Category: #1, Services to Business Customers
Many health care organizations are challenged with developing and implementing successful strategies to address critical staffing shortages.
St. Elizabeth Medical Center (SEMC), The BOCES Consortium of Continuing Education (BOCES), The Herkimer-Madison-Oneida Workforce Investment Board and Oneida County Workforce Development have developed and implemented a Career Ladder Program which is providing education, financial support, career advancement, higher pay and job opportunities to qualified employees and prospective employees throughout the Mohawk Valley Region.
In just 9 months (10/01-6/02) this committed team identified a critical employee need in our community’s health care continuum, developed and implemented a Career Ladder Program, and graduated the first class of 27 participants.
This team’s first focus for the Career Ladder Program was the addition of a new position called “Nurse Technician”.
Traditional approaches to recruitment and retention of nurses and nurse assistants had resulted in marginal results. A revolving door approach just leads to going around in circles with short-term gains. The WIB, St. Elizabeth and BOCES are focusing on positive career development by fostering the Career Ladder Program.
The Career Ladder “Steps” for the nursing career ladder are Unit Assistant, Nurse Assistant, Nurse Technician (new position), Licensed Practical Nurse and Registered Nurse. In addition, prospective employees can take advantage of literary services offered through BOCES to reach the level of literacy necessary.
Employees can start at any level of the ladder and move upward. The Career Ladder program gives an employee experience and education into a new and meaningful career in nursing. This program meets the needs of employees by providing not just jobs, but careers that offer them opportunity for increased wages, financial support through scholarships and pay during the training/education period.
All 27 of the graduating employees were retained by the hospital – an incredibly high success rate in an industry marked by extremely high turnover.
The program evolved from its original conception through the input of partners that included BOCES and the WIB. This resulted in a closer relationship between BOCES and St. Elizabeth Medical Center, which led to the creation of an articulation agreement between BOCES, the region’s recognized leader as a trainer of LPNs, and the Medical Center, which operates a College of Nursing with a highly successful record of training RNs. The six months of discussions allowed staff from all partners to evaluate all parts of the program and produced a finished product that focused resources on training, and addressed support services that would be important to program participants.