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Good Bones
Two weeks ago the Juneau Chamber of Commerce’s weekly luncheon speaker set the paddles on our chests and zapped us all awake. Jennifer Twito, Bartlett Regional Hospital’s Director of Staff Development talked about the tremendous workforce development efforts underway at the biggest healthcare facility in the region. If every Alaska institution put as much work into growing our own as Bartlett, we’d be in a better place.
For decades, health care providers in Southeast struggled to find staff. In a world where traveling nurses cost twice as much as hiring a local, those struggles raise our health care costs.
So Bartlett went from its longtime practice of investing in nurse training at the University of Alaska to a whole new level. The outreach to find and train future health care workers starts as early as fifth grade, and includes seventh grade CPR certifications and safe babysitter training. It keeps going with job shadows for high schoolers and EMT classes. The hospital had added clinical rotations for nursing students, full training programs for certified nurse aides, partnerships to spin up licensed practical nurses, and help for LPNs to earn two-year registered nursing degrees. Add in both high school and college summer internships, med student rotations, and hosting practicums for some masters-level nurse specialties, and you start to see how far they’re going to tackle our workforce shortages.
The better news is: it’s working. The programs average an 80 percent retention rate measured two years after the students finish their programs. Each one of those is a Juneauite that stays in the capital city, and reduced healthcare costs for our region.
It sure is nice to get shocked by good news!
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