Strengthening the Allied Health Workforce Through Partnerships

Lessons from Sector Work in Rural North Carolina

Amy Glenn Vega, MBA, MHA, RHEd, FAHCEP

Executive Director

Southern NC Allied Health Regional Skills Partnership

Stone Soup

History2007: North Carolina’s Unemployment rate hit

an all-time high Traditional economy dominated by manufacturing and

textile industries Plants closing down, jobs going offshore

Allied Health identified as high-growth industry for jobs and stability

Approximately 250,000 new jobs anticipated in N.C. over the coming decade

Wei-Chi = Crisis

Danger + Opportunity

The Opportunity

The N.C. Department of Commerce distributed a RFP (request for proposals) for planning grants

Grants were for $50,000 to fund a 15-month initiative: Formation of Allied Health Regional Skills

Partnerships (AHRSPs) Formation of a sector initiative

Regional Skills Partnership: What It Is

A roundtable of of regional employers, educational institutions, economic and workforce development organizations To identify the specific allied health occupational

challenges And develop solutions to those challenges

Sustainable (institutionalized) over a long period of time to continually address the occupational needs of employers

Regional Skills Partnership:What It Is Not

A one-time exerciseA committee or task force that comes

together to write a grant, and dissolves when the life of the grant is over

A loose conversational group (all talk, no action)

What are Sector Initiatives?

Sector initiatives are: regionally based, industry-specific, employer-led

workforce development approaches.

What are Sector Initiatives?

They share four common elements that distinguish them from conventional approaches:

Target a specific industry (Allied Health) Focus is on providing worker training that meets employer

needs (connecting supply with demand) Benefit low-income individuals

– including the unemployed, non-traditional labor pools, and low-wage, incumbent workers

Promote systemic change: Figure out where the pipeline needs repair and FIX IT!

The JourneyGetting Started: A Look at Our Region7-county area in southeastern North Carolina –

sandwiched between 3 metro areas of the stateLargely rural All counties meet HRSA criteria for medically

underserved designationVery diverse region. Home of:

2 military installations – Ft. Bragg and Pope AFB Several American Indian tribes - home of Lumbee Indian

tribe (fighting for gov’t recognition) Pinehurst – affluent resort/retirement community Farms/Poultry houses/Smithfield Packing Plant

The JourneyFirst Steps Identification of Workforce Intermediary – Southern

Regional AHEC Identification of a Fiscal Agent – Lumber River

Workforce Development Board Invite partners to the table:

Hospitals Community Colleges and Universities Workforce Development Boards Economic Development Boards BRAC – Base Realignment and Closure

Naming the partnership

The JourneyFirst StepsInitial face-to-face meeting

Discussed purpose of partnership Made a list of others we needed to invite and

involve Orientation to sector strategy Re-learned the alphabet

Established a schedule of regular meetings

The JourneyEarly WorkDiscussed regional workforce needs in Allied Health

Reviewed data (North Carolina Allied Health Professions Vacancy Report 2007, other workforce data)

Interviews and survey of recruiters at hospitals – “What are your hardest jobs to fill? What’s keeping you up at night?”

Greatest job vacancies in our region were Physical Therapist (PT) and Physical Therapy Assistant (PTA) – combined, they are more than 50% of all tracked Allied Health vacancies

Consensus that this is where we would start

The JourneyEarly Work – Looking at the Pipeline

Fayetteville Technical Community College

Local Schools for Physical Therapists - NONE

Large # of Job vacancies make sense

Local School for Physical Therapy Assistants

NO PIPELINE

The Pipeline – can hold 18 students in each class

The Pipeline

narrows to 12

Large # of Job vacancies because supply is not meeting demand

The Drainpipe

claims 6

The JourneySetting Priorities, Planning for ActionPriority # 1: Fixing the existing pipeline for PTAs

Focus groups with PTA students – What are your challenges in completing this program? What do you need to succeed?

Interviews with PTA program faculty – Why do students drop out? What can be done to keep them in the program?

Priority #2: Create a new pipeline for PTs Contingency Plan: Strengthen existing pipeline for PTs

(Recruitment from outside of region)

The JourneyMixed ReactionsFaculty at Community College

“Whoa! We can barely get our students placed in clinical sites as it is now! If you try to improve retention, it’s going to cause an even bigger strain on our limited resources!”

Employers “We’re busting at the seams with students already. We can’t

place any more in clinicals.”

Clear supply and demand issues!

The JourneyMore issues…Sandhills Community College:

“We want to respond to the needs of our community and create a new PTA program.”

Fayetteville Technical Community College “We can barely place our own students in clinical training. If you

start your own PTA program, our two schools will be in competition for the limited clinical affiliation sites.”

“AND – we’ll be in competition for students. Our dropout rate is already one-third of our class. Those students who drop out can’t handle the academic rigor of the program, but they were the most qualified when we accepted them.”

Clear supply and demand issues!

The JourneyNo such thing as a simple fix!DON’T GIVE UPKEEP COMING TOGETHER AND TALKING

ABOUT ITNEVER SAY NEVER, NEVER SAY IT CAN’T BE

DONEWHERE THERE’S A WILL… THERE IS A WAY!

The JourneyCreative ThinkingFace to face meetings are KEY to solving

problems and changing the way things are doneBrainstorming:

At a partnership meeting, this idea comes up: Instead of SCC starting a new program, why not share the existing program at FTCC?

Here’s how it could workFTCC predictably loses 6 or 18 students in the first

year of training. Most of the 1st year classes are offered at SCC. SCC could admit a small cohort of 4-6 PTA program

candidates who complete their first year of training at SCC. Those who successfully complete the first year…

Will go to FTCC (one hour away) and finish their second year of training in the PTA program, filling the seats that were vacated in the first year.

Those students graduate and come back to their local community to find work.

Working out the kinks FTCC and SCC LOVE the idea! But… there’s still the issue of clinical sites. At the meetings, people are talking.

A recruiter says to a PTA program faculty member, “Hey, did you know that there’s a new rehabilitation center that just opened up in Pinehurst?”

PTA faculty – “No, I sure didn’t.” PTA faculty member follows up on the suggestion and a new

clinical site is identified. Partners say – don’t stop with just one new site. We need to

identify new sites in EVERY county. Volunteers form a workgroup and begin to inventory sites and follow up on new leads.

Working out the kinks More to consider… what else can we do to keep students

in the program and help them succeed? Issues reported by students

Difficult to give up employment while in school Hard to get through academic part of class without having real-

world application and observation Graduates report that having mentor who is currently working in

the profession is key to success

Employer solution: Create jobs for students “PT Aide” position is budgeted for and approved among

local employers

PT Aide position – Adding a rung to the Career Ladder – WIN-WIN-WIN

Benefits student Real-world observation of what goes on in physical therapy/rehab – helps them

better assimilate academic information and prepare for clinical experiences Co-workers become mentors Income! $11/hour Has a JOB and can get promoted when they graduate

Benefits community college Less demand on faculty when students are excelling - less of a need for

tutoring/remediation Students remain in program and don’t vacate seats

Benefits employer Employer can orient employee at $11/hour Employer saves hundreds to thousands on recruitment costs Employer has a prepared employee to promote to PTA upon graduation

And what about Priority #2? If we’re going to be supplying more PTA’s to the workforce,

we’re going to need more PT’s. We still need that pipeline and it’s just not here! Partners discover – there’s a parallel initiative in the region to

start up a DPT program at UNC-Pembroke. We invite UNC-P to the table and ask them how we can help. Partners write letters of support and participate in interviews, focus

groups, research, etc., for the program application Strings are pulled – it’s all about who you know! Alternate models are proposed – if we can’t get our own program, can

we share a program with another university in a consortium agreement?

And before you know it, we’re making stone soup…

The JourneyAchieving Milestones and Moving from Planning to Action Spring 2009 – SCC and FTCC sign a consortium

agreement to share PTA program. Fall 2009/Spring 2010 – SCC begins accepting applications

for first class of cohort students to be admitted to the PTA program in Fall 2010

Spring 2010 – The University of North Carolina University System approves an application for UNC-P to host a local DPT cohort of East Carolina University (2.5 hours away).

If successful, it will help bridge to UNC-P eventually getting their own program.

We’re having stone soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner…

The JourneyIt Doesn’t Stop with PT’s and PTA’s

N.C. Department of Commerce liked our plan and in July 2009, awarded us a $250,000 implementation grant to fund an additional two years of work.

We are currently assessing new disciplines/professions to target

We have grown the partnership into an AHEC-led non-profit organization Board of Directors 1.0 FTE Executive Director and 0.5 FTE Partnership Assistant Memorandum of Agreement Bylaws

Questions?

ResourcesBlair, Amy; Conway, Maureen; Dawson, Steven L., Dworak-Munoz, Linda. “Sector Strategies for Low Income Workers: Lessons from the Field,” © 2007 Aspen WSI,

available online at: http://www.aspenwsi.org/publications/07-014b.pdf

Conway, Maureen. “Sector Strategies in Brief,” © 2007 Aspen WSI, available online at: http://www.aspenwsi.org/publicationdetailsdb.asp?pid=37

Clymer, Carol; Conway, Maureen; Freely, Joshua; Maguire, Sheila. “Job Training That Works: Findings from the Sectoral Impact Employment Study,” © 2009

Public/Private Ventures InBrief, available online at: http://www.ppv.org/ppv/publications/assets/294_publication.pdf

Fraher, Erin; Gaul, Katie; Summer, Phillip; Rutledge, Stephen. “Allied Health Job Vacancy Tracking Report 2007,” © 2007 Cecil B. Sheps Center for Health

Services Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, available online at: http://www.shepscenter.unc.edu/hp/publications/AHvacancy_fall06.pdf

Contact information:Amy.Vega@sr-ahec.org

(910) 678-7209http://sncahrsp.southernregionalahec.org