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ADVANCING THE FRONTLINE WORKFORCE IN HEALTH CARE – WHAT WE’VE LEARNED, WHERE WE’RE GOING
Randall Wilson, PhDNorthern New Jersey Health Professions ConsortiumDecember 4, 2012 Bergen Community College
Setting the Stage
Overview
• Setting the Stage• Key Challenges• Some Promising Practices• The Way Forward• Discussion
A Glimpse of Frontline Health Care Workers
Who is the Frontline Workforce?
• Diverse occupations, including nurse aides, medical assistants, surgical technicians, and community health educators
• Generally non-licensed and require less than a Bachelor’s degree
• Annual incomes largely below $40,000• Often lack clear career ladders or means of job
enhancement
Why Invest in Frontline Workers?
• Frontline workers are essential to care– Half of health care workforce, most of the direct patient contact
• High and costly turnover– Low wages, difficult working conditions, limited career paths
• Low employer investment in skill and educational development of this workforce
• Opportunity for better care care through better jobs and career advancement
The Changing Health Care Landscape
• More patients seeking health care• Aging population, sicker patients• Cost pressures on health care• Shift to clinical and home-based care• New models of care delivery• New models of paying for care
Why Invest in Frontline Workers:An Aging and Frailer Population
• Age 65 & over will double 2006-2030 to 72m– One in six need long-term care (6 million)– 90% with at least one chronic condition
• Age 85 & over will more than triple by 2050• 7.7 million people will have Alzheimer’s disease in
2030, up from 4.9 million in 2007• More living longer, but more living with functional
impairments and chronic diseases
Why Invest in Frontline Workers:More diverse population mix
• Uninsured are:– More likely to be non-white or Hispanic– All (2011): 15.7%– African Americans: 20%– Asians: 17%– Hispanics: 30%– English as second language: 31%
• Providers want “people who look like our patients”
Frontline Occupations in Demand
Patient-CenteredPositions
# Jobs 2010 Job Outlook 2010-2020
Change
Home Health and Personal Care Aides
1,878,700 70% 1,313,200
Nursing Aides 1,505,300 20% 302,000
Licensed Practical Nurses
752,300 22% 168,500
Medical Assistants 527,600 31% 162.900
EMTs and Paramedics 226,500 33% 75,400
Technology-CenteredPositions
# Jobs 2010 Job Outlook 2010-2020
Change
Pharmacy Technicians 334,400 32% 198,300
Radiologic Technicians 219,900 28% 61,000
Medical Records & Health Information Technicians
179,500 21% 37,700
The Supply Side: An Aging Workforce
• Over 23% of active physicians are 60 or over– Projected shortages: 132,000 by 2025
• By 2020, close to half of RNs will be 50 or over– Projected shortages of one million by 2025
• About one-third of active social workers will soon reach retirement age
• 30% of direct care workers over 55 by 2018
The Affordable Care Act
• Covers over 30 million new patients– 14 million as of 1/1/14
• Promotes new models of care – Improve coordination– Lower costs– Increase quality (higher satisfaction, lower
readmissions)– Shift from hospital to clinical and home-based
Workforce Implications
• With fewer MDs, more responsibility for Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs). PA’s, etc.
• Higher quality demands all clinical staff “work at the top of their license;” better teamwork
• New roles and functions emerging:– Care coordination– Patient navigation, case management– Health educators, coaches– Health information technology
Challenges
Workers• Basic skill needs, including job readiness• Family and life issues• Lack of career information
Employers• Lack transparent career pathways• Resource constraints – underinvestment in workforce
Educational Institutions• Program offerings not fully aligned with needs of workers, adult learners,
and employers
Regulatory Organizations• Reluctant to recognize “out of the box” approaches
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Some Promising Practices
• Jobs to Careers: quality care through work-based learning
• Allied Health Initiative: employer-led development of pipelines
• Accelerating Opportunity: integrated pathways from basic skills to credentials
• National Fund for Workforce Solutions: employer-led partnerships
Jobs to Careers
• $15.8 million-dollar national initiative funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, The Hitachi Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Labor
(2005 – 2011)• Emphasized work-based learning• 17 sites nationwide• Focused on hospitals, community health centers,
long-term care facilities, behavioral health• Employer-driven, evidence-based, and learning-
focused• JFF was National Program Office and TA provider
J2C’s 17 Sites
Participation across 17 grantee sites
• Over 900 Participants• 34 Employers• 24 Educational Institutions• 8 Workforce Intermediaries
The Goal of Jobs to Careers
The goal of Jobs to Careers was to promote skill and career development in incumbent frontline health care workers by:– Testing models of work-based learning– Designing systems to support learning and career
growth of frontline workers– Developing partnerships of employers, colleges,
and others (including workforce boards and unions)
Work-based Learning
• Uses job responsibilities to achieve learning objectives
• Measures achievement of specific competencies• Engages supervisors and peers in the learning
process• Rewards mastery with academic or industry-
recognized credential• Complements other modes of learning• Promotes reflection, critical thinking
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Why Work-Based Learning?
• A more effective learning strategy
• A more efficient training approach
• A more productive workforce
• More accessible learning
J2C Success
Over 900 frontline workers at the 17 sites participated in the Jobs to Careers program.
Participants typically:– increased skills– increased wages– improved self confidence– achieved greater job satisfaction– Improved patient care
Benefits to Frontline Workers
• Access to seamless educational pathway• Access to college credits and credential• Increased confidence and job performance• Understanding the “why” not just the “how”• Higher pass rates via cohort support and coaching• Access to career advancement and higher wages
Benefits to Employers
• Cost effective training delivery• Flexible, modularized curriculum• Engagement of employee in learning and skill
enhancement• Increased employee effectiveness and performance –
increased quality of care• Created a cohesive patient care team• Maximize investment in training• Support career development
Systems Change at the Employer
• Changes in human resource policies– Adjustments to tuition
reimbursement policies.• Changes in organizational
culture– Evolving role for supervisors.
• Changes in the organization and process of work– Creation of new positions.
Lessons Learned – Employer perspective
• Provide incremental career opportunities • Develop relationships between employers and
educational partners• Address financial limitations to obtaining additional
education• Address time barriers to obtaining additional
education• Address the basic skills needs of workers• Encourage supportive supervision – organizational
learning culture
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System Changes at the Educational Institution
• Changes in academic policies• Shifts in organizational and faculty culture• Processes of curriculum development,
delivery, and assessment
Lessons Learned – Educator perspective
• Develop credit for prior learning policies• Create flexible pathways to certificate and degree completion• Incorporate non-traditional teaching techniques• Offer courses at convenient times and places• Cultivate buy-in from top-level administrators• Expand student services to include career coaching
Allied Health Initiative
• 3-year program, responding to shortage of allied health workers in Boston hospitals
• Address skills mismatch between frontline workers and skills necessary to enter professional pathways
• Create pre-allied health pipeline, focusing on academic readiness, in three major hospitals
• $1.5m (Boston Foundation), leveraging $13m employer match
Allied Health Initiative
• Employer-led model, to support flexible approaches, buy-in and sustainability– Distinct strategies in each hospital (occupational
focus, instructional providers, technology)– Expand internal capacity for workforce programs– Adaptable as occupational demand shifts– Catalyst for supporting a learning culture and
further innovation
Allied Health Initiative: Innovations
• Pre-college, college courses, college placement tests offered onsite
• Expanded access to career and academic counseling and coaching (BIDMC)
• “Online Learning Readiness” course (PHC)• Blending clinical and basic skills instruction for
Central Processing Techs (BMC)• Work-based & online modules in Rad Tech
Allied Health Initiative: Lessons
• Flexible resources and employer leadership a plus – greater buy-in, increased capacity, ability to experiment
• Longer pre-college preparation due to greater basic skill needs
• Ability to negotiate and change vendors• Support for operating costs to start up or
deepen workforce development
Accelerating Opportunity
• Changes the delivery of Adult Basic Education by states and community colleges
• Builds integrated pathways from basic skills to credentials and careers
• Five states (KS, IL, NC, KY, LA) with 3-year grants to support 8 colleges per state
• Pathways in diverse sectors, but all states include health care
Accelerating Opportunity: the Model
• Two or more pathways/state, with demonstrated local demand
• Accelerated learning, including contextualized and hybrid approaches
• Comprehensive academic and student supports• Stackable and credit-bearing credentials (min. 12
credits), college readiness, bypass dev education• Partnership with WIBs and employers• State and institution-level policy changes
The Road Ahead: Opportunities Under ACA?
• Expanding frontline workers’ roles in care team – enabling professionals to work at the top of their license
• Improving performance to increase patient satisfaction, reduce infection and errors, prevent readmission
• Preparing for new roles in coordination of care, patient education, health IT
The Road Ahead: An Emerging Role?
• AtlantiCare Special Care Center: making “health coaches” integral to improving care and lowering costs
• Career ladder step for Medical Assts/LPNs• Coaching patients in prevention and managing
chronic disease• Knitting together acute care, rehab, MD office,
pharm; support coordination at discharge
The Road Ahead: Making the Case
• Build evidence that workforce development “works” to achieve health care goals
• Make the business case with performance improvements and new staffing models
• Enlist employers as advocates• Organize for policy and systems change in
support of frontline worker development
OTHER RESOURCES
J2C Resources
• Work-Based Learning Toolkit– http://toolkit.jobs2careers.org
• Subsector reports (LTC, Hospitals, CHCs)
• Practice Briefs– “A Primer for Work-Based
Learning”– “Supervisors Stepping Up”– “Creating Career Pathways for
Frontline Health Care Workers”– “Jobs to Careers in Community-
Based Care”
• Evaluation reports and articles• Research reports
CareerSTAT: A Guide to Making the Case for Investingin the Frontline Hospital Workforce
The Virtual Career Network (VCN) is a publicly accessible, Web-based health care career platform that includes assessment, learning, and career management tools. Its primary purpose is to help its users explore health care careers, and enter into educational programs leading to the credentials they need to begin or advance in health care careers.
The American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and its many education, healthcare and workforce development partners developed VCN through a grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.
Introduction to the VCN
What Makes the VCN Unique?
The inclusion of two vital functions that do not currently exist within a single website:
A Learning Exchange (LE) through which a user can find, compare, enroll in, and take remedial and technical skills development courses online that provide a pathway into health care careers; and A Career Management Account (CMA) where the user can store testing, assessment, counseling, course completion, and other credentialing data to document and present to third parties such as counselors and employers. These tools will enable users to manage their own learning and career pathways.
QUESTIONS?
Randall [email protected]
TEL 617.728.4446 FAX 617.728.4857 [email protected]
88 Broad Street, 8th Floor, Boston, MA 02110
2000 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Suite 5300, Washington, DC 20006
WWW.JFF.ORG
