Ahr
Tom Ahr has seen a dramatic shift in the last five years in his work in human resources: Health care providers now are becoming education providers.
"The hospitals and clinics need to be much more active in the space to ensure that their workforce is getting the education they need, because the jobs are changing, pretty quickly, pretty rapidly," said Ahr, who is the senior vice president and chief
human resources officer at Hospital Sisters Health System of Springfield, Illinois. "And so we need to play a bigger role than we did in the past."
HSHS recently announced a new up-front tuition program for employees called REACH, short for Resources and Education for the Advancement of Colleagues at HSHS. The system put REACH together in partnership with InStride, which describes itself as a "workforce
education solutions provider." InStride provides a platform that connects workers with educational programs.
Through its REACH program, HSHS will provide up to $4,000 toward tuition each year for its more than 11,000 employees in Illinois and Wisconsin.
Students attend a high school boot camp at HSHS St. Elizabeth's Hospital in O'Fallon, Illinois, in December. The boot camp is one way HSHS works to build its workforce as it tries to interest students in the health care field.
Workers can choose from more than 1,000 courses toward earning clinical certificates, associate's, bachelor's and graduate degrees, skills certificates and high school diplomas. The program is available to full-time and part-time employees from the first
day of employment.
Other Catholic health care systems and hospitals offer training and education programs in partnership with InStride, including Ascension, Intermountain Health, PeaceHealth, Saint Peter's Healthcare System, and SSM Health.
SSM Health announced its partnership in November with a new professional development program called FlexPath Funded. Eligible employees can get up to $5,250 per year in tuition toward online programs.
"While it's early, our initial results with FlexPath Funded have been overwhelmingly positive," Janet Smith-Hill, SSM Health's chief human resources officer, said in a statement. "Our team members say they appreciate the growth opportunities and the broad
variety of options without having to incur up-front, out-of-pocket costs. The flexibility and self-paced learning also appeal to our team. It's been an essential complement to the many professional development opportunities we offer at SSM Health."
Intermountain Health offers a program called Intermountain's Pathway to Education, Advancement and Knowledge, or PEAK, for caregivers in Colorado and Montana. The program has been administered by InStride since June 2023.
"This program is more than just a tuition benefit for the hundreds of caregivers taking advantage of this unique program; it is a way of empowering our caregivers to realize their full potential, enhance their skills and knowledge, and advance their careers
in health care," Marguerite Samms, chief learning officer of Intermountain Health, said in a statement.
The InStride partnerships complement existing tuition reimbursement policies at Intermountain Health, HSHS and SSM Health.
Familiarizing students with heath care careers at boot camp-type events is one way Hospital Sisters Health System is attracting future workers. Its tuition program helps current workers build on their skills.Ahr, of HSHS, said the partnership allows employees to see a clear path as to how they can grow and what is required to earn a certain certification or pursue a certain career path.
"How does it align with what we're trying to do as a mission, what might be different?" asked Ahr. "It's getting access to education providers that may not be local."
While HSHS already works with local institutions for education and training, InStride has the capacity to provide more training options for different jobs, such as phlebotomy technicians. That's one job category HSHS is challenged to fill, along with
pharmacy technicians, surgical technicians and medical assistants. While most of the learning accessed through InStride is online, HSHS is working on ways to provide clinical components in person.
HSHS is building some online classes that will include that system's employees in one virtual classroom, but other classes may include students from all over the world. Ahr says HSHS would like to build cohorts of specialty areas with other Catholic health
care systems who use InStride.
Ahr is hopeful that InStride will sharpen the focus of HSHS' training efforts and reduce turnover. "If we get more folks to stay because they feel that we've demonstrated that we value them and it lowers a lot of immediate costs for them, then we are
better as a whole in building a strong, engaged workforce," he said.
He said that people already are signing up for REACH. "It's really just a great opportunity to share that we're interested in the growth of our colleagues," he said. "We're more in the driver's seat now by saying we can provide this. Now, it's incumbent
upon us to deliver on that and make it a good experience."