Eisenhower Health, San Joaquin Valley College partner to address workforce shortages

The Coachella Valley, like the rest of the nation, has been impacted by a health care worker shortage prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new educational program could offer a new way to bring in and retain qualified staff.

Rancho Mirage-based hospital Eisenhower Health and San Joaquin Valley College have formed a partnership to provide a joint training vocational nursing program for Eisenhower employees. The program will be available in-person at SJVC's Rancho Mirage campus, located at 34-275 Monterey Ave.

Employees will be able to retain their full-time employment while attending the evening classes, which include nursing fundamentals, anatomy and physiology, explained Rieko Decker, campus director at SJVC Rancho Mirage. On the weekends, students will be busy completing clinical hours at Eisenhower Health or skilled nursing facilities.

The vocational program will take 23 months to complete. At that time, students will be eligible to take the National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses and move on to the next stage of their career.

"We're in our 45th year, this is what we do. We provide career training and very direct access to education for what the needs are in the community, and this was a big one that was coming from one of our premier employers in the valley," Decker said.

"It's definitely a great opportunity for those who have been trying to think about going into nursing but then they stop themselves because they're like, 'Wait, I can't take time off of work, I can't afford to be unemployed while I do something like this,'" she added.

Twenty students will be accepted in the program, which is set to begin on Oct. 17, and they will graduate on Oct. 4, 2024.

Yvonne Matetich, a clinical director for Eisenhower Health, said she approached college staff early in the pandemic to see if they would be interested in hosting an evening or weekend program for employees. It would serve as a way to help employees retain their work status with the hospital, help with their career goals and maintain proper staffing levels, she said.

The program is open to all employees, but those in the ambulatory division, such as medical assistants and front office staff members, would most likely be the ones most interested in obtaining a licensed vocational nurse degree, Matetich said. Eisenhower Health has a tuition reimbursement program available for employees.

A licensed vocational nurse has a different education compared to a registered nurse, so their scope of care is limited, said Ben Farber, vice president of Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer. While they're unable to provide assessments for patients, they can do "virtually anything that is required in the ambulatory setting," he said. These licensed professionals almost exclusively work in the hospital's ambulatory setting, and on the inpatient side, they're used in obstetrician and emergency departments in specific spaces.

Licensed vocational nurses are critical to outpatient services, added Christine Johnstone, vice president of the Ambulatory Division, because they can provide medications and "work more independently within the health care team in terms of following the direction of physicians and registered nurses." Johnstone said these professionals are often better able to coordinate care for patients because of their advanced training.

But like many health care fields throughout the pandemic, the hospital has struggled with the number of licensed vocational nurses available on staff. Johnstone said a "strain" has been felt among clinics with large patient loads and staffing shortages, and it "impacts the whole team."

The Coachella Valley, in general, struggles with health care shortages because of some "complicating factors," Farber said, such as the job market for spouses who work outside of the medical field. The omicron winter surge was also tough for Eisenhower Health because many staff members were getting sick and had to miss work, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alan Williamson told The Desert Sun in January.

Registered nurses at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs have held two rallies this year to bring attention to alleged understaffing and high turnover rates at health care facilities. Last month, nurses held a poster with 90 "Assignment Despite Objection" forms, which detail tasks that were assigned to them and that they completed even though they did not think they were safe to do. Most were related to staff-to-patient ratios, with many nurses alleging they had more patients under their care than what's outlined in California law.

Read more: Nurses allege unsafe working conditions at Desert Regional, share experiences during picket

Throughout the pandemic, Farber said Eisenhower Health was able to maintain staffing requirements and meet staff-to-patient ratios through agency nurses and employees working overtime.

With a growing citizen population in the Coachella Valley, and the hospital's goal of expanding services to patients, Johnstone said it's even more important to have educational programs available that can bring in more qualified workers to the area.

"These collaborations are critical to future workforce development and retention of staff who may have an opportunity to advance their careers and stay with the health system," Johnstone said. "It's very important to us to have these relationships with the schools in order to really build channels or pathways for new positions and advancement of services in the community."

"Now that we're working toward rebuilding that workforce, we can see the immediate benefits of bringing in additional LVNs as they become available, we just wish it were faster," she added.

Already there has been an "overwhelming" response to the program, Matetich said, though she did not have a number available for how many employees have expressed interest in pursuing it.

Eisenhower Health already has existing partnerships in place with SJVC and College of the Desert for medical students to complete their clinical rotations, officials said.

To learn more about programs offered through SJVC's Rancho Mirage campus, visit https://www.sjvc.edu/location/rancho-mirage.

Ema Sasic covers health in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at ema.sasic@desertsun.com or on Twitter @ema_sasic.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Eisenhower Health, San Joaquin Valley College partner to train nurses