There is a “shortage of young people in health care in the state of Connecticut,” according to James Cullen, president and CEO of Gaylord Hospital.

The population of Connecticut is decreasing mostly because all the young people are leaving the state, Cullen said.

“We need younger people to stay in Connecticut because the need for them to work in health care is tremendous,” Cullen said.

Cullen participated in Thursday’s panel discussion about “Careers in Healthcare Management: Perspectives from the Field” in Mancheski Executive Seminar Room, joining Dr. Robert Galvin, commissioner of the Connecticut Department of Health, and Nancy Rosenthal, senior vice president of the health systems department at Greenwich Hospital.

“Many physicians are upset because their salaries have been reduced, and over the last 20 years or so compensation for physicians has reduced,” Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal suggested that people who are interested in working in health care should be open-minded about where they would like to work.

“I have grown just as much or more working in a smaller hospital,” Rosenthal said. “Think about that when you start thinking about your career in health care.”

The panelists advised students interested in working in health care that bigger isn’t always better. Cullen said that in bigger hospitals like Yale-New Haven there are about 960 patients, while Gaylord, a smaller hospital, has about 137.

Although the health care industry is struggling at the moment, Cullen said the health care reform should have a positive impact in the next decade.

Students were caught off guard with news of the endangered system.

“I thought it was interesting that the health administration is aging,” former law student Julie Nash said.

Even students who are not hoping to work in health care were impacted by the discussion.

“Although I am not in a clinical background, I was surprised the health care system is struggling,” graduate student Joven Almazon said.