Creating a partnership: April 2019
The need:
Littleton Regional Healthcare (LRH) was looking to add five medical assistants to their team. They had been recruiting for six months and were unable to find applicants. Medical assistants play a critical role at the hospital and the positions often serve as an entry point to a career in healthcare. The hospital was also interested in a training and retention program, and a pathway that would open the doors for current employees who held positions in other departments that had an interest in becoming a medical assistant.
The role of ApprenticeshipNH:
LRH turned to the ApprenticeshipNH program for help, knowing that the program had been successful recruiting and training medical assistants in other regions in New Hampshire. The ApprenticeshipNH team tapped partner organizations such as NHWorks, scheduled and promoted information sessions, open houses and made sure the positions were listed at job and career fairs. Through these efforts, 36 people applied for the five positions. Five were interviewed and selected to become medical assistant apprentices at LRH. ApprenticeshipNH helped develop the standards required for instruction and training with LRH and White Mountains Community College. They built a class of individuals across the region that were training to become medical assistants at LRH, Weeks Medical Center and Androscoggin Valley Hospital.
Programs implemented:
Medical Assistants
A 12-week program with eight weeks of classroom instruction at White Mountains Community College and four weeks of hands-on clinical work. Upon completion of the 12-week program, apprentices need 3,600 hours of on the job training at LRH to complete the program.
Total cohorts:
Medical Assistants – One cohort of five. The cohort is in process.
“The ApprenticeshipNH team really went above and beyond what we could have done on our own to recruit apprentices. The candidates all had really diverse backgrounds and for most of them, starting a career in healthcare was something very fresh and new. The passion that they demonstrated was what really left us feeling excited; the candidates were coming to us for a totally different reason. Yes, they wanted to be medical assistants but the circumstances that brought them to us are completely different than what we normally see when interviewing. For the apprentices this isn’t just a job, it’s a career. I can’t tell you how thankful we are to know that our patients will be well-served because we have met our staffing needs” said Courtney Daniels, project coordinator at Littleton Regional Hospital.
The numbers:
Five apprentices completed the educational portion of the apprenticeship program and four apprentices are on track to complete their apprenticeship.
Funding provided:
Total cost for related instruction covered by a variety of workforce development programs is $21,800.
Of this total, two apprentices received $1,000 scholarships each ($2,000 total) from the ApprenticeshipNH grant to offset related instruction.
Three apprentices received training from the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act Program (WIOA) totaling $13,080.
Support services, including mileage reimbursements paid to the apprentices totaled an additional $11,155.
Since the ApprenticeshipNH team was successful in finding applicants, there were no extensive recruiting costs for Littleton Regional Healthcare.
ROI:
Filling five positions that had gone unfilled for a significant amount of time was a big win for Littleton Regional Hospital. New Hampshire’s North Country has significant workforce needs in healthcare and the model used by the ApprenticeshipNH program of “earn while you learn” enabled these individuals to be successfully recruited and enrolled in the training program while working.
Read more about the partnership from Courtney Daniels, a Physician Practices Operations & Project Coordinator for Littleton Regional Healthcare.
