Subject: People And Their Jobs in Offices, Fields and Factories 
Date: Published: 8/27/91 (51 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Labor Letter:
    A Special News Report on People
    And Their Jobs in Offices,
    Fields and Factories
    ----
    By Albert R. Karr

[16 lines irrelevant to AIDS were omitted.  -- sysop]

    HEALTH WORKER PINCH remains tight, despite the recession.
    Hospitals and medical laboratories report a growing need
 for occupational therapists, X-ray technicians, cytologists
 (who do Pap smears and other cell analyses) and phlebotomists
 (who draw blood, especially critical in the AIDS crisis).
 Pittsburgh Nursing Specialists needs 100 nurses.  Greater
 demand and lack of awareness that jobs exist worsen the
 shortage, says the Summit on Manpower, composed of 18
 health-care groups.
    It says over 45,000 yearly training-program enrollments
 would fill a radiology-technician gap.  Last year's
 enrollments were only 18,693.  Up to 21% of hospital
 technician jobs are vacant.  Eileen Connally of the National
 Union of Hospital and Health Care Workers, sees "no single
 category of health-care workers for whom demand has even
 leveled" in the economic slump.
    MEDICAL GROUPS use pay boosts, other means to find more
 workers.
    The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas
 gives employees a $500 bonus if they refer applicants who
 take hard-to-fill jobs.  The Texas Heart Institute in Houston
 recruits nurses partly by showcasing promotion prospects and
 touting its heart surgery pioneer, Dr. Denton Cooley.
 Med-Chek Laboratories in Pittsburgh increases technician pay
 10%.
    The University of Pittsburgh medical center starts an
 "adopt-a-high-school" program to encourage students to seek
 health-care jobs, and it plans a similar grade-school
 program.  It also reimburses employees' tuition fees for
 skills-building study.
    Pay rises may have worsened the nurse shortage in
 Massachusetts by enabling nurses to work fewer hours, the
 American Hospital Association says.

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