Nursing News:
Kaiserıs Career Ladder enables health care workers to become RNs

Sharmaine Safholm was tired of feeling tired. As a nursing assistant, her days were spent giving sponge baths, changing dressings and obtaining lab samples from patients. Although she said she enjoys taking care of people, her job was physically taxing. And the fact that it also was low-paying was like pouring salt in an open wound.
It was time for a change.
But the 29-year-old Roseville resident had rent to pay and couldnıt afford to cut her hours so she could train for a new career. Kaiser Permanenteıs Career Ladder program makes it easier for area health care workers like Safholm to become nurses and gird the hospital against a shortage of nurses expected soon to reach crisis proportions. Since the program launched in 2001, more than 45 other health care professionals in Northern California have graduated from nursing school.
Kaiser employees who are members of the Service Employees International Union Local 250 are eligible for grants, forgivable loans and a day off with pay for entering nursing programs offered through community colleges. Many who enroll are hungry for new challenges and higher-paying jobs. Safholm is not shy about her main motivation for going back to school: more money. Certified nurses assistants earn $7 to $10 an hour. A licensed vocational nurse can make as much as $20 to $23 an hour and a registered nurse up to $40 an hour.
Jacinta Rose of Elk Grove said she can make ends meet doing administrative work for hospitals, but she wants more from life than scraping by. ³I want to be comfortable and do something I like,² she said. Kaiserıs career mobility program is giving her an extra day of study with pay, paid for $600 worth of books and a $150 uniform. And, at the end of school, a job will be waiting for her.
In response to a national shortage of nurses that is expected to reach critical mass over the next decade, Kaiser teamed with the Oakland-based Shirley Ware Education Center to offer the incentive training program. ³Itıs a win-win situation,² Sal Rosselli, Local 250 union president, said of the program. The union represents 85,000 health care workers in Northern California, one-quarter of whom work for Kaiser. ³Itıs just an extraordinary demonstration of how our union can work with the hospital industry to improve care for Californians and improve opportunities for skilled health care workers,² he said.
Californiaıs demand for registered nurses exceeds supply by about 10 percent, said Elizabeth Brashers, program manager for Kaiser. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services points to declining enrollments in nursing schools combined with an aging boomer population heading into retirement for the staggering shortfall. If current trends continue, the state will see a 21 percent shortage of nurses by 2010, and that figure will more than double by 2020.
The Shirley Ware Education Centerıs nursing advancement program started in 2001 with a variety of state and federal grants, including $28 million from Gov. Gray Davisı Nursing Workforce Initiative that allocates $100 million to schools and human services agencies over the next three years in an effort to add 5,000 more nurses by 2005. The funding allows Kaiser to offer qualified employees one day off with pay to attend nursing school. The hospital also offers a one-time $5,000 forgivable loan.
³Trying to keep income up is quite a problem for students,² Brashers said. ³The paid day off helps because they canıt work 40 hours. This way they can work 20 hours and still keep their benefits.² ³We want to be the employer of choice ‹ thatıs our number one reason for offering the program,² said Barbara Norrish, Kaiserıs director of clinical education for the greater Sacramento area. Safholm graduated with a degree in nursing from American River College in May and works as a nurse at Kaiserıs Roseville Medical Center. ³There are so many opportunities, itıs crazy,² she said. ³You can do anything you want to in nursing ‹ itıs so open.²
Reprinted with permission of The Sacramento Bee.