Ascension hospitals receive grant for job training, retention program

 In News Article

Ascension hospitals in southeast Michigan will be part of a new partnership aimed at offering better support to health care workers.

The program, called Transformational Healthcare Readiness through Innovative Vocational Education (THRIVE), was conceived by Cleveland Clinic and will be piloted over the next three years at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, Catholic Health in New York and Ascension Michigan.

The program is supported by a cumulative investment of more than $20 million, including more than $15 million in grants from the Detroit-based Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.

“THRIVE is a great opportunity for the foundation to help facilitate and support an unprecedented partnership between three health systems working within three major cities and regions to better support, recognize and value caregivers,” said David O. Egner, president and CEO of Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. “The program sits at the intersection of two of our grant-making focus areas-caregivers and workforce development. And with caregiver recruitment and retention being a challenge that exists beyond the foundation’s two primary geographies of western New York and southeast Michigan, our hope is for THRIVE to serve as a sustainable model that can be implemented nationwide.”

The THRIVE program will include a 56-hour, seven-day program competency-based model made up of four days of initial training followed by three staggered “bring-back” days at the 30, 60 and 90 day benchmarks.

The program’s curriculum will focus on life skills including financial management, work-life balance, stress management, interpersonal interaction and more.

Maureen Chadwick, chief nursing officer of Ascension Michigan, said the program could benefit nurse’s aides, a position which typically has a high turnover rate.

“This program is giving nurse’s aides a much stronger foundation at work,” she said. “The important thing is we want to change people’s lives. How can we reduce nurse’s aide turnover? How can we give them a new path in their career?”

As part of the program, workforce coaches will work with associates at onboarding to determine those with the greatest need. The coaches will continue to work with those associates once they arrive on their unit to ensure a smooth transition to the workplace.

The program will begin June 10. As part of the grant, Ascension will construct a learning center at the corporate office in Warren for the program.

Ascension hospitals that will be included are Ascension St. John Hospital, Ascension Providence Hospital (Novi and Southfield,) Ascension River District Hospital, Ascension Macomb-Oakland Hospital (Madison Heights and Warren), and Ascension Providence Rochester.

The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation is a grant making foundation focused on improving the quality of life for people in western New York and southeast Michigan.

More information about the foundation is available at ralphcwilsonjrfoundation.org.

More information about Ascension Michigan is available at healthcare.ascension.org.

Read the original article here.

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