What Innovation Looks Like in Healthcare Workforce Planning
Hospital Associations Running Coordinated, Multilingual Social Media Campaigns, Free Training and Certification Programs in NYC, and CTE High Schools Equipping Teen CNAs and Future Nurses
Hey folks, welcome back to Healthcare Workforce Report.
Old News: The current environment is massive staffing shortages in all levels of healthcare jobs — and unanimous projections that the shortages are going to get much worse without swift intervention and investments.
Recent News: There are some policy proposals in a handful of states and in the U.S. Congress to address staff shortages, the need for more funding to boost training opportunities, and to ensure that healthcare services can continue unburdened by ongoing labor gaps. I will summarize some of those new policies and legislative proposals in an upcoming newsletter.
New (Encouraging) News: Today’s newsletter spotlights a few innovative programs — by healthcare employer groups, public K–12 schools, even city governments — that are breaking the mold to grow their healthcare talent pipelines, fill their open healthcare positions, and entice more people into considering healthcare careers.
Meeting Folks Where They Are: Social Media
It shouldn’t be such a nice surprise when major players in a gigantic industry suddenly “modernize” their tactics to reach Americans where they really hang out — but, alas, it is.
Enter the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (with 70-plus hospital-members): This summer, MHHA is running its first-ever social media campaign in multiple languages, themed “Find Your Place in Healthcare.” The association says there are about 19K unfilled jobs just among the state’s acute-care hospitals, so they’re trying some new outreach methods.
From what I’ve seen so far, it appears to be a pretty big (and well-organized) campaign, with member hospitals and health systems all participating on their individual social channels. It’ll be interesting to see how well it works and how their efforts morph — or don’t — as it goes on. I’ll keep y’all posted.
Make a Brand New Start in Ol’ New York — In Healthcare
When I read about New York City’s no-cost training programs for folks entering the healthcare field, I couldn’t help but hear Ol’ Blue Eyes crooning his timeless hit about building a better life in the Big Apple.
A New York Post report describes the newest addition to NYC’s healthcare recruitment efforts: a free training program for medical billing specialists, who typically earn about $40K a year to start and considerably more if they’ve earned a certificate or associate’s degree. New York City’s program also includes a city-wide nurse residency program and a curriculum for foreign-trained nurses who need to polish their English language skills and pass that state’s RN licensing exam.
This is all part of a larger effort by the New York Alliance for Careers in Healthcare, a public-private partnership working to build the healthcare staffing pipeline across NYC.
Or Make Your First Start in NYC Healthcare – Before You Finish High School!
The alliance is going much deeper than free training programs for adults: NYACH is working with four CTE high schools whose focus is on preparing high-schoolers for future careers in healthcare. Just before the pandemic hit, NYACH began piloting a four-year, scaffolded high school program that looks like this:
YEAR 1: Freshmen students are introduced to a “new foundational curriculum based heavily on the NYACH Core Competencies.”
YEAR 2: Sophomores’ instruction is “centered on career exploration, which includes guest speakers, job tours, career expos, and mentorship.”
YEAR 3: Juniors’ curriculum is centered on “building professional skills through a project-based internship.”
YEAR 4: Seniors build their technical skills through a clinical internship at one of the program’s 79 partner healthcare employers.
And You Can Try This At Your School, Thanks to NYACH
The alliance also created a free Ready for Healthcare toolkit available for free to guide other community collaboratives or education agencies interested in implementing something similar in their own areas; download it at https://www.nyachnyc.org/readyforhealthcare.
(Warning: The Ready for Healthcare toolkit is extremely thorough! If you are in a hurry, download it to read later. Seriously. Outstanding set of guides for anyone considering adding healthcare-career prep to a high school curriculum.)
The toolkit is a deep collection of resources “intended to serve as an open source roadmap and curriculum guide to introduce high schoolers to the diversity of careers available in healthcare and the skills they need to succeed in those careers.” While it’s designed as a four-year learning model, the tools are “modular and highly adaptable” for any education organization, the alliance says.
This High School’s Seniors Are Graduating Already Certified as CNAs
The74 recently wrote about the Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College Charter High School in Providence; it opened in 2011 and has had great success in preparing teens for good-paying healthcare jobs, oftentimes before they’re even out of high school. RINI has been a big hit with the kids, too, it seems; the school has reached its maximum-allowed enrollment nearly every year since it opened.
Featured in The74’s article is a senior who will graduate high school already having earned about one semester of college nursing credits *and* already fully licensed as a certified nursing assistant. Her story is not unusual at RINI, where the student body is about 90% female and 90% students of color, according to the report.
The entire school focuses on educating students for careers as nurses or physicians; students can use their free bus pass to go to other local schools for extracurricular activities and elective classes like music or art.
Most students graduate with at least 18 college credits. RINI’s work-study partnerships with local healthcare facilities means students commonly complete 40 hours or more of clinical rotations by the time they graduate high school, as well as 40-hour internships.
A RINI clone is scheduled to open this fall in Albany, New York, and RINI leaders say they’re talking with education leaders in five states about potentially opening healthcare-focused charter schools.
Shout-out to Healthcare Workforce Report sponsors
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