A Novel Approach to Building Healthcare Career Pathways

Abstract

After observing the chronic difficulty health providers were experiencing in hiring staff — and the impact on quality care — Ombudsman Services of Contra Costa and Solano (since renamed as Empowered Aging) approached the John Muir Community Health Fund in Contra Costa (CHF) in 2018 for support in pursuing a novel solution to a building crisis. That first step ultimately led to the launch of an innovative public-private model for launching community residents into healthcare careers.

As a primary advocate for 13,000 residents of long-term care in two California counties, Empowered Aging leadership was fully aware of the challenges in hiring person-centered staff and were eager to find a solution, knowing it would need to be innovative and multi-pronged.

With CHF support, Empowered Aging engaged with La Piana Consulting, Opportunity Junction (a nonprofit workforce development organization), Mt. Diablo Adult Education (a public education organization), and a local Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) owner to create Healthcare Career Pathway (HCP ). The collaborators designed HCP as a joint endeavor with the multiple purpose of alleviating staffing shortages, increasing the quality of care, and elevating community residents who often lacked access to high-paying jobs with a solid career trajectory.

Over more than five years, including the Covid pandemic, which itself involved enormous pressures on staffing health facilities, the collaboration has helped 233 students graduate with a Certified Nursing Assistant degree, a third of whom have gone on to a Career Advancement Program and a quarter of those have enrolled in a Registered Nurse or Licensed Practical Nurse program. Demand has increased since the inception of this collaboration and participants are seeing a 40% increase in hourly salary rates as the demand for trained CNA’s and other health care professionals has only increased.