HealthForce Minnesota

A Message from Jane Foote

As summer begins, I find myself grateful to be back in Minnesota. As many of you may know, I spent five months this past academic year working full time in Atlanta at the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC). I learned many lessons about the business of specialized accreditation and developed some deep and lasting friendships. I regard my time at NLNAC as well spent.

At the same time, my staff was busy carrying forward our HealthForce Minnesota goals under the capable leadership of Dr. Dingfelder. Since my return to HealthForce Minnesota on April 9, I have had the pleasure of traveling across the state to listen to healthcare employers share their visions and challenges with workforce. We've highlighted some of our findings later in this issue. And, we hope to be further involved in exploration and healthcare initiates with the MnSCU Office of the Chancellor.

I also am eager to assist our two-year colleges to meet the challenges before us with the 2016 deadline for nursing program accreditation. I welcome Dr. Sue Field DNP, RN who will serve HealthForce Minnesota as faculty on special assignment from Northland College for the next year to help campuses with their individual accreditation processes. Sue brings much energy and passion to her work, and is looking forward to meeting the challenges. Together we will support our nursing programs in Minnesota meet the standards of national nursing accreditation. Progress has been made and there is more work to be done.

Again this summer, I am delighted our residential Scrubs Camps are full. They will continue to expose over 200 students to college life and health related careers.

We continue to work diligently on clinical education placements with our educational and clinical partners and are looking forward to launching our own Minnesota StudentLink system with our partners in July 2012.

We head into another challenging fiscal year as we all learn how to work in the new normal of doing much more with much less. We look forward to the leadership of a new president, Dr. Scott Olson, at Winona State University who will be leading our Executive Alliance beginning in July. He comes with a history of leadership in the MnSCU system, and we are delighted to have him at the helm!

I encourage you each to take time during these summer months to thank those in your inner circles for their encouragement and support. I have been welcomed back to my role at Healthforce Minnesota with open arms. Sometimes it takes stepping away to clearly see the amazing gifts in our own backyard. I am most thankful for the culture we have here of working together and getting our jobs done. It is good to be home.

Jane Foote
Executive Director
HealthForce Minnesota

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HealthForce Minnesota Leads Regional Planning Meetings on Healthcare

HealthForce Minnesota staff traveled across Minnesota the month of April to host nine regional healthcare workforce assessment meetings. These meetings, part of Chancellor Steven Rosenstone's strategic framework (see inset below), provided forums for healthcare employers to discuss healthcare workforce needs for three occupational categories: registered nursing, practical nursing, and medical laboratory scientists and technicians. The three occupational categories were intentionally selected since they represent the largest healthcare workforce (registered nursing), a critically-important workforce role in long-term care and older adult service providers (practical nursing), and an allied health field (clinical laboratory).

Meetings began with a summary of regional supply and demand data for the three occupational categories. Data, prepared by MnSCU staff and the Department of Employment and Economic Development, provided a starting point for a facilitated discussion about current and future workforce needs as well as specific skills gaps that may exist or be anticipated. Discussions were led by facilitators with the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, our partner in this initiative. Consistent with the meeting's focus on business needs, the vast majority of the discussion was open to employers only, with educators and other community members forming the "listening gallery" to hear employers' responses.

Themes

Significant themes from the regional meetings include:

• The data did not represent employers’ experiences. Hiring of registered and practical nurses is projected to be higher than the data projections showed. Reasons for this discrepancy may be related to projection assumptions being made during challenging economic times; workforce features such as part-time vs. full-time workers; and national policy changes such as the Affordable Care Act that will impact healthcare workforce, but is not taken into account in the projections.
• Acute care employers have a preference for baccalaureate-prepared nurses in all regions of the state. Some are requiring ADRNs to obtain a BSN within a certain time period; others are analyzing positions prior to hiring to determine best fit.
• Licensed practical nurses are continuing their education and entering registered nursing programs at a high rate. This phenomenon has a significant impact on long-term care and older adult service providers who typically higher large numbers of LPNs and experience high turnover when LPNs become registered nurses and leave for higher paying jobs in hospitals.
• There has been a definite easing in the registered nursing market, but shortages exist in specialty nursing, advance practice nursing, and baccalaureate-prepared registered nursing.
• Clinical laboratory supply and demand is much more in sync; the critical shortage of the past 10 years has eased as educational programs have expanded.
• The diversity and cultural skills of graduates who enter healthcare is important to employers who want to have a workforce that mirrors their patient population.

Employers

Employers told us that new graduates are often lacking important skills, knowledge, and abilities. These gaps include:

• Caring and compassion.
• Leadership, supervision and management abilities.
• Working with teams.
• Conflict management skills.
• Knowledge in gerontology/geriatrics at all levels.
• Time management skills.
• Experience with electronic health records and databases.
• Strong interpersonal skills.

Overall, approximately 350 people attended the healthcare meetings. Typically meetings were comprised of one-fourth to one-third employers ranging from the largest hospitals and health systems in the state to home health agencies to nursing homes and care centers. As we have learned through the Healthcare Education Industry Partnership Council, there is a magic that happens when employers from different sectors of the healthcare field come together to share challenges, opportunities, and ideas. It was important to have a broad representation and hear from a wide variety of employers. When a large hospital in a region commented on the lack of need for LPNs, for example, the nursing care centers in the region were able to share their strong and continuing utilization of this level of nursing. And almost every employer commented on the need for additional gerontology/geriatric skills and competencies.

Future Initiatives

Ideas for future initiatives – large and small – were generated. These include:

• Continue to support innovations that build upon "soft skills" of leadership, time management, communication and conflict management in health programs.
• Support diversity success in education and employment.
• Support gerontology course development for programs and incumbent workers.
• As CMS implements ICD-10s, coding training was noted as a high need area for hospitals.
• Continue to support and participate in employer and educator partnerships, such as HealthForce Minnesota or local and regional partnerships.
• The meetings allowed us to connect with employers throughout the state in a way

In addition, each meeting was recorded and is being transcribed. This written record will allow us to continue to identify key themes and specific needs of our healthcare employers so that, together, we can continue to help transform education and practice. Ultimately, MnSCU will utilize the findings from these meetings to align programming to meet workforce needs.

More Information

A summary of each regional meeting, along with meeting materials, is posted at http://www.mnscu.edu/business/. For more information about these meetings, please contact Valerie DeFor at vdefor@winona.edu.

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Judith Ramaley Awarded Emeritus by MnSCU

The Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (MnSCU) Board of Trustees awarded emeritus status to Winona State University President Judith Ramaley, who stepped down after seven years of service.

"Judith Ramaley has had a remarkable career that has spanned nearly one-half century," said Chancellor Steven Rosenstone in recommending emeritus status to the board. "Over the past seven years, President Ramaley has made tremendous and lasting contributions to both Winona State University and to the MnSCU system. First, and foremost, is her advancement of the excellence of Winona's academic programs and its service to Winona, Rochester and southeast Minnesota."

Rosenstone also noted Ramaley's service to Minnesota, which includes being a member and past chair of the Minnesota Campus Compact Board, a director of the Merchants Bank Financial Group and a board member of the Winona County Historical Society, the Great River Shakespeare Festival and the Seven Rivers Alliance.

Ramaley has been a nationally recognized higher education leader, serving on boards or committees for the Girl Scouts of the USA, the National Governor's Association Innovation Task Force, the Executive Committee of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, the presidential advisory panel for the Association of Governing Boards and the Greater Expectations Panel, a group developed by the Association of American Colleges and Universities to define the aims of a 21st century undergraduate education and identify strategies for accomplishing these aims.

Board of Trustees Chair Scott Thiss said: "President Ramaley's leadership has helped ensure that Winona State University is one of the nation's best universities. The title of president emeritus brings great honor not only to Judith Ramaley, but to Minnesota State Colleges and Universities."

Emeritus status is intended as a special honor for system employees who have served with great distinction.

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Minnesota Hospital Association State Award

Urban Scrubs Camp

Cedar Riverside Partnership/Urban Scrubs Camp received the state healthcare career promotion award for their work with HealthForce Minnesota's Urban Scrubs Camp. Laura Beeth, system director of talent acquisition and chair of the Cedar Riverside Partnership workforce committee submitted the nomination. The award was formally announced at the May 18 state hospital award banquet.

The Cedar Riverside Partnership workforce committee worked with HealthForce Minnesota, Fairview and others to develop Urban Scrubs Camp for high school students.

"It truly takes a village to make Scrubs Camp happen," says Laura Beeth, system director of talent acquisition and chair of the Cedar Riverside Partnership workforce committee. "We devote resources to this effort because hands-on and face-to-face career exploration has a strong impact on students' learning and decision to pursue a field. Scrubs Camp is an important way to generate interest in healthcare disciplines among the Cedar Riverside community and beyond."

At the MHA awards ceremony were (front row): Pam Cosby, executive director of Minnesota Urban Area Health Education Center, left; Regina Pekarek, Fairview workforce development representative; Jane Foote, executive director of HealthForce Minnesota; Laura Beeth, Fairview system director of talent acquisition; Barbara Brandt, professor & associate vice president for education at the Academic Health Center, U of M; (back row) Mike Christenson, associate vice president of workforce development at Minneapolis Community & Technical College; Mark Eustis, Fairview president & CEO; Carolyn Jacobson, Fairview senior director of organizational development & learning; and Louis Smith, Cedar Riverside Partnership.

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Scrubs Camps and Health Career Day Camps

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