The Mississippi Hospital Association Health, Research & Educational Foundation has been awarded a $437,750 grant to help advance the careers of frontline health care workers by providing training to build skills, increase earning potential, and improve the quality of care and services that patients receive. The Mississippi Jobs to Careers Initiative was one of eight selected nationwide through Jobs to Careers: Promoting Work-Based Learning for Quality Care, a national initiative that supports a variety of projects to develop the skills of workers who deliver direct health care and services.
The grant will allow the Mississippi Jobs to Careers Initiative to implement the program in Jackson, Mississippi, through a partnership between the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, Central Mississippi Medical Center and Hinds Community College. The initiative, managed by the Office of Nursing Workforce, will be introduced to frontline workers such as nursing assistants, housekeeping and clerical workers from Central Mississippi Medical Center. It will provide them with opportunities to increase their skills in order to reduce high turnover rates and vacancies among ancillary staff, especially unit service clerks, and to improve the quality of care provided to consumers.
Central Mississippi Medical Center will be responsible for developing and defining training curriculum, creating new human resources policies to include career ladders for frontline workers with wage increases, recognition, and rewards, while establishing a work ethic needed to sustain a continual work-based learning model. Hinds Community College will develop courses, policies, and processes to provide classes to staff on the medical center’s campus. Curricula will be developed and implemented to provide short-term, challenging blocks of instruction for the worker to take and apply immediately in the health care setting and to provide certificates and academic credits for learning accomplishments.
Across the United States, 4.7 million frontline health care workers provide patients and clients with preventive and early intervention services, chronic illness management strategies, and long-term and post-hospitalization rehabilitative care. Despite their critical and expanding role in delivering health care, these workers earn less than $40,000 per year on average and have limited opportunities to build skills or advance professionally.
“Our goal through this initiative is to provide work-based learning and career advancement to the frontline workers of Central Mississippi Medical Center. This is an opportunity for staff to receive additional training as well as recognition and reward. Many of the frontline workers are long-time, loyal employees who will benefit from the project for career advancement,” said Debbie Logan, R.N., M.H.A., project director for the Office of Nursing Workforce.
This is the second round of grants under Jobs to Careers, a four-year, $15.8 million national initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor. The program encourages partnerships among employers, educational institutions, and other organizations to improve training and advancement opportunities for their frontline workers. Workers who may benefit include medical assistants, health educators, laboratory technicians, home health aides, substance abuse counselors, and dietary aides.
The partnership organizations are working to implement long-term systems changes and test new models of work-based learning – an approach to adult education that emphasizes the employee as learner, and the work process itself as a source of learning. Boston-based Jobs for the Future serves as the Jobs to Careers national program office.
“This initiative allows us to leverage the resources of Hinds Community College, Central Mississippi Medical Center, and the Office of Nursing Workforce to help Mississippians increase their employability while meeting the skilled workforce needs of one of our local health care providers,” said Dr. Clyde Muse, Hinds Community College president.
“Hinds Community College has multiple partnership activities ongoing with Central Mississippi Medical Center. These include nursing, allied health, and short-term and continuing education events. We are looking forward to integrating these new partnership activities that will impact frontline workers,” said Libby Mahaffey, Ph.D., R.N., dean of nursing and allied health at Hinds Community College.
Carol McCullough, R.N., M.N., F.A.C.H.E., chief nursing officer at Central Mississippi Medical Center, said “We are very excited to be involved in this endeavor. Our experience with Hinds Community College and the Office of Nursing Workforce has been very productive, and we are all committed to the advancement of adult learners. Our proximity to the college and the already existing joint efforts make this a natural fit.”
This project is among eight selected nationwide out of two hundred applicants. The eight projects will be implemented in diverse settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities, and community and behavioral health centers in cities and remote villages. The new grants bring the total number of Jobs to Careers projects to seventeen. A full list of all projects and further information about Jobs to Careers are available at www.jobs2careers.org.