John Colborn, Executive Director of Apprenticeships for America: Raising the Visibility of Apprenticeships

“Anyone who feels like they want to go to college should be able to go, but having just one choice for every young person entering the labor market seems like a mistake,” says John Colborn, executive director of Apprenticeships for America. Opening a second pathway of apprenticeship would not only serve those for whom college is not a viable option, Colborn argues, but it would also help employers who need workers with hard skills that are often not acquired through degree programs. Colborn is particularly excited about an emerging third path that blends apprenticeships and degree programs that’s being used to grow the ranks of nurses, engineers and teachers. “What schools are doing is putting paraprofessionals already working in the school into a teaching role and at the same time enabling them to get the four-year credential that’s necessary to become a full -fledged teacher.” While Colborn hopes this “flex” of the apprenticeship model will boost the country’s low utilization of apprenticeships compared to other industrialized nations, significant growth won’t occur until there is much more federal funding, and different models of funding, than currently exist. Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan on this episode of WorkforceRx for an exploration of what those models can be, and the role that states and other actors can play to boost the visibility of a proven option for supplying the workforce the US economy needs.

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Stephen Handel, ECMC Foundation: Redesigning Higher Ed for A Changing Student Body

Boosting completion rates at higher education institutions in the US has been a hot topic for years, with particular concern given to the relatively low 43% rate for community colleges. We’re going to take a look at solutions to that problem today with Dr. Steve Handel, director of strategy for Post -Secondary Education Transformation at ECMC Foundation. “Part of the work we would like to do is figure out ways to improve that completion rate, particularly for students who we might not predict initially would have the wherewithal to complete a degree. How do we change the structures that were built for a different set of constituencies in a different age,” Handel tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan. Key steps include addressing obstacles for working adults and adult students with children and improving the transfer process between community colleges and a four-year institutions. A bigger lift might be changing financial incentives so that colleges focus more on completion than the number of students admitted. “Colleges and universities, like all organizations, are going to pivot to the ways that sustain their institutions,” he says. Tune in for an informative scan of other ideas including expanded use of online education, integrating work experiences into degree programs, addressing the high cost of education, and doing a better job of communicating just how essential post-secondary learning is to social and economic mobility.

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Jennifer Lundblad, President and CEO of Stratis Health: Co-Designing Healthcare Quality Improvement

Because Medicare is the largest payer for healthcare services in the U.S., there are continuous efforts throughout the country to control costs and improve quality in the program. We’re going to focus on one of those efforts today, and take a look at what’s involved in improving healthcare quality in general, with Jennifer Lundblad, president and CEO of Stratis Health, a Minnesota nonprofit that works with clinicians, organizations, and communities towards that end. “We, and our peers who do this work across the country, are sort of the boots on the ground quality improvers. We’re trusted because we’re local, we’ve had long -standing relationships, and we’re really valued for the change agent expertise we bring.” Creating peer-to-peer learning and action networks and offering various forms of technical assistance serve the goal of building the capacity of organizations to do ongoing quality improvement work on their own. In terms of what would strengthen the field, Lundblad believes greater use of implementation science could help spread best practices, and co-design could make quality programs more relevant and effective. “Co-design brings to the fore the voices and experiences of those who are traditionally not part of a quality improvement process. It’s an emerging approach that will allow us to design things in the right way from the start.” Join Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan for an encouraging exploration of the often invisible but critically important work of quality improvement in healthcare.

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Rick Brooks, Rhode Island’s Director of Healthcare Workforce Transformation: Creativity Born of Crisis

EP77 WorkforceRx Rick Brooks

“Because of the workforce shortages, there is more creativity and more willingness to be innovative, and I think we can make something out of this crisis,” says Rick Brooks, who has his hands full leading Rhode Island’s efforts to strengthen and grow the healthcare workforce. His optimism is based on new levels of engagement by key stakeholders to find solutions and the formation of some unlikely collaborations to bring them to life. “For example, there are partnerships happening between higher education programs that have traditionally viewed each other as competitors to develop agreements that grant credits for non-credit activities,” he tells Futuro Health CEO and WorkforceRx host Van Ton-Quinlivan. He also cites licensure boards being open to rethinking education requirements for nursing faculty and the recredentialing of foreign trained health professionals, and other signs of innovation. In this expansive conversation, Brooks, a veteran labor educator, advocate and leader, shares strategies and insights on a wide array of issues including loan repayment programs, expanding clinical placement opportunities and redesigning career ladders with more, and more achievable, rungs so that people can stay in the healthcare field. It’s an impressive menu of options that might just inspire some creative thinking of your own.

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Dr. Sarita Mohanty, President & CEO of The SCAN Foundation: Collaborative Solutions to Support Aging Well

EP76 WorkforceRx Podcast Dr Sarita Mohanty

The growing crisis in homelessness across the US has understandably garnered a lot of news coverage and attention from policymakers, and today’s WorkforceRx guest wants to make sure one key facet of the problem is not overlooked as solutions are discussed. “There’s a lot of over-representation of older people in the homelessness rates, and older Black Californians — and this is a staggering statistic — are five times more likely to become homeless than their white counterparts,” says Dr. Sarita Mohanty, president and CEO of The SCAN Foundation, whose work is centered in the nexus of age, poverty and equity. As one of the largest foundations in the US focused on improving the quality of health and life for older adults, The SCAN Foundation supports a wide variety of initiatives to address the complex factors preventing many Americans from aging well. On this episode, Dr. Mohanty shares some positive notes with Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan about statewide efforts in California that include expanded Medicaid access, moves to professionalize the home care workforce and the formation of Master Plans of Aging (MPA) at the state and local level. “There are some important areas of need that these MPA stakeholders are identifying and then they’re actually advocating at a policy level to get these addressed.” Stay tuned for many more examples of cross-sector collaborations that are accelerating solutions to this critically important problem affecting Americans of all ages.

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Paula Nickelson, Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services: The Long and Short Game of Addressing Workforce Shortages

EP75 WorkforceRx Podcast Paula Nickelson

State departments of health play a huge role in America’s healthcare system, with responsibility for public health, licensure, public policy, and much more, so the workforce challenges they face have broad implications. “It will probably be twenty years before we really begin to bend the curve because many of the workforce shortages we encounter require very long-term strategies to change,” says Paula Nickelson, Director of the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. Expanding slots for physician residencies and training opportunities for Certified Nursing Assistants are just two of the steps being pursued. Student loan reform, synching up higher ed with the needs of employers and better data management are also on her list but, as she tells Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan, Nickelson thinks these types of changes will not improve healthcare as much as a major shift toward prevention would. “We will never change our health indicators in a positive way, nor will we get out of the escalating spiral of acute care costs and long-term care costs, until we invest in public health and prevention.” This episode of WorkforceRx promises an insightful state-level perspective on workforce and health system challenges confronting the entire nation.

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