a very hot (over 90 degrees) and humid day, you can imagine how the 4000 students and faculty were feeling.  People were obviously anxious, and they became dehydrated, some were approaching heat exhaustion and some were hypoglycemic.  

The Junior MRC members, high school students, stepped up - they helped provide fluids and care for those with heat exhaustion, they provided food for those with hypoglycemia, they handed out water and guided folks to shaded areas, they worked with special needs students – in their way, these students took responsibility and they took charge.   They knew what to do, they were courageous enough to do it, and, by doing so, they prevented more severe health conditions.  

This is a simple illustration of why we all must be prepared;  and why the framework of HOSA is so important to developing leaders who can step up during health crises and through their actions enable an effective response.

Health Workforce

The necessity of HOSA, and the need for each of you, is even more intrinsic to the future of the health care workforce.   In my world, we are confronting a public health workforce crisis.  The current workforce is inadequate to meet the health needs of the United States, much less the global population.

The Association of Schools of Public Health (ASPH) estimates that 250,000 more public health workers will be needed by 2020.

ASPH also finds the public health workforce is diminishing over time, 50,000 fewer public health workers in 2000 than in 1980 – of those currently on the job, about 20% are eligible to retire.

Furthermore, the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce reported:

“Today’s physicians, nurses, and dentists have too little resemblance to the diverse populations they serve, leaving many Americans feeling excluded by a system that seems distant and uncaring. 

The fact that the nation’s health professions have not kept pace with changing demographics may be an even greater cause of disparities in health access and outcomes, than the persistent lack of health insurance for tens of millions of Americans.”

These workforce issues are of great concern to our Department and particularly to the Office of the Surgeon General.  Eliminating health disparities is also a priority of the Surgeon General.  

So, this link between a declining health workforce, the need for a more diverse health workforce, and the ability to address the health issues of some of America’s most vulnerable populations emphasizes the importance of a pipeline to the health care professions.

We need programs that provide pathways from high school, to college, to practicing health professional – we need partnerships between federal, state and private entities with organizations like HOSA, so that together we can increase leadership and training opportunities – and together we can grow those diverse health professionals of tomorrow.

HOSA’s Role

What is your role?

I’m reminded of a story of a young Mom who was ready for a few minutes of relaxation after a long and demanding day. However, her daughter, about 4 or 5 years old, had other plans for her mother's time.

"Read me a story, Mom," the little girl requested.

"Give Mommy a few minutes to relax and unwind. Then I'll be happy to read you a story," pleaded the mother.

The little girl was insistent that Mommy read to her now. With a stroke of genius, the mother tore off the back page of the magazine she was reading. It contained an advertisement with a full-page picture of the world.

As she tore it into several pieces, the Mom asked her daughter to put the picture together and then she would read her a story. Surely this would buy her a few precious moments of relaxation.

A short time later, the little girl announced the completion of her puzzle project.  Mom, to say the least, was astonished – for when she looked, the world picture was indeed completely assembled.

When she asked her daughter how she managed to do it so quickly, the little girl explained that on the reverse side of the page was the picture of a little girl. "You see, Mommy, when I got the little girl together, the whole world came together."

Each of us has the responsibility to put our world together.  It starts by getting ourselves together.  To make changes in the world of public health, to make changes in health care systems, requires us to first define ourselves in terms of what is most important to us, what are our core values, and to accept the responsibility of putting ourselves together.  

That’s why we need each of you to continue on the path toward becoming a health professional and that’s why to me, it is inevitable, that “the hands of HOSA mold the Health of Tomorrow.”

PHS Commissioned Corps

I’d be remiss with an audience of such talented, soon-to- be health professionals, if I didn’t do a little sales pitch for the US Public Health Service.  The opportunity to wear a uniform like mine, to have a career in the PHS Commissioned Corps, is an opportunity that combines medicine and public health with service to people in need.

Commissioned Corps officers are dentists, dental hygienists, physicians, nurses, physical and speech therapists, audiologists, environmental health officers, environmental engineers, veterinarians, physician assistants, pharmacists, and surgeons.

We serve across the Department of Health and Human Services (H-H-S), around the world on special assignment - in fact, PHS Officers serve in over 800 duty stations worldwide.

We are one of the nation's uniformed services, and at times serve alongside our military brothers and sisters on humanitarian response missions.  One is currently underway aboard the USS Kearsarge anchored just off of Haiti – where PHS officers are providing food, water, and basic sanitation and immunization relief to those desperately in need.

It is a fact - if you want to practice medicine and/or public health, you can find an opportunity to do just about anything in our Corps. 

As a college student you can participate in our Junior or Senior CO-STEP; programs which allow students to gain valuable professional experience as a Commissioned Officer early in their education.   And, you get to make some money prior to graduation!

Once you graduate from college – a world of exciting assignments awaits:

• You can work in under-served areas;
• You can do research at the National Institutes of Health;
• You can help evolve a prevention-based society through efforts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
• You can build bridges of peace through health diplomacy.

Think about it: You can join the U-S-P-H-S and help improve the health of all people, around the world.  So, I urge you to strongly consider a career in our Commissioned Corps.

PHS Corps in Action

There is another intersection between our Corps and students interested in becoming health professionals, and it is happening right now.

I know you are all aware of the destruction caused by Hurricane Ike and the hundreds of thousands of persons who have been displaced or injured by this disaster.  At a college town in Texas, the home of Texas A&M University, there is a university building known as Reed Arena. 

Normally a place where folks come to watch basketball games or other events, it has been transformed into a place of healing and care-giving to those who have no place else to go.  As you walk inside the facility, you are impressed with the activity that is underway. 

First you see patients walking slowly with walkers or in wheelchairs moving about in the atrium to get fresh air, as attentive assistants tend to their needs.  As you move into the larger arena, you are instantly struck by the beds, upon beds of persons who need constant attention – these are some very sick people.  The facility is immense, but seems tiny with 500 beds on the floor and stores of equipment and supplies stacked along the walls. 

Four stories up, the exit doors have been opened around the mezzanine so that the patients get a glimpse of sunlight and blue sky from time to time.  Around these patients is a beehive of activity -  very organized, very controlled  - as compassionate medical professionals, dressed in camouflaged uniforms, go from bed to bed providing nursing care, therapy, or whatever is required.  These are members of the PHS Commissioned Corps – nurses, physicians, engineers, pharmacists, therapists and others – who tend to the needs of the victims of Hurricane Ike. 

It is part of our mission to respond to such events, and we do it very, very well.  Amidst these heroes, are another group of heroes, dressed in the maroon colors of their school – they are nursing students, medical students, and members of the Corps of Cadets at A&M who are assisting with the patients. 

Some of these students may be members of HOSA, we don’t know, but the compassion and empathy they show for these patients, their warm smiles and friendly faces, are making all the difference in the world to people who need it the most.

It is that same spirit of dedication and commitment, that desire to respond to health needs, that inner drive to make health care a career, that we, in the Office of the Surgeon General, see in all of you.  And, as you think about those in Reed Arena, you will find it is so very true, that “one person’s passion is another person’s hero.”

Charge and Closing

In closing, let me say there is much for us to do in health and medicine.  We will be working together as we move from a treatment-based society to a prevention-focused society; it will take much time and much effort.

I hope I can count on you, as future leaders in medicine and public health, to carry the messages of the Surgeon General.  Such as, helping us to prevent childhood overweight and obesity by encouraging your family, friends and others to eat healthy, be active and exercise, and to make healthy choices.

You don’t have to be the Deputy Surgeon General to influence the health of the Nation; you only have to have the desire and the belief that you can make a difference, and then do it.

The success of healthcare in this nation will be built upon the strength of visible, adaptable, and powerful leaders, those with the courage to face the challenges, those with the courage to enjoy life and to have fun, those with the courage to make a difference – I believe these are the qualities in each of you.

Henry David Thoreau offered the following advice:

“Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, live the life you have imagined.”

I think that is good advice – but, don’t stop there – seek to live a life that you never could have imagined. To me, that’s where the fun begins – and that is why you are all members of HOSA!