This Spring IHA is rolling out the second year of the IHA Mother Cabrini Scholarship program, the third year of the IHA Acute Care training program and is training over 10,000 long-term care workers through the Caring Gene® Academy program.
IHA Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Scholarship
The IHA Mother Cabrini Health Foundation Scholarship program began in 2022, providing $264,000 to 28 IHA members to support continued employee education. This year IHA is distributing $249,000 to 28 members to support education in one of the following areas; RN, LPN, respiratory therapist, medical technician, and surgical technician.
Last year, the funding benefitted over 140 IHA member employees and assisted them in continuing their path to a better future. A quote from one IHA member employee on what the scholarship meant to them:
“With sincere gratitude, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. As a mom of two little girls and having a full-time job in the ER, this scholarship means the world to me. It was difficult to imagine where I could come up with the means to purchase the necessary equipment and supplies to further my career as an LPN. This scholarship supplied those means. As all of you know being organized is a key to success in everything and this scholarship has provided me with that key. The benefits of this scholarship are tremendous. I would like to thank everyone involved for helping me further my career in nursing.”
We are grateful to the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for allowing us to offer this important program to our members, and we thank our members for their participation to distribute the funds to their very deserving employees.
IHA Acute Care Online Training
The IHA Acute Care Training program is going into its third and final year of operation. We have approximately 100 courses offered via the HealthStream online learning platform, with topics that support continued education in professional development, communication, healthcare 101, and health, equity and belonging. The courses are free to access and IHA staff offers program support.
Last year the Acute Care Training program also offered a series of 6 webinars focusing on high level strategy for recruitment and retention. These webinars were recorded and are available to watch on our website, ihawio.org.
We solicited feedback from a committee of HR professionals to inform our next educational offering. Out of this session we gathered that the need for improved mental health and well-being is critical within our hospitals. This year, in partnership with Advocates for Human Potential (AHP), we will offer a comprehensive tool-kit focused on improving employee mental health and well-being which will be rolled out in the fall.
Caring Gene® Academy
Many organizations have been forced to shift their training and development programs to an all virtual setting in the wake of COVID-19. The IHA WIO program has supported many organizations in making this necessary shift. With the WIO program officially ended in March 2022, IHA partnered with HealthStream to create a new program for long term care providers called Caring Gene® Academy. This innovative Learning Management solution brought to you by IHA and HealthStream aims to provide training and development for long-term care employees in New York State and nationwide, while also helping organizations continue a shift towards a virtual learning strategy.
Since the Caring Gene® Academy went live on December 1, 2022 the program has grown to
IHA’s Caring Gene® Academy is available to long-term care organizations and provides online training to all of their employees and helps shift to a virtual learning strategy. Through our partnership with HealthStream, IHA is able to provide HealthStream’s Learning Management System as well as custom, curated content bundles that you can begin taking advantage of today at a low cost for your organization.
Benefits Include:
- Discounted pricing from HealthStream
- Access to Caring Gene® Recruitment website to post open positions on job board
- LMS platform that incorporates authoring abilities to create your own custom content
- Value Based Payment (VBP) program assessments and course tracks for RN, CNA, HHA and PCA
- Clinical CE library with over 2,400 titles to support organizational goals and promote clinical excellence
- Dashboards that empower managers to optimize employee engagement and reduce turnover
- Networking community to support the advancement of your learning strategy with a self-service administrator training center
- Automatic tracking of state and federal training regulations for HHAs, nursing assistants, PCAs and hospice aides to ensure compliance and increase productivity
To learn more about joining this innovative learning strategy please visit the IHA WIO website Caring Gene® Academy page HERE. Or, contact Andrew Nault at anault@iroquois.org.