← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
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- [00:00]
A
Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the Becker's Payer Issues podcast. Thrilled today to be joined by Dr. Brandy Hirshberger, who's the chief nursing officer and Vice President of academic affairs at UPMC. And Dan LaValley is the associate Vice President of Community engagement at UPMC Health Plan. Brandy, Dan, thank you both so much for taking the time to be with me on the podcast today.
- [00:22]
B
Thanks for having us.
- [00:24]
C
Yeah, thanks so much, Jacob.
- [00:25]
A
Yeah, yeah. And before we dive into everything we want to talk with you both about, can you each tell us a little bit more about yourselves, your background in healthcare and what it is that you both do today at upmc. Brandi, I'll come to you first.
- [00:38]
C
Sure. Good morning, everyone. I'm Dr. Brandi Hirshberger, Chief nursing officer and Vice president of Academic affairs. I've been a nurse for around 22 years, a chief nurse for around eight years, and I actually am a boomeranger. Grew up as a baby nurse at upmc. Left for a little bit to get some for profit experience and I came back because I do love UPMC and happy to be here with you today to talk about, you know, just our apprenticeships and everything that's going on good in upmc. So thanks for having me.
- [01:12]
A
Absolutely. How about you, Dan?
- [01:14]
B
It is wonderful to be with you, Brandy. Always. And Jacob, thanks. I'm Dan Lavallee. I've been at upmc just about 10 years now. You know, I'm a native Yinzer, as we call it here in Mr. Rogers neighborhood in Pittsburgh. You know, I lead our community engagement efforts at UPMC Health Plan. That includes, you know, work in our communities, workforce programming that we'll talk about today to help our Medicaid members in particularly, you know, get life changing careers. So it's wonderful to be here and can't wait to have the chat.
- [01:41]
A
Fantastic. Well, really glad to have you both sitting down with us. So we're here today to talk a little bit about workforce development initiatives at UPMC and really the success that the health system has seen in terms of assisting those, your Medicaid members with, with finding meaningful careers within the health system. So Dan, why don't you start us off. Talk about why you're so passionate about this work overall.
- [02:08]
B
Thanks. Thanks, Jacob. And you know, so our, our journey into, into our Pathways to Work program, as we call it, started about five years ago, right in the beginning of the pandemic. You know, we also had at that time, right before the incredibly challenging time, we had a wonderful partnership with our department of Human Services that had started something that they called a work supports program. So just like anytime you get a new Medicaid member as a payer, you know, they had asked us to help people find work. It wasn't a requirement, but it was just help people who wanted to find work when you were helping them find a primary care physician. And we thought that was just such a neat, you know, effort, and it. And it made us look, what can we do as a system at the same time, you know, we have hundreds of thousands of Medicaid members. Many are already working. We also are the largest nongovernmental employer, you know, as an integrated system here in Pennsylvania. So we had an opportunity with thousands of open jobs and so many people that were already in our family to make sure that we were providing, you know, opportunities for work. And then at that moment, you know, when the pandemic hit and one in three of our neighbors were filing jobless claims, it was time for us, you know, to step up and to show up in our communities and help people that had skills, you know, find careers with us that were going to help care for our communities. So that's how we started this Pathways to Work program. We're able to work with Brandy and so many other leaders on helping to place people in careers, in apprenticeship programs, other training programs. It's just been, you know, just a incredible joy to work with you, Brandy, and so many others to make this program work and can't wait to talk more about it.
- [03:38]
A
Yeah, no, it's amazing. I mean, you're really helping your members beyond just. Just benefits. What about you, Brandi?
- [03:44]
B
Why.
- [03:44]
A
Why'd you want to get involved in this kind of work?
- [03:48]
C
And it's a pleasure working with the whole team and Dan@UPMC. And part of my role is building pipelines and filling those vacant positions that are meaningful to provide patient care. And why not? Helping others seek meaningful, stable professions in healthcare and them having a dream. We're helping them to fulfill the dream. Especially we're gonna get into apprenticeships. But the apprenticeships help to provide on the job TR training while assisting them with their education, cost and expenses, and really just promoting what we have at upmc. Some of the times, people don't really know. Yes, they know about nursing, they know about being a physician. However, there is a multitude of careers that we're going to get into today that helps provide, you know, services from a healthcare arena and provide great patient care.
- [04:46]
A
Absolutely. And I'm glad you brought that up. Brandy, let's talk about what these apprenticeships look like on the ground? What's available to your members? What exactly is the health system offering?
- [04:56]
C
So some of the apprenticeships that we're offering at UPMC we just new and improved, we just got it approved is our LPN to RN or RNR Registered nurse resident apprenticeship. So we're very much in the infancy stages to launch here in the next few weeks. We also have a surgical technologist apprenticeship that we're working towards to get it launched this fall as well. Sometime in the August September room. And then in the works we have our imaging or diagnostic tech apprenticeship and those are the individuals that take X rays. So if you have a broken bone they're going to help. So we're working towards that to launch this far fall and then the pharmacy tech apprenticeship which they are instrumental in our pharmacies to really help prepare Medicare medications, get our meds to our patients and so forth. And Dan, I know you also have a few apprenticeships too.
- [05:56]
B
Well Brandy, that is incredible. I like hearing you. I can't wait for the fall. This is just going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood. I think Jacob too, one of the first kind of, first one that we had that we saw some success to see where you know, some of our other leaders could look and see what they could do was in facilities maintenance. And I think you know, as, as we all know when you think the world apprenticeship you think a lot of the, the trades and which is wonderful and they've laid the path for that. And I think we saw that we were, you know, having an aging workforce and facilities maintenance across our 40 plus hospitals and other locations. You know, our leaders took a chance build a program, you know that where people get some education here at one of our community colleges and other partners and then are able to work in our hospitals starting, starting young to make sure we're showing, you know, what the careers can be and getting into some of the schools. So that was kind of the gateway. We saw some of that work built some ability to make sure that we could replicate a model that we believe this could be the model for the country and how a health care system can build apprenticeships that also hire individuals with barriers to work or off Medicaid. So it's just a beautiful day.
- [06:58]
A
Absolutely. It's so exciting and it really spans the entire spectrum of what's available at the health system it sounds like. And congratulations on the nursing one this fall. That's very exciting. Dan, can you expand a little bit for us in terms of on the ground what these individuals are Seeing what they're receiving in terms of the benefits of participating in something like this.
- [07:18]
B
Yeah. So, you know, I think at the beginning of our, our journey it was a couple things. Like we at first want to make sure that people who have skills can get right into careers, if they can, but then if they desired, some pre employment training, we built a couple new programs there that were great, five, six week programs that people could get in and get into a, you know, a career, mostly entry level fields. I think what's beautiful about apprenticeships is that you're able to work, go to school at the same time and get other supportive services, which has been great. Helping people with transportation, with materials, books, whatever it might be. You know, I can't say enough about our department of labor and industry here in the Commonwealth and the governor's vision and Secretary Walker here around how they've looked at new sector apprenticeships to make it available to people like me and Brandi to try this and to try to build it, because the benefits, you know, are right there. And we've seen incredible retention rates, you know, with other employers and other, you know, sectors, and we're seeing that here. So I think that's kind of the piece, kind of the wraparound supports, you know, that, that last quite a bit longer than a three or four week program. So that's a big benefit. And also can't say enough about our workforce investment board partnerships and you know, how they're willing to take a chance with us to make something work.
- [08:26]
A
Absolutely. And it's, it's very, it's exciting to hear that this has been supported by, by the state as well. It would be incredible if this is a model that could be spread, like you said, to the, to the rest of the country and across other systems. Brandi, can you talk a little bit about what's the apprenticeship grant that UPMC most recently received and what's the amount here in dollars? What are we talking about?
- [08:50]
C
Sure. So, Jacob, first, we are honored and grateful to be the recipients of this grant. It is actually the supporting Pennsylvania's health care sector through apprenticeships and pre apprenticeships grant program. And we received $400,000 to support these apprenticeships. And it's the four apprenticeships I talked about and it will be instrumental. This will be providing funding that will support the apprentice and it will help with wages, books, tuition, uniforms, you name it. It helps this individual or these individuals in this apprenticeship program to, as I talked about, get the career of their dreams and specifically LPN to RN apprenticeship program and can I highlight we're the first in the state to get this apprenticeship. So then people in the state can duplicate this apprenticeship will be phenomenal to help LPNs get their RN and then come into our workforce, stay in Pennsylvania and get wage reimbursement, get help with tuition and so forth. And the other apprenticeships will as well. So this grant is instrumental and that's why it's important to have additional grants like this in the future to help apprentices and to help our workforce and grow them in the state of Pennsylvania.
- [10:16]
A
Absolutely. So it's not just providing them that career and education support, but also everything that comes along with it as well. The tuition, the books, all that good stuff. It's amazing, Dan, in terms of the work that you're doing, how do, how do people find out about this? How do they apply? How do they actually take advantage of something like this?
- [10:36]
B
Yeah, it's a great question, Jacob. You know, I think for us, you know, in our, our Pathways to Work model that we have, we will show up anywhere, anytime, whether it's a thousand people or one person that's interested in a career with us or, or elsewhere. So what we've tried to do is make sure that we have recruiters, we call them dream makers. They go out in the community with me and, and our team and, and others to just share about careers, to share that we have a place here to help navigate. We work with other workforce development partners, schools of course, but then training organizations, community based organizations, to make sure that they know if they have someone interested in a career that they can reach out. So we've had five years of building trust here to make sure that, you know, when people see as they know that we will help. It's not a guarantee of a job always, but it's a guarantee to have somebody there to help navigate. And we're going to use that model for these apprenticeship programs that Brandi was going in to make sure that we're working in our schools, working in our neighborhoods that have higher unemployment rates, you know, where people, you know, just desire to have a, you know, a potential life changing career. So I think it's all about first just showing up and making sure that we're showing up everywhere where people have an interesting careers, but then really communicating, you know, what this training programs look like, what an apprenticeship program looks like to make sure we have no wrong door to enter our Pathways to Work program, which we love.
- [11:50]
C
And Jacob and Dan, if I can add to not only will the apprentice be a UPMC employee, but they will be in school so that you will be a student and an employee because your receiving valuable training, learning from the best to be the best. And you will find the apprenticeship specifically as a career on upmccareers.com and it will be labeled as such. And you apply just like a regular employee would. And then you will be into the apprentice. And then with our either own UPMC schools or with our academic partners, you'll have to meet the requirements for application for a student. But it's a dual role so specifically towards some of our apprenticeships within the lpn to rn, the search tech, imaging and pharm tech.
- [12:42]
A
Perfect. Yeah, I appreciate that. Tag on there, Brandy, on exactly how someone would access this. One thing I do want to ask you both about because obviously, as you both know, this is a very quickly changing and evolving industry, healthcare overall. So how do these apprenticeships, how does this financial support that you're offering members, how does that adapt to meet the demands of, of a very quickly changing industry? Can you talk about that, Dan? I mean, how does this, how does this program stay flexible?
- [13:13]
B
Yeah, I'll start and then I know Brandy can, can rock through. I, I think, you know, for us it's all about making sure that we help people find the right fit. And that may not be the first time, you know, it's, it's. Maybe they get into a career as a, as a patient care tech. I want to become a nurse and you know, can go along that, that journey. So I think for us that's key. And then also making sure that, you know, that we are right there, you know, partnering with our public sector and the private sector here together. I think that's what's made this beautiful, is that we learned, you know, pretty quickly. Okay. An imaging career and that, that pathway, that education pipeline that Brandy can go into more is perfect for an apprenticeship, you know, and perfect to learn a bit on the job and get this done. Even if we just make sure that we, you know, get through the part of getting it registered and get it moving. So I see that as adapting. And I think the beautiful thing is, you know, once we continue to have bits of success and then that just brings more partners and passionate people on to, you know, make this work in other areas. I know. Brandi, what do you think?
- [14:09]
C
Yeah. And Jacob and Dan, those individuals that come in as an EVS employee that says I want to be a farm tech, we have the means and the pathway to get them there. And one of our brand new, hopefully proved apprenticeships for farm tech will help an individual be successful for wages and all the reimbursement and all the covering of expenses. These apprenticeship programs and workforce development pathways really help individuals who never thought it was possible to pursue their dream career. And it could be in nursing. And say, I get into nursing and this isn't for me, and then I flip to imaging and that's okay. But we have a multitude of directions that an individual can go providing the valuable skills and instructions and these apprenticeship programs. And the grant funding is the funding. It is so important to keep our pipelines to fill our vacant workforce positions while giving people the opportunity to pursue these valuable careers. And why not? Learning from the best to be the best. We give valuable instruction and provide them on the job training to pursue these careers.
- [15:24]
A
Wonderful. Well, before we go, I'd love to get any final thoughts, last tidbits of advice you want to offer all the other healthcare leaders listening in from all over the country. Brandi, why don't you start us off?
- [15:37]
C
I'm just gonna say, why would you not want apprenticeships in healthcare arena? You know, we need to be innovated. So this isn't the time to sit on the sidelines. Let's be innovated together. So you create an apprenticeship, I create an apprenticeship. And we're just going to duplicate it because we're going to feel the workforce, we're going to feel the pipeline need. And then getting exposure out to our middle and high school students are so important because we need to talk about the multitude of professions in our buildings today so that people will go towards those professions and have careers, have dream careers. That's what we're all about, is making dreams happen.
- [16:24]
A
And Dan, your closing thoughts for us.
- [16:25]
B
I, I love it, Brandy. It does make me think about our, our kind of third person who's not with us today. Our, our HR leader. He always says, we have every career but a firefighter here at upmc. And it's true. You know, and that's the beautiful thing. There's a fit for everybody, but that's up to us to continue to show up and communicate that. I would say, Jacob, one of the biggest things for us that's, that's helped us along the way is going to meet our workforce investment boards. You know, every county has one or a group of counties and just showing up and trying things, being a little bit vulnerable to try to, you know, figure out what, what might work and, you know, even if something doesn't work, just trying the next. And that's how we've gotten here. Just with common goals of trying to help our communities and help our, you know, impact that we want to make in, in those communities and just, you know, be with, you know, those that are, they're ready to make a life changing difference, you know, through a life changing career. So we, we love it. I would say that's the biggest thing, though, that's helped us along the way is our, our workforce boards and then of course, the labor and industry team. That's just been wonderful here in the Commonwealth and we know that's everywhere. We're happy to talk to anybody anytime who wants to talk about this journey.
- [17:26]
A
Fantastic. Well, you can really feel the passion you both have for this work and for the people you serve coming through the screen right now. So just really appreciate, Dan, Dr. Hershberger, for taking the time to sit down with us and for sharing about the impactful work going on under your leadership at upmc. We really appreciate it.
- [17:46]
C
Thank you. Our pleasure.
- [17:48]
A
And to our listeners. If you'd like to listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you can visit Beckershospitalreview.com.