Several hospitals and health systems across the U.S. have launched or expanded workforce partnerships in recent years to build stronger pipelines amid shortages.
Becker’s connected with six leaders to learn about their partnerships with academic organizations, how they knew it was the right partner — and the right time to partner.
Question: How did you know it was the right time to partner?
Children’s National Hospital
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., launched its first apprenticeship cohort in September with academic partner Trinity Washington University, also based in the city.
The seven-month patient care technician apprenticeship includes 10 paid apprentices who work 40 hours per week — 20 shadowing and 20 in the classroom — while earning their credentials. After completing the program, apprentices move into patient care technician roles and begin a pathway to become registered nurses, according to Chief People Officer Gina Cronin.
Children’s National’s leadership determined it was the right time to partner based on feedback from employees.
“We had the ability to do a workforce experience survey, and some of the things we heard loud and clear was they were looking for career development opportunities,” Ms. Cronin said. “We wanted to be able to respond, and showcase what we can provide to our own workforce.”
The launch comes as hospitals focus on recruiting top talent and retaining existing staff. Children’s National’s apprenticeship aims to attract local residents into healthcare roles offering family-sustaining careers, while also encouraging internal mobility and long-term retention.
“This is a unique opportunity where it is the ultimate win-win,” Ms. Cronin said. “How do we attract new caregivers into our workforce for these roles that have critical shortages but are also well-paying careers? How do we support entry into those roles from either our own workforce or the communities that we serve that require no skills, no degrees — and support them along the way?”
Nuvance Health
Danbury, Conn.-based Nuvance Health has partnered with Marist University in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., to support its workforce pipeline and development. The two organizations collaborate on a physician assistant program, which was recently expanded and allows students to complete their clinical placement time at Nuvance facilities.
On the nonclinical side, Nuvance and Marist have partnered for an emerging leaders program, now in its second class. The 15-week program addresses the fundamentals of management, including financial concepts, conflict resolution and performance management, according to Chief Human Resources Officer Katie Cullinan.
“If they decided that they wanted to go back and do an MBA, or other higher education related to that work, the classes they’ve taken through this program count as credits towards a future degree,” Ms. Cullinan said. “Out of our first class of 15, three team members have already been promoted into management roles.”
Nuvance leaders decided to expand its Marist partnership due to the limited pipeline of new healthcare professionals and a wave of retirements.
“The changes to the healthcare workforce over the past several years, and the associated staffing shortages have resulted in us needing to get creative about finding and retaining talent,” she said. “We had many academic partners approaching us about partnerships, so it was a perfect time to do that.”
Tidelands Health
Jeremy Stephens, chief human resources officer at Georgetown, S.C.-based Tidelands Health, said the system partnered with the Georgetown County School District and Horry-Georgetown Technical College in Conway, S.C., to build a workforce pipeline beginning in high school.
Through the program, high school juniors can take health science classes and dual-enroll at the technical college. Participants receive free tuition for their first two years of college and are guaranteed a role within the health system after graduation. The program is in its first year with 15 participants and aims to grow to 50 annually. Roles the pipeline aims to fill include registered nurses, clinical medical assistants and EKG technicians, Mr. Stephens said.
“It was something that we’ve been talking about for a while internally,” he said. “As we’re growing, and the nursing shortage is getting tighter, we knew we needed to do something.”
Tidelands Health initially partnered with the technical college by repurposing part of its footprint into a simulation center. The natural next step, Mr. Stephens said, was to begin workforce development efforts earlier in students’ education.
Sky Lakes Medical Center
Sky Lakes Medical Center in Klamath Falls, Ore., launched a career and technical education center for health occupations in partnership with its local school district and community college. The program gives students hands-on experience through “earn and learn” pathways.
As the largest employer in the county, the 176-bed hospital aimed to connect students to higher education and careers in healthcare. After securing a grant from the State Higher Education Commission to launch the health occupations program, the hospital introduced a health ambassador initiative, which allows students to work at one of its facilities, Chief Human Resources Officer Bryan Fix said.
“We started that two years ago because students were saying, ‘I want a healthcare career, but I don’t know where to go,'” Mr. Fix said. “We wanted to support them while they were still in focused career and tech ed programs in high school.”
Corewell Health
Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Corewell Health’s neurodiagnostic EEG apprenticeship, in partnership with Grand Rapids Community College, allows current employees to shift careers internally amid high demand for technicians in the area.
Around the time of the program’s development, Corewell saw several converging signals: higher patient volumes, expanded neuroscience capabilities and rising retirement and attrition. There were fewer than 30 formal training programs in the field — and none in Western Michigan, Brian Galdis, manager of neurodiagnostics, said.
“Our internal workforce data, coupled with the national shortages, showed that the vacancy rate for this highly specialized neurodiagnostic roles was not going to stabilize organically,” he said. “The apprenticeship allowed us to respond proactively rather than reactively, and stop asking the question of, ‘How are we going to hire technologists instead?’ and instead ask, ‘How could we grow from within?'”
Q: How did you know it was the right partner?
Children’s National selected Trinity Washington University for its commitment to the Washington, D.C., community.
“They also want to educate the next generation of healthcare workforce that’s local; a lot of the students at Trinity Washington University are local students,” Ms. Cronin said. “It seemed like the right academic partner for this program, people who are investing in educating those lifelong residents who want to stay in D.C.”
Nuvance Health approaches academic collaborations as long-term strategic partnerships.
“We want to make sure we have a small group of partnerships that are really about mutual benefit over an extended period of time,” Ms. Cullinan said. “Marist is a good example. As a healthcare institution, we’re looking for programs that have multiple degree programs within the health sciences space, because that’s going to maximize our relationship.”
It also allows Nuvance to tap into talent within its own communities.
“Drawing talent locally will allow us to continue to elevate our communities,” Ms. Cullinan said. “It’s going to also make sure we’re getting a diversity of talent, so it accomplishes both.”
Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo, N.Y., partnered with SUNY Erie, a local two-year community college in Williamsville, N.Y., enabled by a state initiative that funds tuition for two-year degrees for adults ages 25-55.
“We wanted to find an educational opportunity where that partner would be willing to think creatively with us and share our values and our purpose of giving back to the greater good,” Julie Kline, chief human resources officer, said. “We needed an organization that would say, ‘How can we look at competency-based education, as opposed to looking only at traditional two-year and four-year degrees, and how could we look at the workforce in a completely new light than what the traditional education models have been?'”
As part of the partnership, Erie County Medical Center has created cohorts of employees, with SUNY Erie rethinking traditional learning models and bringing instruction directly into the hospital rather than requiring participants to travel to campus. The program also focuses on removing barriers adult learners face, such as transportation and scheduling challenges.
“In turn, we support the clinical education,” Ms. Kline said. “It’s about knowing it’s the right partner, someone who can be creative with us, share those same values of supporting the community, and helping us overcome some of those barriers to create the opportunities for us.”
Leaders at Tidelands chose their partners because of their alignment with the hospital’s community-focused mission.
“Georgetown County, where our hospital is located, has an underserved population,” Mr. Stephens said. “The hospital is by far the largest employer. It’s really important to find folks that want to stay in the area and can grow. If we do this for five years, that’s 250 people who are working for us and getting a chance at free education, which they may not have had covered otherwise.”
Sky Lakes initially partnered with county high schools that already had career and technical education programs. Another priority was addressing community needs.
“We of course want to build a sustainable workforce over time, and we want to give students more life-changing opportunities — to end generational poverty and move forward with the educational resources available in our region,” Mr. Fix said. “Our goal as a not-for-profit, independent system is to uplift our community.”
Grand Rapids Community College stood out as a strong partner for Corewell Health because its mission aligned with the system’s goal of expanding equitable career pathways for the community while meeting industry needs.
“Second, they already had an existing infrastructure in allied health education, which meant they could administer existing curriculum from other community colleges right here in West Michigan almost immediately, without any compromises to quality or us creating new curriculums,” Mr. Galdis said. “Third, their team was just genuinely collaborative. They weren’t just offering classroom instruction, they were committed to creating a partnership and a seamless academic to clinical pipeline.”
