Health care
Health care
BY BRITTANY ANDERSON
BY ELLE BENT
Dell Children’s Medical Center gears up for stem cell program
Local groups fight nursing shortages
Looking ahead
ABSN graduate Michael Guerrero said exposure to nursing, such as career fairs, at the K-12 level is key. “Letting them get to touch medical equipment that nurses get to use. ... To put it into their hands so they can have something tangible and kind of view themselves doing it, I think that was huge for me,” Guerrero said. Central Texas Healthcare Partnership’s K-12 initiatives include: Its biannual Nursing Academy, where high schoolers participate in interactive nursing labs Observation clinical placements at local hospitals, where high schoolers rotate through several different units Informational sessions for teachers and counselors so they know about in- demand jobs
Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas is almost ready to offer a stem cell transplant program to patients, a feat that’s been years in the making. Dr. Amir Mian joined Dell Children’s last summer as division chief of pediatric hematology and oncology to help build the program. The details The program will treat children and adolescents with different cancers and blood disorders. Mian’s team is looking to start offering autologous bone marrow transplants by the end of this year. This refers to harvesting a patient’s healthy stem cells—located in the bone marrow—and returning them to the same patient who may have lost these
Additionally, Mian and his team are in the process of seeking accreditation through the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy, or FACT. This takes between 12-18 months, and provides specific guidelines and quality measures to hospitals. As part of the accreditation process, Mian’s team has begun working on standardized operating procedures, or SOPs, which include steps as simple as how to identify patients, how to store cells and how to transport patients. Ideally, the team will begin collecting cells for transplants by the end 2024, Mian said. Once accredited, the program can provide stem cell therapies and allogeneic transplants. What’s next The team at Dell Children’s will continue working through regulatory processes to earn accreditation and begin treating patients by the end of this year or potentially early next year.
A handful of Austin-area institutions are working to combat projected nursing shortages with special programs. Texas will experience a shortage of 56,370 registered nurses by 2036, according to the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies. While there is a “huge interest” in nursing, and students are applying, there are a limited number of spots, said Ashley King, Workforce Solutions Capital Area’s director of healthcare partnerships. “We have 10 different schools of nursing here in Austin. ... All of those programs are looking to expand,” King said. Concordia University is working to expand with a new $10,000 scholarship in fall 2024 for all eligible students in its Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing program. Applications are open on a rolling basis.
How does a stem cell transplant work? An autologous transplant is a long process that places a patient into an immunocompromised state. Step 1: A patient is determined as eligible for a transplant
Austin nursing school graduates Through WSCA’s partnership with local hospitals, nursing graduates across all ten Austin-area nursing programs have risen.
1,200 1,000
Step 2: Patient is admitted, placed in private room with air filters to reduce risk of infection Step 3: A patient’s stem cells are collected through the chest or the arm then stored in a blood bank Step 4: Patient is treated with a high dose of chemotherapy or radiation therapy to prepare for the transplant
800 600 400 0
to chemotherapy. The action taken
Step 5: Patients receive stem cells back into their bloodstream
After Mian joined the hospital in 2023, recruiting began for the team that will work in the program.
*NOTE THAT DATA WAS UNAVAILABLE DURING 2019-20 DUE TO COVID-19.
Step 6: Patient is monitored throughout recovery process
SOURCE: WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS CAPITAL AREA/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: WORKFORCE SOLUTIONS CAPITAL AREA/ COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY, DELL CHILDREN’S MEDICAL CENTER/COMMUNITY IMPACT
BRODIE LANE 4970 Hwy 290 W (512) 366-8260 BEE CAVE 13015 Shops Pkwy (512) 263-9981
SOUTHPARK MEADOWS 9900 IH-35 Service Road S (512) 280-7400 DRIPPING SPRINGS
166 Hargraves (512) 432-0186
Powered by FlippingBook