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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Health Care

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

The quotes below are about this issue:
Respondents suggest curricular improvements such as more coursework on patient communication (including critical conversations before clinical and interwoven with clinical practice), gerontology, molecular, ICD-10 coding, professionalism, using simulations, and project management.

Employer Quote Sort descending Region
"Employer 1: If an institution of higher education were to weave into the curriculum verbal communication, crucial conversations, critical conversations—from a curriculum standpoint—would you see that happening early in one's academic pursuit? Or just prior to entering the workforce? Where would it be most beneficial? And again, when we talk about health care, we've got everything from the phlebotomy, which is maybe an eight-week course, versus your RNs and LPNs that are two-year programs, four-year programs, or more. So, I know that's a broad question, but generally speaking if there was a way to address that in the curriculum and actually make that part of the health care curriculum for health care providers and workers, where would you see that being the most beneficial in their academic setting? Where's it going to stick and have the most impact when they actually come into the workforce?

Employer 2: I think it would be helpful before their clinical experiences.

Employer 3: Before their clinical.

Employer 2: Because they're going to be communicating with people, with co-workers, and with other people out there, too. And that kind of setting, at that point, might be then a good place for them to practice some of those skills."
Southeast
"Employer 1: So, if you could add one class to the curriculum for an RN, an LPN, a lab tech, or somebody else...?

Employer 2: How to be an exceptional employee. And that's where you talk about what makes you either rank-and-file, middle-of-the-road, a good enough employee or what really makes you stand out—whether it's on your floor, in your unit, in your practice, or whatever it is. And it's the kind of things we're talking about, being adaptable, having a good work ethic, getting there early, and having your cup of coffee before you sit down at your desk. Not putting your coat down and then meandering off someplace else. How, in fact, to be the person that you would want caring for your mother if she were in that bed or in that exam room."
Northeast
"Employer 1: So, not just providing the training, but then going back—either during or after they're going through their clinical aspect—and bringing them back into the classroom and saying, 'Give me examples of how you are using it. What have you learned? What worked and what didn't?' That kind of thing.

Employer 2: Yeah. It should be comparable to the clinical training. Maybe you should be bringing that back as well. What are the experiences? I mean, there's the clinical specific and then there's everything else. And everything else shouldn't be treated any different."
Southeast
"Again, they're lacking experience. Sometimes it would be helpful if—you know, we do so much in the hospital environment with process improvement, and I don't know if there's a way to incorporate some of those tools? And new technologies in the laboratory—molecular is exploding, and they're not coming with a very strong molecular background. But it's such a changing science, I don't have the answer for how we would incorporate that..." Metro
"At our hospital, we have some training for a lot of our staff that's ongoing. It's called Crucial Conversations. There's also a part of it that's called Crucial Confrontations that we have literature about, but we haven't actually taught yet. But what I hear in terms of feedback from the staff is that it's been extremely helpful. Not only in the workforce, but in their personal lives as well. It's something that could be very helpful for schools, I would think just from the feedback that we've gotten and from how many people we've got going through that class. Lots and lots. So it seems like that might something that would be helpful and prepare them for the types of things that they will encounter in the workplace." Southeast
"Give them some skills in project management that can be applied to changes that are happening in our world. So, basic project management skills would help, and then some foundation type of leadership skills." Metro
"I would agree that the curriculum doesn't prepare the nurses for long-term care. And I think we, as long-term care providers, would be willing to be a resource to the colleges if they wanted some help in offering a course or at least getting more knowledge in that." Southeast
"I'd have more geriatric information and more geriatric training across the board. Because, even if we're not focusing on the last two or three years of life, across the board, you're going to have older, more chronic, more complicated cases when patients present." Northeast
"It's kind of like pilot training—you know, they put them on a simulator, and it's like, okay, let's see what happens when you fly the plane. 'Oh, this'll be easy. Oh, no—I crashed!' That kind of thing happens and we could we do that in health care, too. So, that we see that the actions that we take actually have life or death consequences, just like if you're flying a plane." Northeast
"Maybe the nursing students do that instead of just having the hands-on care. You maybe also need to add a nursing management piece where they actually have a semester or two to prepare them that, as a registered nurse, they will be a manager." Southeast
"The big rock-your-socks-off change is in medical coding and billing. That's going to happen when we go to ICD-10. And that's never thought of in the health care sector, but we have people at the clinic sites and other areas who have to understand this, so that it gets billed and coded correctly. It's going to be a big deal.

Question: Is that something that the training, whether it's MnSCU or somebody else, could be built into the curriculum?

Employer: They're starting to build it in. But my point is that things are going to happen fast, so it can't be a build-it-one-time model because, a year from now, you're going to have to build it again. It's a flexibility that adjusts to the ever-changing environment."
Metro
"To have emerging experiences or a course about gerontology." Southeast
"Two key areas I think would be helpful if we could teach them would be skills of quality or process improvement—things like having them understand how to understand metrics of where they are today, and where they want to go. Not only in lab from a process perspective, but even from understanding how you improve care and understand outcomes. I don't see a lot of understanding on how to set these kinds of measurements and metrics." Metro
"When folks present, they're going to present with more complicated and more serious issues, and probably more geriatric. So that kind of specialty information is helpful, whether it's a class along the way or even a special focus." Northeast
"You can be trained, but it's a question of whether you'll use it. I think you have to tie patient communication skills back toż—f you do that training just before they go to a clinical—that they should be circling back and getting feedback on that. Where did you use it? It's a good program, but if you never use it, it's nothing. So, that's where you have to make it practical." Southeast
"You could even have the professors be on their iPhones and texting, instead of talking to the kids at the beginning of the class, so they could model the behavior. 'Oh, sorry, maybe I shouldn't be so distracted when you deserve my full attention.'" Northeast
"You were talking about how you teach relational skills or any of those kinds of things. I've been thinking about that, too. I'm wondering whether this is a generational thing—where that's learned visually—through movies and stories and TV and all that kind of thing—and I'm wondering whether there could be episodic experiences? Whether, say, they watch an episode of Grey's Anatomy that happened to deal with somebody being on the iPod and not paying attention to the patient or something. I don't know if there really is that episode. But there are episodes out there that do explore the various issues. Or you could have a simulation where—a little Sim City episode—where you put somebody you really love in the hospital bed, and then the person who's taking care of them starts texting, and you actually watch the patient crash or die because the caregiver was doing something else. It's all in simulation, but..." Northeast