The Community, Connections & Commerce Podcast, presented by OUE & St. Clairsville Chamber - Community, Connections, & Commerce Episode 23 with WVU Medicine

Episode Date: March 14, 2025

Music Welcome to Community Connections and Commerce. I'm Drake Watson along with Wendy Anderson. Good morning Drake, how are you? I'm doing wonderful. We've got a slew of good guests today. Yes we do. We've got Matthew Fox, Jessica Huffman, Jennifer Riley, and Heather Merkel. Guys I really want to appreciate, I really want to thank you for coming on this morning and giving us your time and we're excited to talk to you guys. Yeah so today we're going to try to inform our listeners on what the Aspiring Nurse Program is and that it's being offered at WVU Medicine in conjunction with Ohio University Eastern. So I guess we should start with Jessica.

Sure. And tell us what is this program? So the Aspiring Nurse Program came about last year. We were looking at a way to support recruitment and retention of nurses for our hospitals and we first thought we might put together a scholarship. A lot of hospitals have nursing school scholarships. So we started by meeting with a lot of different nursing schools around West Virginia and the surrounding states that we serve. And what we heard when we started meeting with the schools was tuition was not really the biggest barrier, but the students were struggling with a lot of

life expenses that were serving as barriers for them either going to nursing school or being able to successfully complete it. So we started really digging into this more and exploring the idea of what if we took that money that we were going to give to students for a scholarship and let them use it for their life expenses. And we piloted at two of our hospitals in Parkersburg and Charleston, West Virginia with two selected partner schools to trial it out. We did a pilot, and it was wildly successful. At this point, we've grown and grown and grown,

and we've expanded the program. We're giving students $5,000 per semester. Most of our schools are semesters, some are still quarters, so we have twice a year, essentially, up to about $20,000 while they're in school and then another $5,000 payment to them once they complete and they're starting to be employed by us. The students are then giving us a three-year work commitment. They're doing a lot of their clinicals with us so they're getting in our

facilities early on in school. That was one great thing about Ohio University East is we are already partnering with them closely, but it's been a great way for us to strengthen these partnerships with our academic partners as well. What an interesting concept. Yes. Wow. It's like, would you say there's like an incentive

to keep these people in nursing programs and in the industry? Oh yeah. Yeah, and I know Heather can speak a little bit more about that because we have, we dedicated a lot of financial resources, but we've also dedicated a lot of human resources in this. And that's the whole thing. It's very human centered. We're not just trying to check the box that we're putting an intervention in. We want to make sure it's really effective.

And I think that that's why this program is so different. Wow, and it shows the students that you care. It's not only about financial, that you truly do care about them and their life. And we all know life happens. And we can't afford some things and some things we can. But you never know. So this, with with that money is really a cool idea. And in fact we actually recently surveyed some of our students just to find out a little more

Jennifer can probably speak to the selection process if you want to get into those details and I know that they're hearing a lot of really touching stories from students about their circumstances. But data-wise, we just surveyed a lot of our students and found out that over 60% of them, and this is across our programs, not just the Wheeling area, but in general, 60% of them said if they had some sort of emergency happen to them

where they needed $1,000, they would have to drop out of school. So this program giving them five thousand dollars per semester is really getting them over that hump and and hopefully getting them to a very prosperous rewarding career as a nurse. Wow, so can you imagine your beginning of your your school and how that makes you feel that somebody cares about you and it's not just checking the boxes. Wow, I wish all colleges kind of did that. That's really neat.

Heather, what's the general state of nursing employment in the Ohio Valley and region currently? You guys can, I mean, Jennifer or Heather, you guys can figure out who wants to answer that. I can answer that. Okay. So I am Jennifer, I'm the chief nurse for Wheeling and Reynolds Hospital and I have the privilege of serving with our nurses and really honing in on those relationships

with each school. And I can tell you that it's not a secret, right, that there's a national nursing shortage. The Valley is not immune to that by far, right? But what we have seen is that with through our partnerships and really through a lot of outreach and connection, right? Yeah, we really are seeing a lot of nursing students come back and I think Jessica or someone else can speak to You know

The system is even developing as a nursing school and how many people still want to be a nurse? And you know for like the 22nd year in a row, right from the Gallup poll We know that nursing is the most trusted profession people still want to be nurses And so I think that's why this program is so important to me because it does it Addresses that social determinative health where it's not that they don't want to be a nurse It's that it's a second career for a lot of people, right? In fact, like she said, we hear some really, really

touching, great, wonderful stories. It's that they can't afford it. They can't afford daycare to go. They can't afford breaks on their cars, right? And so this really helps with all of that. So financially, it's very, very beneficial to them. What we've seen is that our numbers are going up and Matt can talk about that probably better than me,

what he's seen for recruitment. But this program definitely is used as a recruitment tool, right? Yeah. So we are partners with OUE and throughout the system, there are other academic partners too, because we all need to be able to come to the hospital when we need it and have somebody take care of us, right? Right.

And so that's the most important thing to us. And so we've seen some really great outcomes already. Wow. Yeah. Matt, I did want to ask you if you could jump in on the, what the numbers are looking like in recruitment and those sorts of things, if you heard what the previous thing that was said. Sure, our program it was established on the Eastern campus in 2019. We started of course a little smaller with our cohort number sizes but we are seeing an increase in those and our most recent incoming class is sitting at around 16 and then for the pre-nursing cohort we are sitting at around 30. So each year we add a few more students and increase our numbers just a little bit and

hopefully that will provide some a lot of quality nurses in the future to work for WVU. Wow, okay. So what is the Aspiring Nurse Program and how does it work and how do you hope that it will help with staffing in the hospitals? Because that is your ultimate goal. Not only to get them trained and to walk them through and to help them along the way, but how is this going to help our shortage right now. I've talked a little bit about the overall general program,

but I wonder if it would be helpful for you to talk about the mentorship and the connection that you have with students that I think is really helping us retain the students that are getting in the program. Yeah, one part of my job is I get to be the liaison for the aspiring nurse program. So I get to meet with the students that are in our cohorts at least once a month just to provide mentorship and somebody that's not their family, somebody that's not school,

they can just talk about their wins, we can celebrate the wins that they have and then also help them identify any barriers and make sure they get the resources they need to be successful and complete that program. I tell Jennifer all the time it's my absolute favorite part of my job to get to meet with these students and help them through that journey and make sure they are successful and even once the the student successfully graduates you know we have a lot of other opportunities at WVU Medicine to help continue to grow these students. So it really is a partnership between the hospital and the student and the commitment we make to them to be successful. Now you both talked about some

stories that you got to you got to hear. Can you briefly tell us like a story that sticks out in your mind that somebody had told you? There are a lot of really good stories. A lot of them as Jennifer said have to do with social determinants of health. I think one of the big ones I hear a lot is I don't have to work as much because I can use this money for child care or groceries or whatever I need it lot is I don't have to work as much because I can use this money for child care or groceries or whatever I need it for so I can spend more time on my studies. And I think that is a huge part. We've also had stories of people that have spent, you know, 15, 16 years and another

job in the coal mines locally that haven't been as successful as they were in the past. And this has given them the opportunity with children to go back to school. So are these, so forgive me because I'm, this is all new to me and I think this is so exciting, but is this for registered nurse, LPN, this is for nursing? Registered nurses and a pre-licensure program. So there's so many different ways to get into nursing. The groups that we're primarily recruiting from are from associate degree programs or bachelor degree

programs that are in a pre-licensure program. I do know Ohio University also has an RN to BSN program. I actually graduated from there. But that would not be a program that's a target. This is for people that don't have a license yet as a registered nurse. Okay, okay. We do have a lot of supports for those folks once they get employed with us. We have tuition reimbursement that helps them continue on if they want to keep growing and get a bachelor's or master's degree. So, yeah. Wow. We've we've talked a little bit about OU Eastern in bits and pieces here and there,

but I want to ask and anybody can jump in on this. What was kind of attractive about OUE and what what allowed it to be selected to be a part of this? Yeah, and I can take that or Matt can take that. I'll start. It's Jennifer. I think, you know, we are very, very selective. It is a partnership, right? And there's an agreement sign between the two. And what we really look for are really great qualified nursing candidates. And we have enjoyed a very great relationship with OUE already. They produce wonderful nurses. Most of those nurses come and work at Wheeling Hospital. And so we were very mindful of that and so because of their

great reputation, because of their engagement with our community already, because they already do their clinicals and already are invested in our community, we thought they would be really great partners. So Matt might have something additional he wanted to add. Yeah, I would just mimic everything that Jennifer had just said about our mutual relationship between WVU Wheeling Hospital and the Eastern campus. And I actually ran across this aspiring nurse program on social media. And I saw the post about it with the local institution and we actually approached WVU Wheeling and Jennifer and their team to potentially establish

this program for our students because we saw how impactful it was to the other programs that it was being offered to and they graciously made the arrangements to start this program with Ohio University Eastern. Nice. So are there other colleges that, I mean, Ohio University Eastern is great. Are there other ones around here that you work with? Yeah, Wheeling Hospital is actually partners

with Ohio Eastern, and we are also with West Liberty University. Okay, okay. And we are also with West Liberty University. And we are also with Belmont College. So we try to stay very local, very community and then Reynolds is partners with West Virginia Northern Community College. Oh okay.

Okay, I didn't know they had a nursing program. They do. They have a very strong nursing program I think one of my favorite things about this program is that Heather and I actually meet with every candidate from both hospitals that want to Practice in this area with us and just to hear those stories and the difference in the lives that we actually can make with them It's instrumental to them It's not uncommon for them to come in tears when we call them to say you've been selected to be part of this. The

impact that it makes on their journey when they, we have a huge signing ceremony for them this winter December 12th, 12-12 will be at Wheeling Park actually to have it. We have it together and they bring their families. They're so proud of themselves. They hug us and cry. It just is so meaningful to the community and just it's so wonderful to be part of something that can move forward, can help them in their professional career. Well you know when you just said that they can bring their families and so what is that teaching our youth, their parents are

going back, if they're going back to school, even after having a second career, this will be their second career, to see the work that these parents are doing, and the kids are gonna look up to them. You guys are creating a huge culture change here. I'm sure it's gonna take a while to see it through, but I just think that is amazing

because you don't know what you're going to get with these, with the kids, the families, you know? So do you guys, is it just, is it EMTs? Do you know? Right now we're just focusing on registered nurses. But you know, we have some other supports where we're doing focusing on registered nurses. Okay. But, you know, we have some other supports where we're doing recruitment efforts for other key positions. EMTs are very important in our communities.

In our hospitals, we're also really focusing on radiology, laboratory sciences, respiratory therapy. There's a lot of key positions. Okay. In our roles, for our positions, we're nursing leadership, so that's kind of where our focus is right now. But we definitely rely on everyone on our roles, for our positions, we're nursing leadership. So that's kind of where our focus is right now. But we definitely rely on everyone on our team. So there are other efforts going on.

Aspiring Nurse Program is just specific to pre-licensure RNs right now. I think anybody can touch on the impact that the program would have on students from any of the local colleges, and especially Ohio Eastern. But I think one of the things that stood out to me so far is students want to go into nursing as we've touched on.

They need jobs and positions. You guys need those people. And so I've never seen or heard of a program that just brings the local colleges and students together to get straight into the industry. I think that's something that's really beneficial for the students and you guys can also touch on the impact it would have. Yeah so when we were developing this program like Jennifer mentioned Ohio University East was already a partner with them. In some of our other markets we also had some very

strong partnerships and in South Charleston Bridge Valley Community and Technical College their president had already developed a program kind of similar to this, but for a manufacturing plant. They were working with a specific organization trying to help fund sort of some paid apprenticeships. And so we did look at that model when we were developing this. And then obviously we expanded it a lot based on the needs when we were developing this and then obviously we expanded it a lot based on the needs that we were hearing from the students. But for me, it just seems like we're meeting such a key need and we knew we were, but the

further we get into this, these stories we're hearing, I heard about a student that had no internet access, their family was moving about every month, they were sleeping on a floor, not a bed, and going to a Sheetz gas station at night to do their homework. And so getting this money had been able to help contribute to getting internet access at home so they could do their assignments. There was another student that not only had two jobs, but four. They had four jobs. So sometimes you're hearing this, oh man, they're working more than one job.

Four jobs. And they were able to cut back on everything except because of their new connections in the hospital through the aspiring nurse program, the position that they did keep was a nurse extern program. So they were paid to be coming to the hospital and working alongside a registered nurse and getting more hands-on experience that was going to help contribute to their actual career. So it

was going to help them transition into their practice after school a lot easier than working at a non-related type of job. I think that's what's so important is the transition into the industry straight after straight after school. Oh absolutely. So do you have what's your biggest challenge that you see now or in the future? I think probably right now our biggest challenge is how fast we're growing. It's a good one to have. I mean it's a great problem to have but our numbers and applications are we're having to have multiple days of applications and interviews, and it's growing really fast. And I think that's a great thing. We had seven in our first cohort,

and we're up to 27 in our second cohort of aspiring nurses. So I think right now it's just, it's growing rapidly. And this, like, you know, we talked about, we talked a lot about the financial, but I think a lot of these students are being brought into the WVU Medicine family. They feel a part of something. They feel connection to the community

and wanna be here and wanna make a difference. So I think that for the students is a big part of it also. I just love this program. I mean, everything I've heard so far is incredible. And the impact it has on local lives, I guess, is a good way far. Yeah, if I was um, and the impact it has on Local lives, I guess is a way to put it is just tremendous and you keep them here Yeah, and you keep them in the community and then they go out and they buy local they shop local because that's all that's what my job is all about is keeping people local and purchasing local and playing local

and having fun. And the kids are in the daycare, they go shopping and they're putting back money into the community. And that is, you guys are like, real, this is really cool. This is, yeah. If there's anything else anyone wants to add about about

anything with the the aspiring nurse program, you know, I guess I'd be glad to give you the floor and just add any final points you'd have to make as we all look over at Matt. He feels obligated. Sure, I'll just mention one more time some of the challenges that nursing students they encounter on their pathway to getting a bachelor's degree. Now we all know that higher education it is not cheap, it is expensive, and a lot of people are coming from backgrounds that they're the first first generation college student coming in to the system. They have no clue how to navigate it. They have no idea exactly how much it's going to cost and sometimes

it's a sticker shock when they get their first tuition bill and sometimes that is a complete roadblock to them and they have to drop out and they may not even return after the first semester of getting that tuition bill. But a program like this is so impactful for these students because they can not only use it to pay a tuition bill for a semester, but they can also use it for other life expenses like everybody has already mentioned so far.

And I actually just heard a student conversation in the classroom a couple of weeks ago. We were scheduling for a skilled checkoff, and there was a conversation about individuals not being able to afford gas for their car, and they were having to strategically schedule things because they couldn't put gas in their car. So just examples like that of how this money

can go to help with life expenditures, not just tuition, and why I think this is such a great, great program to offer to any nursing student in the WVU system, especially the Ohio University Eastern students. Wow, you guys are empowering a lot of people. You are making a huge impact on so many lives and it just trickles down and that is amazing because some of these parents, these people are taking care of their parents or their grandkids or something like that. So I know what that's all like, like what that's about. And I just, you guys are empowering so many people and you really should sleep really well at night.

I mean, honestly, you guys are wonderful. You know, we have a great relationship with WVU Medicine anyways, the chamber does. So this is just one extra avenue that I didn't even know was out there and that's available. So I'm just, where would people, so if I have the, you know, a person who calls me and says, Wendy, I want to get into this program, how do I do it? We try to work directly with our advertising efforts with the schools because

it's not open to every school right now. Like you mentioned, shopping local and promoting local, one of the things that we look at with our school partners is where do the graduates go? And so there have been some very wonderful schools in different communities that maybe we didn't select because we know most of their graduates come here for school and leave. And so that was another school partnership strategy

is working with schools that we know are invested in keeping really, really great workers in our communities. So our efforts to advertise for open enrollment are usually with partnership with the schools because they've got to be a student at those programs. We do have a website. It's wvmedicine.org slash aspiring dash nurse dash program, I believe. And so we have some general information and frequently asked questions on there.

We have some photos of our signing ceremonies that they alluded to. As we mentioned, we really tried to focus on the fact that they're joining our team. We are a large team. We're all over the state and the surrounding areas. We're giving students jerseys that say future joining our team. We are a large team. We're all over the state and the surrounding areas. We're giving students jerseys that say future nurse on them. They're putting them on at the signing ceremonies. Their families are there taking a bunch of pictures of them. Media are

there. So little kids are coming and seeing that their mom's getting interviewed on the news. Oh, that's a big deal. That's major. Yeah. Yeah. It's been really neat to see just the demographics. We're seeing people from all sorts of different backgrounds coming. But a lot of the students we're serving really, really are relying on this. You're seeing families. I saw a dad come, and he was a mechanic.

And he's wearing like his, he had just come from work just to see this signing ceremony and had like oil on his clothes. You could just see he was so proud of his daughter for getting into the program. And so I think all three of us are very, very proud to be registered nurses and feel like it is the best job that you could have out there.

It's challenging, but we have such an opportunity to make a difference. Statistics show that when you have strong nursing workforces, your healthcare is better, and we're really committed to that. So this is just one way we're gonna help improve the health in our areas as well. So for some research I did last night, I went on your website. Okay. And I looked at all the colleges and I clicked on each one and it had a drop-down box where and it showed where you where you would go to school, you know,

and who you would serve. There's a lot, there's so many, which is awesome. It's growing all the time. I think we're finally starting to slow down a little bit. But it's been exciting. Like you said, this is something that we should sleep well at night, but instead I think we lay our heads on the pillow

and our minds are sort of on fire about what next or what else can we do. But we've grown, we have 22 school partnerships right now. Some schools are, like Belmont is partnered with two of your facilities. So we have 35 unique school partnerships with different hospitals, but 22 unique schools. And about, we have over 250 students

across our health system now in a program. And another round of signing ceremonies coming up in December, so. December 12th. Yes, dang. I really like the, through the connection between you guys and the students, opportunities are being created in the community and that kind of ties into

everything we always talk about every time. That's what we're about. And especially with with Ohio Eastern being involved in this I think they say what do they say small commute big careers or something like that and so you see that opportunity there and I think it's really good to inject that that feeling of opportunity and importance in a in a local community like this. Yep. Well, ladies, gentlemen, thank you so much. You have opened my eyes. I did not know this was around here. And this is one more thing that we can be proud of for the Ohio Valley, you know, and I mean, and other, but for us in Ohio Valley, for WVU Medicine,

Wheeling and Reynolds, this is powerful stuff. So I thank you all for being here. Oh, and thank you for getting the word out for us. Oh. Yes, thank you. You're welcome. I appreciate you guys coming on as well. It's been a really insightful conversation and I'm excited to shine light on this this incredible opportunity for the for the students and the the the nursing

In the area, so thank you guys all for coming on. Thank you, Wendy as always This has been Community Connections in Commerce and thank you to the listener for listening Music