FACING STAFF SHORTAGES
Harris Health System employs innovative efforts to fill the need
Looking for a job? If you’re in the healthcare industry, you probably won’t have to look far.
In fact, you’re likely getting offers from other hospitals even if you are already employed. That’s because, as we enter the second winter of the pandemic, there remains a critical shortage of healthcare staff, especially in the nursing and clinical diagnostic fields.
While nursing shortages in Texas pre-date the pandemic, the latest wave of hospitalizations has exacerbated the problem, creating a vicious cycle of quickly dwindling resources for healthcare facilities. For-profit medical staffing agencies have seized the opportunity, offering nurses and clinical diagnostic workers — computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and ultrasound technologists — big bucks to become traveling workers, bouncing from hospital to hospital around the country on short contracts.
“It’s been a challenge,” says Maureen Padilla, senior vice president of Nursing Affairs, Harris Health System. “Losing critical staff to traveling agencies forces us to hire from these agencies as well, and at a much higher premium. While the incoming nurses are always qualified, they don’t know Harris Health’s patient population the way our staff does.”
“One of the reasons we have a nursing shortage begins in the nursing schools,” Padilla explains. “In today’s nursing schools, there is a shortage of teachers. Faculty shortages are often due to the large discrepancy between what a nurse can make in the field and what they make at a school.”
A shortage of teachers means schools aren’t able to accept the number of students who want to be nurses. It’s not a lack of desire to work in the healthcare industry causing the shortages, there’s a lack of opportunity.
Harris Health has decided to do something about this discrepancy. In a move that could become a model for healthcare systems across the country, Harris Health is developing strategies to increase participation in the education-to-employment pipeline, partnering with the local community to provide can’t-miss opportunities for young people looking for a career in the healthcare industry. Programs like Harris Health’s Patient Care Assistant (PCA) Externship Program are bridging the gap between need and reality in the nursing field.
PCAs are trained, entry level healthcare workers who care for the day-to-day care of hospitalized patients, feeding them, taking vitals and must know lifesaving procedures like CPR. It’s the kind of patientcentric job that leads many into successful careers in the nursing field.
The externship program is a collaboration with Capital IDEA Houston, a nonprofit job placement organization, educational partners of Houston Independent School District (Barbara Jordan High School) and Houston Community College. Its grassroots approach offers opportunities to current Harris Health employees, recent high school graduates and others from the community interested in healthcare careers. Padilla explains how it works.
“The eight-week course provides students from Barbara Jordan High School and Houston Community College over 100 hours of classroom and clinical training, funded by Harris Health, en route to passing the exam for either a medical or nursing assistant certification.”
The program participants’ experience in Ben Taub and LBJ hospitals is invaluable. Young graduates with a PCA certification often suffer from what’s called the complexity gap when applying for jobs. It’s the result of not having critical real-world experience in a hospital. By Harris Health offering hospital experience through the program, graduates are better positioned for better job offers after graduation.
The inaugural class of the PCA Externship Program was a smashing success. Of the 27 students involved — 10 high schoolers, 10 existing Harris Health staff members who were educated at Houston Community College, and 7 members from the community — 25 completed the program, which is completely funded by Harris Health. Of those 25, 21 accepted full-time positions as PCAs in Harris Health, with two deciding to continue their education at a four-year university and the others staying in their previous positions.
This isn’t the first time Harris Health has used internal educational incentives to bolster their workforce. Harris Health’s School of Diagnostic Medical Imaging has been producing quality diagnostic technicians in radiology, sonography, CT, and MRI beginning as far back as 1949. Since re-instituting the program in 1989, the school has embraced the modern need for diagnostic technologists to be available in hospitals 24/7. About 90-95% of program graduates are hired in the field directly after graduating.
“Demand for these kinds of positions is high,” says Cleveland Black, PhD, associate administrator, Human Resources Health Services, at Harris Health. “Graduates from our programs have unique experience in trauma and advanced care. Because they train in a safetynet hospital, students get a wide breadth of experience. Plus, we have lots of program graduates in key hiring positions who come to us directly for new hires.”
The return on investment has been tremendous for Harris Health. Rather than being forced to look out-of-county or out-of-state to fill these crucial positions, the School of Diagnostic Imaging provides a steady stream of qualified workers who already have experience in Harris Health facilities.
“It’s a huge win,” Black says. “The rewarding thing about the program is not only do we provide medical imaging professionals for Harris Health, we also prepare them to go out and work in Harris County. We’re taking care of the patients at Harris Health while also taking care of the patients of Harris County.”
Like in nursing, the need for diagnostic imaging technologists shows no signs of slowing. As healthcare workers are retiring and becoming patients themselves, as medical technology advances, as new theoretical tests are developed and artificial intelligence (AI) becomes a major factor in healthcare, an educated workforce is crucial to the success of the industry. By offering opportunities through education and subsidization, Harris Health is ensuring the residents of Harris County will be expertly cared for now and in the future.
If you’re looking for a rewarding career that’s always in demand, programs like Harris Health’s PCA Externship Program or the School of Diagnostic Medical Imaging can help you reach your goal.
“...we also prepare them to go out and work in Harris County. We’re taking care of the patients at Harris Health while also taking care of the patients of Harris County.” Cleveland Black, PhD, associate administrator, Human Resources Health Services, at Harris Health