In the past few years, a number of health systems have partnered with schools and nonprofits to support healthcare-focused high schools — and leaders say the results have been promising on a number of levels.

Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health collaborated with Uplift Education and Bloomberg Philanthropies to launch the Uplift Heights Healthcare Institute in 2024. Tenneil Dutton, senior vice president of talent and belonging at Baylor Scott & White, told Becker’s the high school not only prepares students for high-demand healthcare jobs, but equips them with crucial skills.

Take Neveah Money, for example — a teenager who saved her sister’s life thanks to CPR training she received at the school.

“What an amazing story; one of the first activities that they did as rising ninth graders last summer was to participate in a CPR course,” Phil Kendzior, vice president of workforce development for Baylor Scott & White Health, told NBC affiliate KXAS in May. “… It is very clear that the students are very engaged with the content they’re learning, and it’s wonderful that they’re able to apply it.”

In January 2024, Bloomberg Philanthropies launched an initiative to create healthcare-focused high schools by partnering with public school districts and health systems. Ten communities — urban and rural — were selected to participate in the effort, which graduates students into in-demand healthcare jobs to address workforce gaps.