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Michelle Mitchell is “Over. The. Moon!” right now. This month, Ascension St. Vincent Hospital will graduate the first four students from its Modern Apprenticeship Program, which has put them on the path for a career in health care and provided the hospital with another tool to attract young talent.
“It’s hard to recruit people nowadays,” said Mitchell, Ascension’s national manager of talent and workforce development. “We had to do something different. We had to be more intentional.”
In the aftermath of COVID-19, competition for talent has never been fiercer—especially in the clinical space in hospitals, she said. At the same time, hospitals are dealing with provider burnout, staffing shortages, high turnover rates and retirements. That led to the creation of MAP.
Working in tandem with EmployIndy, MAP provides students with paid, hands-on opportunities to build their interpersonal and clinical skills through a customized entry-level career development program. Students take dual-credit courses in conjunction with Ivy Tech Community College and work toward a surgical technologist degree that enables them to graduate with nationally recognized credentials.
Apprentices start in their junior year of high school and can continue on to a college degree or jump directly into the workforce. Mitchell and St. Vincent developed a stacked apprenticeship track in which apprentices get their CNA certification by the end of year one of their three-year apprenticeship. They then have the option to continue to grow these skills, earning a sterile processing certification and, ultimately, a surgical technician certification.
MAP training starts even before the students set foot in the hospital. Students must put together a resume, apply to the program and go through a series of interviews with Mitchell and others. “We want them to get a real-life experience” of a job interview, she said.
When they do come to the hospital, they’re put on a rotation. Though the program is set up for them to be a surgical technologist, they have shifts with X-ray techs, EMTs and others to learn about the many careers in health care.
They graduate with an associate degree in surgical technology and are certified to work within the hospital’s surgery services, though they have the option of changing their mind and taking a different
career path.
MAP had four students in its first cohort and five in the most recent classes. So far, the retention rate is 100%.
Ultimately, Mitchell said, while MAP helps the hospital, it’s more than a recruiting tool.
“We do have our talent needs,” she said. “But on the flip side, we have our community-impact needs. So we want Ascension to be known for more than caring for patients. We want the community to see our care for the communities that we serve. We know it just takes one person to change the poverty trajectory for their families. And if we can impact one person who impacts one family, that can impact the community—especially those communities that our health care systems are serving.”•
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