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BY nearly every measure, the nation's health care industry is experiencing serious shortages of professionals like nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and radiologists. According to Nurseweek magazine, U.S. hospitals will be running at a 20 percent average labor deficit by 2020.
While most hospitals are fighting the problem through aggressive recruitment of fresh nursing school grads and overseas talent, Louisville entrepreneur Lynn Fischer is looking to an untapped resource within the hospitals themselves: the service staff.
The way Fischer sees it, cafeteria workers, janitors, secretaries and assistants are already part of the hospital family. Through her education program, called School at Work, she aims to help hospitals train such employees for nursing and the allied health professions.
"Most hospitals do a great job of continuing education for people who are already college graduates and established in their professions," Fischer said. Though service staff may lack office experience, she said they make up 15 percent of the hospital workforce. "But they are stuck. They work hard and they're loyal."
Fischer's program is part of Catalyst Learning Company, which she founded in Louisville in 1992. It provides hospitals in 25 states with an eight-month course of study including videos, online learning and small group classes. Hospitals then assign course instructors and "coaches" who take the students through the material, which includes basic anatomy and a study of health care job opportunities, among other topics. They also offer help with resume writing, interviewing and computer skills.
Fischer developed the program with the help of the U.S. Department of Labor, which provided matching grants to hospitals to help get the...