Formerly the Regional Health Occupations Resource Center (RHORC), the California Community College Economic and Workforce Development program has changed its name to more closely reflect its mission and objectives in serving both community college allied health programs and the health care workforce.

The mission of the Health Workforce Initiative is to promote the advancement of California's health care workforce through quality education and services.

Five major activities will comprise the work of the Health Workforce Initiative:

Linda Zorn - Initiative Director - zornli@butte.edu

Trudy Old - Butte College - oldtr@butte.edu

Christina Oborn - Mission College - christina_oborn@wvm.edu

Patricia Duffy - Santa Barbara City College - PMDuffy@sbcc.edu

Mary O'Connor - Golden West College - moconnor@gwc.cccd.edu

Ann Durham - Grossmont College - ann.durham@gcccd.edu

For more information about the Health Workforce Initiative, go to http://ca-hwi.org/

Two programs that have included successful business partnerships and have had an impact on the healthcare workforce for Southern CA are short-term training for incumbent nurses in specialty areas and preceptor preparation programs. The Health Workforce Initiative (HWI) at Golden West College (GWC) has assisted 16 local hospitals in training new registered nurses and incumbent nurses to work in the specialty areas of critical care and telemetry. The HWI offers the didactic/classroom portion of the training, while the participating hospitals pay their employees to attend and provide a paid clinical internship at their own facilities. Simulation experiences have been included in the program over for the last two years. The simulation experiences provide the opportunity for students to practice the concepts learned in the didactic portion in a safe and supportive environment. The HWI program is the only specialty nurse program which provides this opportunity. The participating hospitals depend on the HWI Specialty programs and would not be able to hire new grad nurses into critical care or telemetry without these preparatory courses. Over the last two years, HWI has prepared 112 critical care and 68 telemetry specialty nurses in the greater Orange County area.

The HWI also provides the Preceptor Instructor "train-the-trainer" course which is a two-day highly interactive workshop to educate faculty, clinical educators and senior preceptors from nursing and allied health. The participants then go back to their own schools and facilities and implement programs and specific strategies which better prepare their own faculty and staff to provide clinical training for new hires and students. Preceptors must be well versed in their roles of role model, educator, facilitator and evaluator. Well-prepared preceptors who provide the one-on-one initial clinical training are crucial to the development and success of students and new employees and also assist in retention and job satisfaction. The HWI-GWC continues to supply the learning materials to hospitals that implement these programs. In the past two years, the HWI has prepared 145 educators or senior preceptors from 28 clinical facilities and 8 colleges in Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. The curriculum which is available on CD has been widely distributed throughout the state.

A three-way collaboration between Enloe Medical Center, the Health Workforce Initiative, and the Northern Rural Training Employment Consortium (the local workforce investment board) created a unique blend of training for the North Far North region.

Enloe Medical Center defined the need for several areas of nurse specialty training. Staff from Enloe developed the programs in collaboration with the Butte College Health Workforce Initiative.

A Medical-Surgical Nursing Certification Review Course was offered twice regionally with a total of 138 RN participants from the North Far North Region. With the NoRTEC grant funds the class was offered for a nominal fee to the health care providers in the region. Other RN specialty courses offered through this program included:

Partnerships like this are critical in advancing the health care workforce in the state of California.

HWI, South Coast, would like to acknowledge and express appreciation for the following industry partners who provided support for the Center for Nursing Expansion - Governor's WIA grant, 2005-2010 (Phase I):

The support of these partners made it possible for the 5-college partnership of Allan Hancock College, Cuesta College, Moorpark College, Santa Barbara City College, and Ventura College, to not only qualify for and receive this grant in the first place, but also to successfully meet its goals - the most significant goal being the enrollment of 196 additional A.D.N. students!

Phase II of the Center for Nursing Expansion - Governor's WIA grant (2010-2014) is currently in progress and experiencing the same success through the partnership of the same colleges and the same industry partners (coordinated and directed by HWI, South Coast). Together, we make extraordinary things happen!

According to Kaiser Permanente, an estimated 20 percent of the Northern California KP workforce was not comfortable using computers. With the shift to more use of computers at work as a standard in the health care workplace, KP was interested in offering computer training to its employees.

Working with Kaiser Permanente's Office of Labor Management Partnership in Oakland, California, the Bay Area Health Workforce Initiative (HWI) at Mission College in Santa Clara, CA, taught basic computer skills to KP employees beginning in the fall 2009. This initial effort was so successful that additional courses in Word and Excel were scheduled. Approximately 160 South Bay Kaiser employees enrolled in the program. The classes were voluntary, usually with 20 students and were held in the evenings or on Saturdays, either at the KP medical center in Santa Clara or on the college campus. Students who signed up for the classes came from many departments across the organization including support services, nursing, and management. The project was funded by a grant from the California Community College Chancellor's Office.

The San Diego/Imperial Region HWI, formerly RHORC, has a long and successful history of collaborating with Kaiser Permanente. HWI is incredibly appreciative of the dedicated support of this outstanding partner. Some of the highlights of this long-standing relationship include:

We extend our sincere gratitude to our very valuable community partner, Kaiser Permanente.

Health care facilities are some of the largest contributors to pollution in the areas of waste, energy, toxics, and water. Due to the vast number of facilities and cumulative impacts their environmental footprint is large.

The audience attending the Greening of Hospitals Workshop was fascinated to learn about the cost saving solutions for creating a healthy environment that were presented by guest speakers Wendi Shafir, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pollution Prevention Coordinator and Jack McGurk, President of Systems Improvement Initiators, Inc. The workshop was sponsored by the Health Workforce Initiative and Cottage Health System and held at Santa Barbara City College.

Sponsoring this workshop generated the opportunity to explore what local health care facilities were doing to green their hospitals. All in attendance were quite surprised by the innovative programs they had instituted and invited them to speak at the workshop.

Dennis Daniel, Director of Plant Operations for Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, CA discussed his idea that the landfill located near the hospital may be able to generate energy for the hospital. He not only had the idea but made it a reality. The methane gas from the landfill is piped a couple of miles to Marian Hospital's Co-gen plant and converted to electrical energy . Today this method powers approximately 95% of the hospital's electrical needs and saves them about $150,000-$200,000 dollars a year in energy costs.

Jo Vargas from Cottage Health System explained their Healthy Food Program, where the hospital nutrition program uses fresh produce from local farmers and also has a farmers market at the hospital during the week. This program idea was originated by an employee Ruben Cosio, Director of Hospitality Services.

Both these hospitals have other innovative green programs and a commitment to making their facilities a healthy environment for their patients and staff. For more information on Cottage Health System's other green programs go to http://www.cottagehealthsystem.org/tabid/1530/Default.aspx.

It makes sense for the people who dedicate their lives providing health care to patients to want to provide a healthy environment for their patients, themselves and the community.

The PowerPoint presentations from Wendi Shafir and Jack McGurk can be found on the HWI website under Presentations. If you would like more information on setting up a Greening of Hospitals Workshop, contact Patricia Duffy - Pmduffy@sbcc.edu or (805) 892-3673.

The success in addressing the nursing shortage in California over the past 5 years has led to the unintended consequence of new RN grads facing difficulty securing their first jobs due to the economic downturn. Across the state, industry and education partners are looking at best practices to ensure that new grads are able to secure employment in a timely manner. Following are some innovative strategies which have proven successful in San Diego County.

Maryann Cone, MS, RN, NEA-BC, the Chief Operating Officer at Sharp Grossmont in La Mesa, CA, reports success with two specific strategies:

Ellen McKissick, MS, RN, Academic Liaison at Palomar Pomerado Health [PPH] in Escondido, CA, shared information about a new graduate residency program piloted by PPH in partnership with California State University San Marcos [CSUSM]:

Darlene A. Stevens, PhD, RN, Chief Nurse Executive & S. Marlene Ruiz, RN, BSN, MA, Director of Education and Consulting Services, Kaiser Permanente San Diego [KPSD] report the following 2010 New Graduate Support and 2011 Projections:

On Course Workshops - Professional Development for Promoting Student Success

Additional information, workshop flyers and registration form is available on the HWI website.

15th Annual Health Occupations Educator Institute, April 18-20, Doubletree Hotel, Ontario, CA
Course fee - $50 for the entire 2-1/2 days.
The focus will be Creative Teaching Strategies, Technology in the classroom, and the Student-focused classroom to improve student success.

For more information contact Mary O'Connor - moconnor@gwc.cccd.edu
or visit the HWI website.

A new service has just been added to the HWI website - curriculum downloads! Check out the website at http://ca-hwi.org/, click on product ordering.