Career and Human Development Programs
Nashville’s Saint Thomas Hospital is a leader in hospital-based human capital development initiatives. The hospital earned a 2002 Employer of the Year award from the Middle Tennessee Workforce Investment Board for its Saint Louise Career Resource Center. The center focuses on low-wage employees, but its individual assessments and career planning services are available to all staff.
The concept for the center evolved from the hospital’s successful Learning for Life program, launched in 1991. Learning for Life provides entry-level employees with customized basic skills training, GED preparation, ESOL classes and individual improvement plans. Learning for Life staff assist managers in establishing basic skill levels for specific positions. They also modify mandatory training and educational materials to accommodate learning or language obstacles. In addition, Saint Thomas Hospital sponsored a successful welfare to work program in 2002.
For more information contact Marlane Peak at mpeak@stthomas.org or call the career center at 615-222-3461.
Blount Memorial Hospital (BMH) has partnered with Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) in Harrogate, TN, to provide interested employees an opportunity to become an associate degree nurse through an accelerated, 15-month program. A 24-month program also is available for employees who cannot skip required nursing courses based on advanced placement testing.
The hospital made an initial five-year commitment to LMU to provide a minimum number of students for the program. Employees who enroll full-time are eligible for full scholarships. Part-time students may use the hospital’s tuition reimbursement benefits to proceed at their own pace.
The first class (primarily made up of LPNs) graduated in May 2004. Students in the program complete clinical training (except for pediatrics and psych rotations) at Blount Memorial and sign work commitments that correspond to the value of the scholarship award received. The convenience of a local program is a major factor in its popularity, according to students. LMU was selected after requests for proposals were sent to all local colleges and universities.
Blount Memorial also conducts onsite CNA classes and sponsors one of only two independently funded, hospital-based LPN programs in Tennessee. These efforts have helped meet the hospital’s ongoing needs for bedside nurses.
For more information, contact Rhonda Sims at rsims@bmnet.com. (This program was featured in the August 2003 newsletter of the Center for Health Workforce Development in Tennessee.)
Minneapolis-based Allina Health System joined forces with law enforcement agencies, local businesses and community organizations to reach out to the poverty- and crime-riddled neighborhood surrounding its flagship hospital Abbott Northwestern. The Phillips Partnership now sponsors Allina’s Train to Work program for unemployed and underemployed workers. The four-week work-readiness program is based on a successful model used by Marriott Corporation.
Train to Work participants are paid while attending classes that build life and work skills. Graduates begin their careers within the Allina system in departments like parking and transportation, nutrition services, environmental services and patient escort. Qualified employees receive home ownership assistance, including grants up to $10,000. Train to work employees are assisted for up to 18 months by staff retention specialists who provide case management, social services and job performance coaching. Allina’s human resources department estimates that program expenses of approximately $2000 per graduate are less than half of average new-hire costs for the same positions. Program outcomes have been dramatic. Neighborhood property values in the trouble zone increased 45 percent in the first two years. Turnover has dramatically increased in affected hospital departments and openings are quickly filled by new Train to Work graduates.
Allina opened its Health Careers Institute, also located on the Abbott Northwestern campus, to train workers for other hard to fill positions. The institute is affiliated with three local community colleges. It offers students training as phlebotomists, insurance coders, transcriptionists, nursing aides and clinical support assistants. Eligible graduates are guaranteed employment in an Allina hospital.
For more information on Allina’s Health Careers Institute call 612-359-1329 or visit the website at hciminnesota.com (under construction as of November 2003).
This 120-bed hospital proves that smaller hospitals can also create effective career development programs. The Career Transition Program at Southern Ocean County Hospital (SOCH) allows four or five selected employees each year to advance or change career tracks. The hospital pays for all educational expenses plus partial salary while participants return to school full-time. Participants continue to work at the hospital during school breaks and holidays, and are obligated to work at SOCH after graduation for the same number of years they were in school at the hospital’s expense. For more information see AHA’s Workforce Ideas in Action, January 2003.
Employees at 454-bed Salem Hospital are an essential target market for an innovative, benchmark health careers recruitment project, the vision of Salem Hospital Foundation. Hospital executives in cooperation with regional educators developed the project, aimed at students of all ages and local healthcare professionals.
The hospital’s Career Exploration Program website contains separate pages for employees who want to know more about the wide range of health careers included on the Salem Hospital team. Information is included on how the hospital will support them in pursuing advancement opportunities, including educational benefits, reimbursement policies and job shadowing. Virtual tours let web surfers experience hospital services from a patient’s viewpoint. They select from eight scenarios including Sam’s Soccer Situation, Tobacco Smokes Ricardo and The Changes in Matt that feature hospital employees and their roles on the healthcare team.
Oregonhealthcareers.net (sponsored by the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems) and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Outlook Handbook provide information on education and training requirements, degree programs and sites, current salaries and openings, and long-term prospects.
For more about Salem’s Career Exploration Program go to salemhospital.org or contact career development specialist Dennie Brooks at dennie.brooks@salemhospital.org.
Northwestern Memorial Academy (NM Academy) was chartered in 2001 to offer clinical and non-clinical training to the hospital’s staff of over 5,000. In August 2003, it graduated the first class from its new School of Nuclear Medicine. Four of the seven graduates were hired by Northwestern Memorial, filling all open positions. Northwestern Memorial has also chartered schools of radiation therapy and diagnostic medical sonography. Students come from the ranks of current NMH employees. NM Academy is part of an institutional strategy to achieve the goals of Best People and Best Patient Experience. NMH is listed among US News & World Report’s best hospitals and has also been cited by Working Mother magazine as one of the "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers." For more information see AHA’s In Our Hands.
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