May, 2006

NHA Human Resources Forum: Legal Insight, Recruitment / Retention, and Benefits Diversity

Date:  June 1, 2006
Time:  8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Location: Embassy Suites, Lincoln NE

Human resource professionals are faced with many tasks, including hiring new employees, managing benefits, handling disputes, and much more. There are numerous policies and guidelines associated with each facet of human resources and personnel management. This seminar will offer a legal insight into your HR practices, including workers' compensation, fraud, and the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Other sessions will focus on recruitment and retention strategies, and the importance of offering a variety of employee benefit options. In addition to the educational programming, interacting with other HR leaders will provide new ideas and solutions for use in your own facility.

This program has been approved for 6.25 recertification credit hours toward PHR, SPHR and GPHR recertification through the Human Resource Certification Institute (HRCI). For more information about certification or recertification, please visit the HRCI homepage at www.hrci.org. 

Registration fee is $90 for NHA Members and $135 for Non-Members. Registration deadline is May 24, 2006.

Download the brochure in PDF format at: 
http://www.nhanet.org/pdf/events/2005/improvingqualityofhr.pdf or Click here to register. 

For More Information Contact:
Carly Runestad
Phone: (402) 458-4915
E-mail: crunestad@nhanet.org 

Promoting diversity in Nebraska's health care workforce

Click on picture to enlarge.

Lincoln, NE — According to a recent report, “Missing Persons: Minorities in the Health Professions,” Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians make up more than 25 percent of the U.S. population, but account for only 9 percent of the nations’ nurses, 6 percent of its physicians, and 5 percent of its dentists. Moreover, the report indicates that faculty numbers in health professional schools show similar disparities. Minorities comprise less than 10 percent of baccalaureate nursing faculties, 8.6 percent of dental school faculties, and only 4.2 percent of medical school faculties.

To generate awareness of health care careers and increase minority representation throughout Nebraska’s health care workforce, nine Nebraska health care organizations have launched a new diversity recruitment poster entitled, “The Changing Face of Health Care: Opportunities as Diverse as our People.” The poster features 12 health care professionals selected from more than 60 applicants from across the state – all representing different professions in diverse Nebraska health care settings – and all representing disparate racial and ethnic minority groups.

The poster application form asked individuals to describe what they found most rewarding about their profession, and why they selected health care as their career. Excerpts from the selected comments reveal a common thread — these health care professionals enjoy the challenge, technical skills, and personal caring that are put to work every day, and they aspire to make linguistically and culturally appropriate health care more accessible to all Nebraskans.

For some of the poster applicants, their own personal experiences in accessing health care and the challenges encountered throughout the system influenced their career decisions.

Travis Kimathi, a fourth year dental student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center noted, “Having experienced firsthand the inability to visit the dentist as a child, I hope to not only provide a much needed service, but also serve as a role model to children growing up in a deprived urban environment similar to that which I grew up in.”

Another poster participant, Alma Rosa Infante (Guia), a minority public health educator at the South Heartland District Health Department, expressed similar experiences in her essay. “My parents were migrant workers and they could speak very little English. Going to school meant learning the language quickly so that you could interpret for your parents and their friends – mostly at doctor’s visits. Our parents worked hard to get us here; we can return our gratitude as they grow respectfully old. Now we may be the ones whose face they see as a receptionist at a doctor’s office, as their nurse, and even as their doctor. We can make a big difference.”

According to Carly Runestad, health policy specialist at the Nebraska Hospital Association, “Nebraska must continue to support programs that significantly increase the number of minority health care professionals. It is imperative for Nebraska’s health professions to keep pace with the changing demographics of our state, and we believe that a more diverse health care workforce can improve the health disparities currently encountered by underrepresented populations.”

The poster also highlights one subtle, yet noteworthy theme: not all employees in the health care workforce must be doctors and nurses. In order to adequately function, health care settings require a variety of disparate occupations. Pamela Montgomery, affectionately referred to as “PICU Pam,” a unit secretary on the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Nebraska Medical Center commented: “Whether [patients’] stories are happy, sad, or a combination of both, they feel comfortable with me and my presence on the floor to share their stories. I am a confidant to them as I am the first person they see walking on to the unit and the last one they see as they leave the unit. I welcome the families, their guests and patient siblings with a smile.”

Perhaps most importantly, participants report great pleasure and lifelong fulfillment from working in the health care field.

Marina Girard, a Hispanic medical technologist and Spanish medical interpreter from Box Butte General Hospital stated: “Both of my jobs give me joy and a sense of pride because I feel appreciated, valuable, and helpful, especially in the minority health care world. ‘To the world you may be one person, but to one person, you may be the world’; some of my patients have made me feel that way and those are some of the reasons I take so much joy and pride out of my professions.”

The nine contributing organizations include: Nebraska Area Health Education Centers; Nebraska Center for Nursing; Nebraska Health and Human Services, Regulation and Licensure, The Office of Minority Health; Nebraska Health Care Association; Nebraska Hospital Association; Nebraska Medical Association; Nebraska Minority Public Health Association; Nebraska Pharmacists Association; and University of Nebraska Medical Center Rural Health Education Network.

Participants:

Kendra Shouldis
Pharmacy Technician
Chadron Community Hospital and Health Services

Travis Kimathi
Pediatric Dentistry
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Rodney Galvan
Registered Respiratory Therapist
Howard County Community Hospital / Saint Francis Medical Center

Grace Caneta Johnson, PT, MS, OCS
Orthopaedic Clinical Specialist
Assistant Professor, Physical Therapy Education
University of Nebraska Medical Center

Lufei Young
Registered Nurse
Beatrice Community Hospital and Health Center

Firouzan “Fred” Massoomi, Pharm.D.
Pharmacy Operations Coordinator
Nebraska Methodist Hospital

Marina Girard
Medical Technologist / Spanish Medical Interpreter
Box Butte General Hospital

Dr. Derrick Anderson
Family Practice Physician
Downtown Physicians Group

Pamela Montgomery
Unit Secretary, Pediatric Intensive Care
The Nebraska Medical Center

Annielyn Azor-Ocampo
Registered Nurse, Wound & Ostomy Specialty Nurse
Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital

Betty J. Castaneda
Nurses Aide
Regional West Medical Center

Alma Rosa Infante (Guia)
Minority Public Health Educator
South Heartland District Health Department

Nebraska Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award Winner Announced 

The Nebraska Psychological Association has awarded the first winner of the Nebraska Psychologically Healthy Workplace Award (PHWA) to Saint Francis Medical Center of Grand Island, Nebraska. Lee Elliott, Vice President for Human Resources and Fund Development for Saint Francis Medical Center, accepted the award for his organization at the psychological association’s Spring Conference on April 7, 2006 in Omaha, Nebraska. 

The PHWA has been awarded at the statewide level since 1999 and over 40 states currently participate under the direction of the American Psychological Association (APA). In March 2006, the APA honored six organizations with the first annual National Psychologically Healthy Workplace Awards in Washington, D.C. Ten additional awards were made to organizations for Best Practices in creating a psychologically healthy workplace. The application of Saint Francis Medical Center will be forwarded by the state association to APA for consideration for a national honor.

The PHWA assesses five areas of workplace programs designed to create a psychologically healthy workplace: employee involvement, health and safety, employee growth and development, work-life balance, and employee recognition. 

Saint Francis Medical Center applied in the Large Not-for-Profit employer category of the award. Mr. Elliott’s department, in cooperation with their Employee Assistance Program and psychologists Aileen Gruendel, Ph.D. and David Gruendel, Ph.D., began work to improve the organization’s workplace culture in 2000. In response to employee feedback regarding the role of stress impacting personal and work performance, the employer embarked on a multiple part program to include stress management training, management training, conflict management training, and use of the BarOn Emotional Quotient Inventory. 

Saint Francis was able to document a number of financial and statistical benefits of the program to include improved employee satisfaction, reduced turnover, reduced job vacancies, and over a 90 percent success rate in mediating workplace conflicts. Consistent with other employers who implement psychologically healthy workplace practices, Saint Francis also experienced a significant drop in their mental health insurance costs for employees over a four year period. 

Additional information about the national PHWA program can be found on the APA Web site www.phwa.org. Contact information regarding the Nebraska PHWA program can be found on the Nebraska Psychological Association Web site www.nebpsych.org. 

Nebraska Center for Nursing creates a model to predict nursing workforce shortage cycles and calls for creative ways to retain and build workforce 

LINCOLN, NE – Nurses will be in short supply as Nebraska’s population continues to age and more people access health care systems, according to a new study released today by the Nebraska Center for Nursing. “The Supply and Demand for Registered Nurses and Licensed Practical Nurses in Nebraska Report” studied workforce needs, demand and supply from 2006 through 2020. The study, prepared for the Center by David I. Rosenbaum, PhD., is the first comprehensive Nebraska-specific information on the future nursing workforce supply and demand. Results indicate smaller shortages in the next few years, but a widening gap in later years. 

See the full report for more details.


Does absence make the heart grow fonder?

If a recent survey is an accurate indicator of employee sick leave usage, it may be time to rethink your paid sick leave policies. According to the survey, nearly one-third of the polled workers admitted to calling in sick even though they felt fine. 

The survey found that 49% of those employees who fabricated an illness admitted doing so because they simply wanted a break from work, while another 22% did so to care for a sick family member. The age group most likely to “play hooky” includes workers in the 18-29 age bracket (43% of those workers who admitted to faking an illness fell into this age range).

In addition, the survey found a correlation between income and sick leave falsification. According to the report, almost 37% of sick leave abusers earn less than $20,000 per year. Finally, the survey found that almost twice as many women as men under the age of 40 falsely report an illness in order to care for a sick family member (i.e., 25% of women compared to 13% of men). 

If you suspect your workforce of similar abuses, maybe it’s time to rethink your sick leave benefits. An increasingly popular approach is implementation of a “paid time off” plan that consolidates all paid leave benefits (i.e., vacation, sick, personal, holiday, funeral, and so forth) into one “pot” that employees earn in direct relationship to the number of hours they work. Most companies experience a decline in unscheduled absences after implementing a PTO plan, largely because employees don’t want to “waste” their precious PTO days on an illness, genuine or otherwise.

In addition, if properly designed, the switch from traditional sick leave to a PTO plan should be cost neutral. However, under most state wage payment and collection laws, unused PTO is treated the same as earned wages that are due and payable at the time of termination. In other words, while sick leave typically is not considered a terminal benefit payable at time of termination, PTO is treated similar to earned, unused vacation.

If you want to get out of the “hooky” business, do a little research on PTO plans. They just may be your answer.

- Laborwatch; Berens & Tate, P.C., November 2005, Vol. 22, No. 11


NHA turnover & vacancy report

• This is a reminder to please submit your turnover and vacancy rate data for First Quarter 2006 at your earliest convenience. 
  
• The turnover and vacancy rate report can be found at: https://www.healthcaresalarysurvey.com/.  
  
• New Occupation Listing: Based on feedback from our users, the report has recently been updated to include LPN's as an additional option when tracking turnover and vacancy by occupation. The definition (as will be used in the NHA Turnover and Vacancy Report) for LPN will be as follows: “Under the direction and supervision of a registered nurse, performs selected and delegated nursing tasks in the care of patients and clients including the administration of select medications, performance of designated procedures, and other general nursing care. Requires state Licensed Practical Nurse licensure.” 
  
• Thank you for participating in the “NHA Turnover and Vacancy Rate Report.” If you have questions or comments about the turnover and vacancy rate program, or if you are unable to remember your username or password, please contact Carly Runestad at crunestad@nhanet.org or call (402) 458-4915.