State and national organizations are experimenting with concentrated media campaigns to market the health careers story to youth. Most are aimed at middle and high school students, although adults are a welcome fringe audience. What makes campaigns like these effective?

• Target marketing. Know how, where and when to reach them through effective communications.
  
  
• Reach and frequency. Make the right media selection; then repeat, repeat, repeat.
  
  
• Test the message. Use youth advisory panels or conduct focus groups to make sure your message speaks to teens and not at them.
  
  
• Close the sale. Awareness of health careers is not enough. Take them through the buyer decision process — engage their interest, evaluation, and trial. Decide what your call to action must be to take them to the next step.
  
  
• Make it real. Today’s youth are sophisticated consumers who can instantly spot insincerity and hype. The message of caring people who care for people is intrinsic to the health careers story, but it must be balanced with the practical and realistic aspects of work life. We aren’t selling an image; we are recruiting the best and the brightest to high stress, highly positions of trust and responsibility.

For more information on marketing strategy, read Marketing 101 Revisited.

The Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association (AzHHA) launched a multi-million dollar campaign in August 2003 that reflects the success requirements cited above. A 30-second television commercial featuring working Arizona healthcare professionals made its debut during MTV’s Music Video Awards. The campaign includes cable television and radio commercials placed to reach local teenagers. Brochures and display posters echoing the theme of "I care. Will You?" have been distributed to school guidance counselors, science and health sciences teachers and principals. All of the campaign materials promote AzHHA’s Campaign for Caring web site at azcaringcareers.com. The multimedia site includes contests, streaming video, vignettes of featured hospital teams and a "just for fun" time-out space with a virtual coloring book.

Another innovative aspect of Arizona hospitals’ approach to health careers marketing is providing job shadowing opportunities to counselors, teachers and principals as well as youth.

The Campaign for Caring is part of a five-year initiative by Arizona hospitals and other organizations to address the state’s health workforce shortages on multiple fronts.

National organizations are sponsoring annual media campaigns that engage youth, schools and healthcare providers in activities that promote and celebrate health careers.

Discover the HIPE (Healthcare Industry Partnerships with Education) is a weeklong campaign sponsored by the National Consortium on Health Science and Technology Education (NCHSTE). Free marketing materials, tips and activity ideas are posted on the NCHSTE web site at nchste.org. October 13-17, 2003 marked the campaign’s second year.

Last year, Mountain States Health Alliance in Johnson City produced a live television program in recognition of HIPE Week. Tri-Cities CBS affiliate WJHL-TV sent its education reporter to Mountain States Medical Call Center, where the reporter hosted a call-in program about health careers. Nurses and clinicians talked about their jobs and fielded questions from students and adults. Brief, taped segments featuring non-clinical careers, including engineering, information systems and finance, supplemented the live interviews.

Allied Health Professions Week was held November 2-8, 2003. The annual event is sponsored by Health Professions Network (a collaboration of allied health professional organizations), the Association of Schools of Allied Health Professions and National Network of Health Career Programs in Two-Year Colleges. A web site offered tips for hospitals and healthcare organizations to honor allied health professionals, create public awareness and recruit into allied health careers. Check healthpronet.org to see if the free Handbook for Celebrating Allied Health Professions Week still is available for download.