High school to healthcare pipeline: A smart idea, smarter execution required 

Drastic measures are being implemented nationwide to address the growing healthcare workforce crisis, from accelerated credentialing programs to initiatives that recruit and train high school students for nursing careers, as recently reported in The Wall Street Journal.¹ While these efforts are commendable, their success will depend on how well they are executed. Building a sustainable talent pipeline takes more than enthusiasm; it requires strategic groundwork that ensures new entrants are supported, effective, and retained.

That groundwork starts with optimizing the existing workforce. Redesigning workflows, leveraging technology, and aligning talent to top-of-license work can dramatically increase capacity among current staff and also create the stability needed to integrate and mentor the next generation. With Mercer’s research estimating a projected shortage of 100,000 nurses by 2028, the industry can’t afford fragmented fixes. Preparing the foundation now will determine whether these initiatives become short-term experiments or lasting solutions to one of healthcare’s most urgent challenges.

The urgency is understandable. Ballad Health, one of the leaders in this movement, lost nearly half its nursing staff during the pandemic and spent an estimated $70 million on travel nurses to fill the gap, an unsustainable cost. It’s no surprise, then, that Ballad and more than a dozen other major health systems are partnering with high schools through a $250 million Bloomberg initiative² to fast-track students into healthcare roles.

Early engagement is a smart strategy, but it also brings unique risks. Placing students as young as 16 into clinical settings is a fairly novel approach and therefore requires careful oversight to protect both patients, learners, supervisors and the healthcare institution, itself. Onboarding, mentoring, and rigorous scope-of-practice boundaries, should be structured so as to avoid confusion, to ensure even quality of care, and to promote a positive experience for everyone involved. Disclosure of trainee status and their responsibilities supported by careful documentation are essential. 

Even so, introduction of young people into care settings may create patient anxiety and if an adverse event were to occur, these optics could add complexity to the defense of a claim.  As a leading advisor for healthcare professional liability, Marsh HealthCare experts note that current healthcare professional liability policies typically contain no exclusions relative to provider age (individual policies may vary and should be reviewed relative to any Insured limitation). As for any healthcare provider, coverage will always be governed within scope of certification and/or licensure. With thoughtful design, such initiatives will spark lifelong careers in healthcare, while ensuring much needed access to care for patients. 

For healthcare organizations eager to tap into younger talent, success will hinge not on enthusiasm, but on execution. Training high school students is only one piece of the puzzle. The real differentiator lies in the pre-work — data-driven workforce optimization and task-level work redesign that ensures these new roles fit into a well-functioning system.

Without that foundational work, programs risk setting students up for confusion and burnout. Healthcare already struggles with inconsistent onboarding, limited mentorship, and unclear career paths. Introducing high schoolers into environments that lack structured supervision or role clarity could lead to quick quits, which are both disruptive for organizations and disheartening for students who might otherwise have developed lasting careers.

Hospitals pursuing these partnerships must take the time to define what work truly needs to be done, by whom, and under what conditions. Redesigning tasks so that every worker, whether a high school trainee or a licensed RN, is performing at the top of their capabilities will increase current capacity and also strengthen the foundation for sustainable workforce pipelines. When this preparation is done well, initiatives to recruit and train younger talent can deliver on their promise: igniting interest in healthcare while building a workforce ready for the future.

The future of healthcare depends on more than adding workers. It demands reimagining how care is delivered and how work gets done. With patient needs rising and clinician supply tightening, simply hiring more people won’t close the gap. Real progress comes from breaking down tasks, redeploying talent, and rebuilding workflows to align the right skills with the right work. This approach expands capacity, boosts productivity, and creates a stronger base for developing the next generation of caregivers.

At the foundation is a skills-based model where tasks are mapped to verifiable skills, not just job titles, and stackable micro-credentials are built and aligned with state regulations and the scope of practice. Configure scheduling to match the right skills at the bedside, ensuring students are assigned only to work for which they’re trained, with defined supervision and escalation.

Mercer has developed a scalable and repeatable framework for work deconstruction and reconstruction, delivering a measurable and lasting impact.

The three-step model focuses on building sustainable, enterprise-wide solutions rather than isolated innovations. Success depends on cultivating an organizational capability for continuous reinvention, supported by strong change management to embed new ways of working across the system.

The three-step sustainable workforce framework includes:

1. Building the case for change. Using data-driven insights to identify and prioritize roles for redesign, informed by labor trends, organizational culture, and workforce readiness across key dimensions.
2. Redesigning work. Deconstructing and analyzing tasks and workflows to understand how work is performed and where effort is concentrated. Redeploying and rebalancing work between people and technology to optimize human potential and measure gains through Return on Increased Performance (ROIP). Reconstructing and rebuilding roles and workflows to achieve an agile, sustainable mix of talent and automation.
3. Embedding change. Integrating redesigned processes into core systems and workflows to ensure adoption, scalability, and long-term impact, and avoid one-off fixes that fade over time.

Attracting younger talent into healthcare is a necessary evolution, but it’s only part of the solution. Without deliberate preparation, even the most promising initiatives risk faltering under the weight of unstructured work and unrealistic expectations. The path forward requires foresight and system readiness.

By investing in data-driven workforce design, reimagining how work is organized, and embedding sustainable change, health systems can ensure early-career pathways deliver on their promise. When the groundwork is done right, these programs can help build a more resilient, agile, and future-ready workforce.

At Mercer, we help healthcare leaders turn workforce challenges into long-term advantages through data, design, and disciplined execution. Let’s connect.

_{^[1] “Healthcare Jobs Recruited Out of High School.” The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 2025.}

_{^[2] Gamble, Molly. “13 Major Health Systems Partner With High Schools in $250M Bloomberg Initiative.” Becker’s Hospital Review, Jan. 17, 2024.}