From Classroom to Clinic: Pre-Clinical Talent Steps Into Healthcare’s Hard-to-Fill Roles

Healthcare systems are facing a workforce crisis that’s no longer temporary—it’s structural. Even before COVID-19, staffing shortages across nursing, technical, and administrative roles were already straining capacity; today, those gaps are wider, costlier, and directly impacting patient access. With labor shortages persisting and burnout rising, health systems are being forced to rethink not just hiring—but the very composition of their workforce.

So here’s the question: What if the solution to healthcare’s staffing crisis isn’t just hiring more experienced workers—but strategically building a pipeline from those who haven’t entered the field yet?

On this episode of I Don’t Care, host Dr. Kevin Stevenson sits down with Brock Hughes of Propel Clinical to explore how pre-clinical students—pre-med, pre-PA, pre-nursing—can be deployed to fill critical, hard-to-staff roles across healthcare systems. The conversation dives into workforce innovation, the economics of staffing, and how early-career exposure could reshape both patient care and clinician pipelines.

This episode breaks down how…

• Healthcare systems are shifting toward workforce development strategies that prioritize pipeline-building over short-term staffing fixes.
• Pre-clinical students can fill entry-level and support roles effectively, often improving efficiency and reducing costs while gaining critical experience.
• “Planned turnover” among these students isn’t a liability—it’s a feature that enables continuous talent flow and long-term workforce sustainability.

Brock Hughes, MBA, is a healthcare entrepreneur with over a decade of experience building and scaling solutions across clinical and operational domains. At Propel Clinical, he focuses on addressing workforce shortages by integrating pre-clinical talent into healthcare systems through structured, managed programs. Hughes has co-founded multiple ventures—including Chartpro, Chartjoy, and Zup—and previously led strategic expansion as SVP of Strategic Growth at CareATC and as a growth and strategy leader at CareTeam (acquired). His expertise spans business development, healthcare innovation, and building scalable models that improve access, reduce costs, and enhance operational efficiency.

Article written by MarketScale.