Changes to the healthcare landscape means that educational institutions like Michener must adapt. And Michener’s Cardiovascular Perfusion program is an example of this shift.
With an aging population, longer life expectancy and advances in diagnostic technology, cardiac surgeries have increased in recent years, leading to a higher demand for Cardiovascular Perfusionists — essential members of the interprofessional cardiac surgical team who manage the heart-lung machine during open-heart surgery.
What’s more is that Perfusionists’ roles have expanded beyond the operating room, and their expertise is now necessary for other medical scenarios in critical care and organ transplants.
These factors have led to a global shortage in Perfusionists and delays in cardiac surgeries with patients facing exceedingly long wait times for urgent care.
“Michener became aware of cardiac surgeries being cancelled and the impact on timely access to life-saving interventions,” says Hasina Jaffer, Michener’s Academic Chair, Critical Care. “Workforce trends show high retirement numbers for Perfusionists. They also indicate that many Perfusionists are migrating to other provinces or countries.”
Working closely with Ontario Health, Michener developed a Perfusionist expansion plan to fill these gaps by training more Perfusionists and bringing them into the field as quickly as possible.
Perfusionist training requires sophisticated resources and highly experienced faculty, and Michener is one of few institutes capable of providing this kind of learning space and instruction.
“We’ve made a commitment to increase our enrolment for the Perfusionist program to 28 students this year and 37 students the following year,” says Hasina.
Michener has also adjusted the Cardiovascular Perfusion curriculum so that labs begin in September, at the same time as the course work, meaning students have more hands-on experience from the start of the program.
Furthermore, Hasina and her department are launching a Perfusionist Assistant micro-credential to alleviate the workload of Perfusionists, allowing them to concentrate on their specialized expertise during cardiac surgery.
“With more Perfusionists out there, we’ll see fewer patients on waitlists and more timely access to cardiac care when it’s needed most. I’m excited to see our grads playing a big part in this change,” says Hasina.