2026 Unitek Learning Cares Annual Academic Conference
From Outreach to Outcomes
An Asset-Based Framework for Health Professions Pipeline Programs
September 11, 2026 · Session recap and resources
If you arrived here after completing the session feedback survey, thank you. This page is the session’s home: every figure, framework, and source lives here, and it is open to everyone.
“I grew up in a community where the only health career anyone named was nurse.” The session opens with that story because the problem it names is visibility, not aptitude.
The Session Question
What is your institution doing to build career visibility in the communities you serve, and how is that work structured?
Everything on this page works toward answering it.
Presented by Christopher Martija-Flores, MS, RDH, founder and director of Martija Institute for Health Professions Education LLC.
01 · The workforce picture
Demand is documented, not projected optimism.
8%
Projected registered nurse shortage in 2028
1.9M
Healthcare openings projected each year, 2024 to 2034
+7%
Dental hygienist employment growth, 2024 to 2034
HRSA Nurse Workforce Projections, 2023 to 2038. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024 to 2034 projections.
The shortage is concentrated, and it has an address.
| Designation | Shortage areas | People affected | Need met |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary care | 9,003 | 108.6 million | 47.43% |
| Dental health | 7,951 | 76.8 million | 33.60% |
Nonmetro communities carry the gap: the projected 2028 registered nurse shortage is 24 percent outside metro areas against 5 percent within them. One set of communities holds two roles at once. They are an unmet need, the places with the widest care gaps, and an underdeveloped source, because the same communities are where future practitioners already live.
HRSA Designated Health Professional Shortage Area Quarterly Summary, as of June 30, 2026. HRSA Nurse Workforce Projections, 2023 to 2038. Salsberg et al., 2021, JAMA Network Open.
Where the evidence stops. The demand is documented fact. Nothing in this session claims pipeline programs alone resolve it.
Where the shortage runs deepest
Statewide percent of need met tells the story fastest. New Mexico, Nevada, and Arizona sit at the bottom of this list; they are three of the states served by this session’s audience.
| State | Primary care need met | Dental need met |
|---|---|---|
| New Mexico | 31.39% | 16.10% |
| Arizona | 41.23% | 34.51% |
| Nevada | 41.45% | 24.57% |
| Idaho | 43.91% | 37.48% |
| California | 53.23% | 36.35% |
| Utah | 65.38% | 52.30% |
Look up your own county in the HRSA shortage-area tool: HPSA Find.
HRSA Designated Health Professional Shortage Area Quarterly Summary, as of June 30, 2026. Statewide percent of need met.
02 · Why the default model underdelivers
Most outreach today follows one of three patterns: one-time exposure (a career fair, a campus tour, one classroom visit), short-term recruitment (activity concentrated in the enrollment window), and deficit framing (programming built around assumed gaps).
Career visibility usually arrives after the decisions are made.
- Middle school: self-concept forms
- Early high school: course sequencing begins
- Junior year: prerequisites are largely set
- Senior year and application: most outreach happens here
Earlier engagement changes what students can see and plan for.
What the evidence supports
- Stronger interest in health careers
- Stated intent to serve underserved communities
- Progression through academic milestones
Disclosed limits
- Program structure varies widely
- Long-term data is inconsistent, often self-reported
- No demonstrated causal workforce effect
Kaljo et al., 2023, Southern Medical Journal, systematic review. Parsons et al., 2022, Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, CORD guide. NASEM, The Future of Nursing 2020 to 2030.
Two framings, two different programs. Deficit framing asks: what is this student missing, and how do we fix it? Asset framing asks: what does this student already carry, and what can we build on? The session builds on the second question.
Yosso, 2005, Race Ethnicity and Education. Foundational source.
03 · The framework
Three design commitments hold the framework together: asset-based framing (design around what students bring), longitudinal engagement (multiple touchpoints across years, not one event), and community-embedded delivery (work happens where students already are).
Three assets, translated into program behavior.
- Cultural. In practice: bilingual sessions with community partners, built on care stories students recognize.
- Navigational. In practice: walk the pathway with them: prerequisites, licensure, cost, timeline.
- Aspirational. In practice: presenters whose own path resembles the students’ own.
The model is relationship building, not event logistics. A presenter students can recognize themselves in. Hands-on activities run by your own professionals. Students connected into events you already run. Follow-through, so each visit builds on the last. A student who has met your program four times is in a different position than one who attended a fair.
Who owns the work, and what makes it durable. Outreach, admissions, marketing, faculty, and community partners each hold a named piece. Four structures hold it: a programming calendar set a year ahead, defined role ownership across teams, documented touchpoints student by student, and an evaluation loop that feeds the next cycle.
Build internally
Marketing, outreach, admissions, and academic teams carry it together.
Extend through partnership
Co-built programming the school hosts itself, aligned to a stated plan.
Both are valid paths to capacity.
04 · Application
What community-embedded looks like on the ground: volunteer work with the Imperial County Health Professions Pathways Program at the Southwest Health Science Center, in California’s Imperial Valley. One discipline serves as the template for any discipline. Show the clinical role, instruments in hand, not in the abstract. Name the education pathway: prerequisites, length, licensure, cost. Describe the day to day: hours, setting, patients, pay. Practitioners present their own careers.
Southwest Health Science Center, Imperial County Health Professions Pathways Program. Affini et al., 2024, Frontiers in Public Health.
Draft your first action concept
- One community you already serve
- One asset in it you can build on
- One structure that would hold the work
- One first step you could take this quarter
Then answer the question the session opened with.
Resources
Attendee resource document. Framework summary, implementation blueprint, workload notes, both capacity paths, and the full reference list. Download coming soon.
Session slide deck. Coming soon.
References ▾
Affini, M. I., Diaz, A., Dolan, D. J., Fletcher, S., Hasnain, I., Selkridge, I., Washington, S., & Pratt, A. (2024). Solidifying the minority high school student pathway: Evidence from the health professions recruitment and exposure program. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, 1408859. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2024.1408859
Health Resources and Services Administration. (2026). Designated health professional shortage areas quarterly summary, as of June 30, 2026. https://data.hrsa.gov/Default/GenerateHPSAQuarterlyReport
Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. (2025, December). Nurse workforce projections, 2023–2038 [Fact sheet]. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/nursing-projections-factsheet.pdf
Kaljo, K., Braun, M. T., Maddula, R., Ferguson, C. C., Bonifacino, E., & Farkas, A. (2023). Undergraduate college pathway programs designed to attract and matriculate students from underrepresented groups into medicine. Southern Medical Journal, 116(12), 942–949. https://doi.org/10.14423/SMJ.0000000000001631
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2021). The future of nursing 2020–2030: Charting a path to achieve health equity. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/25982
Parsons, M., Caldwell, M. T., Alvarez, A., Davenport, D., Gallegos, M., Landry, A., Gottlieb, M., & Natesan, S. (2022). Physician pipeline and pathway programs: An evidence-based guide to best practices for diversity, equity, and inclusion from the Council of Residency Directors in Emergency Medicine. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 23(4), 514–524. https://doi.org/10.5811/westjem.2022.2.54875
Salsberg, E., Richwine, C., Westergaard, S., Portela Martinez, M., Oyeyemi, T., Vichare, A., & Chen, C. P. (2021). Estimation and comparison of current and future racial/ethnic representation in the US health care workforce. JAMA Network Open, 4(3), e213789. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.3789
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2025). Occupational outlook handbook: Registered nurses; Dental hygienists; Healthcare occupations (2024–34 projections). https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/
Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education, 8(1), 69–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/1361332052000341006
Verified against live source records August 19, 2026; independent QC pending.
Work With Us
Bring this framework to your program
Every engagement with Martija Institute for Health Professions Education LLC begins with a conversation, not a commitment. The Discovery Review is a structured, respectful look at your program’s outreach and pipeline work: what exists, what is working, and where a first step would land. Build it internally or extend through partnership; both are valid.
Or write to us directly: connect@martijaihpe.com
Martija Institute for Health Professions Education 