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How SSM Health Is Supporting Their Workforce with Education · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - Well, hello, everyone. This is Erica Spicer Mason
• 0:02
  - with Becker's Healthcare. Thank you so much for
• 0:04
  - tuning in to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
• 0:07
  - Today, we're going to walk through how SSM
• 0:10
  - Health is supporting our workforce with education.
• 0:13
  - And joining me for this conversation is Amber
• 0:15
  - Wood, the vice president of clinical education and
• 0:18
  - clinical placements at SSM Health.
• 0:21
  - Amber, great to have you with us today.
• 0:23
  - Thanks so much for being here. Oh, good
• 0:25
  - morning. Thanks for having me. Well, we're really
• 0:27
  - happy to have you, and I'm excited to
• 0:28
  - learn a little bit more about what SSM
• 0:31
  - Health is doing on the education front, how
• 0:33
  - you're supporting the workforce.
• 0:34
  - So let's go ahead and start a little
• 0:36
  - bit high level and just learn about
• 0:39
  - kind of the landscape here at SSM.
• 0:42
  - When you started taking a closer look at
• 0:44
  - your education programs a few years ago, can
• 0:46
  - you share a little bit about the workforce
• 0:48
  - challenges that the health system was facing?
• 0:50
  - Yeah. So our challenges were very similar to
• 0:53
  - what a lot of other organizations
• 0:55
  - experienced or continue to experience, but persistent staffing
• 0:58
  - shortages,
• 0:59
  - especially in our front line and our clinical
• 1:02
  - roles,
• 1:03
  - high agency spend in a variety of areas,
• 1:06
  - high competition for talent in a lot of
• 1:08
  - clinical roles such as nursing,
• 1:11
  - our medical assistants,
• 1:12
  - surgical techs, pharmacy techs, and then recognition
• 1:16
  - that these shortages,
• 1:17
  - they can have a direct effect on patient
• 1:19
  - safety and quality.
• 1:21
  - And when you think about the impact to
• 1:23
  - the team members themselves
• 1:25
  - that are working in these,
• 1:27
  - areas,
• 1:28
  - their staff engagement can suffer and their wellness
• 1:30
  - as well. So certainly wanna minimize any contributions
• 1:34
  - to clinician burnout.
• 1:36
  - Yeah. I I appreciate how you kinda zoomed
• 1:39
  - out with the big picture there, Amber. You
• 1:41
  - know, just
• 1:42
  - how these shortages and gaps can ultimately affect
• 1:45
  - patient care and also the workforce's experience
• 1:48
  - as well.
• 1:50
  - So I'm curious at that time, did you
• 1:52
  - have an education program in place already?
• 1:55
  - And was there anything preventing team members from
• 1:57
  - using existing education benefits?
• 2:00
  - Yeah. So we did have, a couple of
• 2:02
  - things in place, you know, outside you know
• 2:04
  - when you think from a workforce development perspective.
• 2:07
  - We had a tuition reimbursement program in place,
• 2:10
  - but it was really only accessible
• 2:12
  - for those that were going back to school
• 2:14
  - to get a degree.
• 2:15
  - We also had some degree based cohorts
• 2:18
  - and we continue to have both of these
• 2:20
  - programs but
• 2:21
  - the nurses could go back to school to
• 2:23
  - get a bachelor's or a master's degree. We
• 2:25
  - also had some MBA and MHA
• 2:28
  - offerings
• 2:29
  - for staff to make things easier, but it
• 2:31
  - was really,
• 2:33
  - not a lot of options for a varied
• 2:35
  - audience
• 2:36
  - or team members that are in more entry
• 2:38
  - level positions.
• 2:39
  - It was a pretty homogeneous group that was
• 2:41
  - benefiting
• 2:42
  - from what was being used by,
• 2:45
  - what we currently were offering at that time.
• 2:48
  - Well, it's great you were able to assess
• 2:50
  - that, you know, while those benefits existed, they
• 2:52
  - may not have been having a broader reach.
• 2:55
  - As you mentioned, maybe certain entry level positions,
• 2:59
  - weren't able to be
• 3:01
  - weren't able to take advantage of of those
• 3:02
  - great benefits. So let's go ahead and talk
• 3:04
  - a little bit more about,
• 3:06
  - what things are looking like now.
• 3:08
  - I understand that you built hybrid clinical cohorts
• 3:11
  - for roles like medical assistance and pharmacy techs.
• 3:15
  - Can you walk us through what that model
• 3:16
  - looks like and why it's built the way
• 3:18
  - it is?
• 3:19
  - Yeah. So it's... It... This has been a
• 3:21
  - work in progress and continues to be a
• 3:23
  - work in progress. We're always learning
• 3:25
  - what working, what isn't working, and adjusting. But
• 3:28
  - in these hybrid clinical cohorts,
• 3:30
  - staff members complete
• 3:32
  - online didactic training outside of their normal work
• 3:36
  - hours.
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  - So these are unpaid hours and
• 3:40
  - not given time off work to do those,
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  - and
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  - so they do those in the evenings, on
• 3:45
  - weekends when they may not be scheduled.
• 3:47
  - SSM helps pays for the full course.
• 3:50
  - We pay for that tuition,
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  - and then they're typically guided by an instructor
• 3:55
  - who has some level of virtual face time
• 3:57
  - with them to keep them motivated, answer any
• 4:00
  - questions that they have, to guide them.
• 4:02
  - We have found that that virtual face to
• 4:04
  - face time helps keep them on track,
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  - and it's really important that was not an
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  - original part of the design, but but that
• 4:11
  - they really do need that regular weekly connection.
• 4:15
  - Once they complete the online coursework, then we
• 4:17
  - reduce their work hours
• 4:19
  - so they can do,
• 4:21
  - physical hours during work time.
• 4:23
  - So this program is a give and take
• 4:25
  - kind of a model where, you know, both
• 4:27
  - sides are contributing to it. We pay them
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  - for their clinical time, and they work in
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  - their regular role some of that time and
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  - then have time off for completion of those
• 4:38
  - clinical components that we pay them for. Once
• 4:40
  - they've completed those clinical hours and the program,
• 4:43
  - they're ready to move into the new role.
• 4:46
  - And so we're working on some program enhancements
• 4:49
  - where we can take a more structured approach
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  - to their placement in that new role. But
• 4:53
  - we built the programs this way for a
• 4:55
  - couple of reasons.
• 4:56
  - It allows working adults, which is our... This
• 4:59
  - is the audience that we're serving, to manage
• 5:01
  - their work and life commitments
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  - while they're upskilling to a role that they
• 5:06
  - can make more money,
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  - and then they can earn a degree that
• 5:10
  - might... Or a skill set. It's not always
• 5:12
  - a degree. Right? A skill set that progresses
• 5:14
  - them further and meeting their professional goals.
• 5:17
  - When... We have also found that when we
• 5:19
  - focus on our existing employees in these programs
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  - because we could
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  - make it available to external,
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  - people as well and hire them directly in,
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  - we see much better retention in the programs
• 5:31
  - when
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  - we work with our internal team members, focus
• 5:35
  - on them, and then replace
• 5:37
  - their entry level position with someone else from
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  - the outside. And so it's sort of a
• 5:42
  - continuous cycle as we we move people through
• 5:45
  - programming.
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  - But those that are our our own internal
• 5:48
  - employees, we get much better retention. They know
• 5:50
  - us. They've already chosen us. And so when
• 5:53
  - we bring people in who don't have that
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  - same level of of awareness, commitment,
• 5:59
  - to the organization,
• 6:01
  - We put them through a program, then they,
• 6:03
  - you know, as soon as they get that
• 6:05
  - certification,
• 6:07
  - they're much more likely to leave the organization
• 6:10
  - to the next highest bidder. So, that's been
• 6:12
  - an enhancement for us from from the beginning
• 6:15
  - of our workforce program development.
• 6:18
  - Yeah. That makes sense, Amber. And I just
• 6:20
  - wanna highlight something that you said earlier about
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  - how your organization has also
• 6:26
  - made a point of
• 6:27
  - ensuring that the education programs can work around,
• 6:30
  - you know, your current staff, their lifestyles. There's...
• 6:33
  - It doesn't sound like there's an expectation that
• 6:35
  - they're going to pile on all this education
• 6:36
  - and learning on top of their day to
• 6:38
  - day full time role,
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  - which I imagine would also really help with
• 6:42
  - engagement and retention in the program itself.
• 6:45
  - Yeah. It has to be possible. It has
• 6:47
  - to be doable for them to complete or
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  - people just won't wanna do it or or
• 6:51
  - they won't be successful doing. And when they
• 6:53
  - decide... They get in the middle of the
• 6:54
  - program and they're like, this is too much.
• 6:57
  - Absolutely.
• 6:58
  - Absolutely.
• 6:59
  - And it must be going well because I
• 7:00
  - understand that, since those two initial cohorts with
• 7:04
  - the medical assistant and pharmacy techs, SSM was
• 7:07
  - able to expand to two other roles, into
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  - imaging and lab roles,
• 7:12
  - and also added leadership development cohorts alongside clinical
• 7:15
  - training.
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  - So Yeah. What made you extend the model
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  - in those directions?
• 7:20
  - Yeah. Really, our workforce needs drove those decisions.
• 7:23
  - It's it's really an evolving landscape,
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  - because, you know, in '23,
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  - although I'm sure we had shortages
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  - in some of these additional
• 7:32
  - focus areas for us, they just were not
• 7:34
  - our highest
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  - need. And so we really had to pay
• 7:37
  - attention,
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  - to our most urgent needs. And now as
• 7:40
  - we've been able to get some of, you
• 7:42
  - know, those things into place and and better
• 7:44
  - under control,
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  - We've been able to shift our focus onto
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  - other workforce priorities that maybe are smaller,
• 7:51
  - don't have quite the volume, but are still
• 7:53
  - equally important.
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  - And from a leader development perspective, it was
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  - really... For the sake of the health of
• 8:00
  - the organization, we need to grow our leaders
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  - at every level from our frontline team,
• 8:05
  - leaders to,
• 8:07
  - executives. And,
• 8:08
  - our talent management team has launched two programs
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  - in the last
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  - eighteen months to twenty four months.
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  - One that was focusing on people who are
• 8:17
  - individual contributors
• 8:19
  - who wanna move into leadership, so an aspiring
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  - leader kind of a program, and then some...
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  - A program that was more focused on our
• 8:25
  - frontline managers.
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  - Those two programs have been wildly popular and
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  - competitive.
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  - We're getting ready to launch a program for
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  - 25
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  - high performing directors who may,
• 8:38
  - look as though they they could have the
• 8:40
  - possibility of moving into an executive role in
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  - the future.
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  - We get hundreds of applicants,
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  - for those, leader programs and and we have
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  - to turn people away.
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  - It's a commitment
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  - for them to do them because there is
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  - a lot of work involved
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  - and they do it on their own time,
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  - but they are engaged and,
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  - it's been very popular, those programs.
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  - Yeah. Amber, always a good sign when you
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  - have to turn people away from a program
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  - as hard as that is. Yeah. Right?
• 9:10
  - Yeah. Great to hear that level of interest.
• 9:12
  - And I know you already kind of teased
• 9:14
  - what's ahead,
• 9:15
  - for SSN Health workforce education strategy in years
• 9:19
  - ahead. But before we get there, I just
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  - wanna make sure we also touch on outcomes
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  - and impact because I'm sure so many listeners
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  - who are here with us today want to
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  - know, you know, what are the... Those results
• 9:29
  - that you've seen from these programs and how
• 9:31
  - are you measuring ROI as well?
• 9:33
  - Yeah. So we're looking at a variety of
• 9:35
  - things. Some of the key things we're looking
• 9:37
  - at is how many people are accessing
• 9:41
  - the education
• 9:42
  - because, again, this workforce
• 9:44
  - education portal, they can do degrees, they can
• 9:46
  - do short courses, upskilling,
• 9:49
  - those sorts of things and so we have
• 9:51
  - we're an organization of
• 9:53
  - about 40,000 employees. So we've had
• 9:56
  - about 10,000,
• 9:58
  - of our employees
• 9:59
  - create accounts in this workforce portal,
• 10:02
  - and then of those, about a third of
• 10:04
  - them have enrolled in the program,
• 10:07
  - since we've launched.
• 10:09
  - We are finding that 87%
• 10:11
  - of those
• 10:12
  - are individual contributors,
• 10:14
  - which is important for us because we had
• 10:16
  - offerings that were really geared towards, they were
• 10:19
  - being used by managers and above. So it's
• 10:21
  - important to us that the majority of these
• 10:23
  - users are not in manager roles, that they
• 10:27
  - really are individual contributors.
• 10:29
  - And then we've also in those workforce programs
• 10:32
  - and leadership development programming, we've seen, you know,
• 10:35
  - high 90s, 96%
• 10:37
  - retention rate in those programs. And then we
• 10:40
  - also see that those, participants, once they complete
• 10:44
  - the program, they have an 11 to, you
• 10:46
  - know, 14%
• 10:48
  - lower turnover than their peers who did not
• 10:51
  - participate in a program.
• 10:54
  - And then we've also measured the... We look
• 10:56
  - at how much,
• 10:57
  - student debt that our employees have been able
• 11:00
  - to avoid,
• 11:02
  - and every year that's been about since we
• 11:05
  - started this in '23 it's been about a
• 11:07
  - million dollars in '25 we saw that to
• 11:09
  - be about $1,400,000
• 11:11
  - in avoided student debt for our employees.
• 11:15
  - We also, from a qualitative... A more qualitative,
• 11:18
  - perspective,
• 11:20
  - we see indications
• 11:22
  - of the success of this program in our
• 11:24
  - employee engagement surveys.
• 11:26
  - When we look at overall organizational ratings
• 11:30
  - around professional development, those have improved.
• 11:33
  - I can specifically,
• 11:34
  - speak to carving out the nursing side of
• 11:37
  - our organization.
• 11:39
  - We see aspects
• 11:41
  - of this program
• 11:42
  - helping to drive
• 11:44
  - improvements in their engagement
• 11:46
  - around professional development.
• 11:48
  - Our engagement survey always lets us know what
• 11:50
  - are the top three things that are driving
• 11:53
  - engagement that are our successes
• 11:56
  - and contributing successfully.
• 11:58
  - And professional development last year was two of
• 12:01
  - those three things and we're we're working the
• 12:04
  - professional development angle from a couple of different
• 12:07
  - angles, but this workforce programming has definitely been
• 12:09
  - a contributing factor
• 12:11
  - to help drive that. I've been with this
• 12:13
  - organization for twelve years and professional development has
• 12:17
  - always been identified as an opportunity on the
• 12:20
  - surveys,
• 12:20
  - not a strength. So to see that shift,
• 12:24
  - it's definitely impactful and has been noticed for
• 12:26
  - our organization.
• 12:28
  - Well, appreciate you elaborating on some of those
• 12:30
  - outcomes, Amber. And, again, noticing that,
• 12:34
  - that through line of this focus on
• 12:36
  - staff experience when you're highlighting, you know, the
• 12:39
  - million dollars plus that's been saved in student
• 12:41
  - debt alone,
• 12:42
  - really just shows how you're you're thinking about
• 12:45
  - the workforce and the true experience behind the
• 12:47
  - programming too.
• 12:49
  - So with all this considered, I would love
• 12:51
  - to know what's ahead for SSM Health workforce
• 12:54
  - education strategy. Any other points we didn't cover?
• 12:57
  - Yeah. So, watching some additional clinical cohorts. So
• 13:00
  - we talked a little bit about lab, but
• 13:02
  - specifically in the phlebotomy
• 13:04
  - space, looking at case managers
• 13:06
  - and supporting them through their development.
• 13:09
  - Looking at long term care facilities,
• 13:12
  - we have some opportunities there and and how
• 13:14
  - can we support
• 13:16
  - their growth and development through this workforce
• 13:19
  - programming.
• 13:21
  - And then we I mentioned some expansions in
• 13:23
  - the leadership development space.
• 13:25
  - We are really just doubling down and strengthening
• 13:29
  - our long term talent pipelines across the system
• 13:31
  - making sure they're stable. We've done all this
• 13:33
  - work. We've got to make sure that they
• 13:35
  - remain stable.
• 13:36
  - And then,
• 13:38
  - one thing that,
• 13:40
  - we'd like to to zero in on a
• 13:42
  - little more intentionally
• 13:43
  - is how we package
• 13:45
  - this career pathing that we're really talking about
• 13:48
  - career pathing. How do we package it?
• 13:50
  - We have all of the elements,
• 13:52
  - but we can do more
• 13:54
  - to take a more
• 13:56
  - structured approach to making the pathways clearer
• 13:59
  - and easily... More easily considered
• 14:01
  - available for our team members. So we are
• 14:04
  - trying to figure out the best way to
• 14:06
  - do that.
• 14:07
  - Yeah. Well, so exciting to hear how you're
• 14:10
  - looking to expand this program even more.
• 14:14
  - I can hear the excitement too as you're
• 14:16
  - explaining all the possibilities for your workforce. So,
• 14:19
  - Amber, it's been great learning from you today.
• 14:21
  - Before we close, is there any advice that
• 14:23
  - you'd offer to leaders who are considering doing
• 14:25
  - something like this?
• 14:28
  - So a couple of things, you know, in
• 14:29
  - our current environment, everybody is feeling, you know,
• 14:32
  - the financial pressures and
• 14:34
  - it's very important that we align these things
• 14:37
  - to our business strategies
• 14:39
  - directly to the organizational KPIs and how they're
• 14:41
  - contributing
• 14:42
  - to improving those,
• 14:45
  - being attentive to organizational culture,
• 14:47
  - and really tie directly to the work's needs.
• 14:50
  - Sometimes we can get, you know, excited about
• 14:52
  - the next bright shiny thing, but if that
• 14:55
  - bright shiny thing isn't driving
• 14:57
  - strategy within the organization, then,
• 14:59
  - it's not going to last very long, and
• 15:01
  - you won't have resources to support it. Think
• 15:04
  - about designing programs for accessibility. I talked about
• 15:06
  - that
• 15:07
  - throughout
• 15:08
  - our time together. How do we make it
• 15:11
  - so that
• 15:12
  - our employees will want to take advantage of
• 15:15
  - them and that they can take advantage of
• 15:17
  - them? And so thinking about what we can
• 15:20
  - do
• 15:21
  - as much as possible within our control to
• 15:23
  - make these programs accessible for them
• 15:25
  - and
• 15:27
  - understand,
• 15:28
  - why they're not and and addressing those things
• 15:31
  - in your design.
• 15:32
  - And then measuring data
• 15:34
  - through, your successes through data and stories. The
• 15:38
  - data is critical.
• 15:39
  - I shared some today. You have to tell
• 15:41
  - that operational story so that you can have
• 15:44
  - that
• 15:45
  - committed resource allocation,
• 15:47
  - but also the personal stories, they can be
• 15:49
  - so compelling in this kind of work,
• 15:52
  - and it's important to tell those along the
• 15:54
  - data as well.
• 15:56
  - Yeah. Love that note about storytelling too. There's
• 15:58
  - a lot of power in that.
• 16:00
  - Amber, I wanna thank you again for for
• 16:02
  - sharing everything that you have today. I think
• 16:05
  - you've left our listeners with some actionable steps
• 16:07
  - they can take if they'd like to explore
• 16:09
  - education programs with their own systems.
• 16:11
  - So thank you again for the time and
• 16:12
  - the insight. It's been great having you. Alright.
• 16:15
  - Thanks, Erica. It was nice chatting with you
• 16:16
  - today.
• 16:17
  - And, of course, we'd also like to thank
• 16:18
  - our podcast sponsor today, InStride.
• 16:22
  - Listeners, be sure to tune in to more
• 16:23
  - podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by visiting our podcast
• 16:26
  - page at beccarshospitalreview.com.