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Central Illinois Placements (CIP) is a pilot program consisting of an online centralized clinical placement system. The online system uses StudentMax software to efficiently schedule and place nursing students at healthcare sites for clinical experiences in the Central Illinois region and supports a collaborative process.
Pilot partners include schools of nursing and acute care centers from: Bloomington-Normal, Decatur, Jacksonville, Pontiac and Springfield. CIP is a grant-funded initiative that evolved out of the Economic Development Council’s Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort (CIRCLE).
We are excited as CIP continues to grow! Pilot partners’ participation started with twelve in September ’09 and has currently expanded to 16 engaged partners. Participants are described as either clinical or educational.
Web site addresses for your review:
General viewing by all: www.ciplacements.com
StudentMax: www.studentmax.org
Cheryl Harvey of Bloomington was recently hired to the new grant-funded position of regional healthcare workforce associate at the Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area (EDC).
In this position, she is responsible for investigating and coordinating regional programs that positively impact healthcare workforce development. Her duties include promoting group facilitation and regional collaboration, communicating with regional partners and organizations and recommending activities to address regionally-identified needs.
This position was created and is fully-funded through a grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. The grant was awarded to the EDC to promote a collaborative project within Central Illinois. The long-range goal of the project is the creation of a regional collaborative structure with the primary purpose of enhancing workforce development initiatives within Central Illinois. The initial focus is on healthcare workforce initiatives. To learn more about the grant, click here.
Harvey previously served as program director and case manager for a mental health outreach coalition. She also has experience as an adjunct professor at Gavilan Community College, Gilroy, Calif. teaching a variety of courses focusing on mental health issues. She has also served as a counselor in an adult residential mental health facility, where she taught educational courses and facilitated small group sessions. Harvey earned a dual bachelor’s degree in psychology/counseling and theology from William Jessup University in San Jose, Calif.
The EDC is a private not-for-profit organization that helps businesses and communities in McLean County prosper. It is a leadership organization, investing the community’s assets to grow and improve its prosperity and quality of life.
The Economic Development Council of the Bloomington-Normal Area (EDC), a non-profit organization that assists businesses and communities in McLean County, is the recipient of a $161,700 grant funded by the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO).
“The purpose of this funding is to improve workforce development efforts in the healthcare sector and to promote collaborative efforts between hospitals, long-term care facilities, universities and community colleges,” said Therese McMahon, deputy director of the Office of Workforce Development at DCEO. “The result should be a win for all of Central Illinois, especially job seekers and patients.”
This grant was awarded to the EDC to enhance healthcare workforce development within Central Illinois, including Bloomington-Normal, Decatur, Jacksonville, Springfield, Peoria and surrounding areas. The long-range goal of the project is the creation of a regional collaborative structure. The overall vision is to improve networking, promote collaborative processes and increase communication of regional initiatives in the 22 counties comprising the Central and North Central Economic Development Regions. The hope is that individuals and communities within these regions will benefit from this collaboration through the exchange of knowledge and ideas.
“We are honored that DCEO has recognized the EDC as a leadership organization capable of directing this important regional effort,” said Kelli Tillery Hill, EDC vice president. “Once this initial healthcare workforce project is carried out, we hope to duplicate the process with other targeted industries.”
The grant project, managed by Hill with input from focus groups and individuals across Central Illinois, is spearheaded under the umbrella of the Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort (CIRCLE), with support from foundations and organizations in Illinois and across the nation. CIRCLE was initiated to sustain nursing workforce activities and partnerships of the Partners in Nursing (PIN) of Central Illinois. Support obtained from DCEO to investigate interest in regional collaboration around healthcare workforce made this effort possible.
The EDC would like to thank the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation for mentioning us in their “IPCF Top 10 of 2009″ list. The EDC has collaborated with IPCF and Illinois State University’s Mennonite College of Nursing on the Partners in Nursing grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Northwest Healthcare Foundation.
The grant was given a one-year extension due to the success of the new intiatives that have been developed under our collaboration. These initiatives include the implementation of Central Illinois Placements, an online clinical scheduling system, and the creation of the Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort, a workforce development consortium which will focus initially on healthcare workforce issues.
For more information on Central Illinois Placements or the Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort, contact Kelli Hill at the EDC: kelli@bnbiz.org or
(309) 452-8437.
For more information on the Illinois Prairie Community Foundation, contact Myra Gordon at mgordon@ilprairiecf.org or (309) 662-4477.
The first meeting for Central Illinois Placements (CIP) is Monday, November 16. CIP is a grant-funded program utilizing an online system to schedule nursing students at healthcare sites for clinical experiences. Given a need to expand capacity at schools of nursing and the requirement of numerous clinical hours in groups of only 10 students, there is a national trend at looking at making clinical scheduling as efficient as possible. Representatives from over a dozen Central Illinois schools of nursing and clinical sites will learn about the online system and begin a collaborative pilot. An online system could replace traditional scheduling done via meetings, emails or paper. Potential benefits include making the process more efficient through less time, standardizing the processes and realizing unused sites or times.
The understated benefit of this process is the coming together of very diverse organizations, some of which have never worked together, all of which are offering individuals giving of their time to try something new. All are working with nursing students in a very productive and integral manner, but beyond that, these are people who are proactive, willing to learn and who see the larger picture of their profession. Each of these organizations is experiencing a different degree of need when it comes to considering alternative scheduling options, but each is looking at this issue also through their partners’ eyes.
The EDC is excited to sponsor this first regional meeting of professionals, including partners from Bloomington-Normal, Springfield, Decatur, Pontiac and Jacksonville. We wish these professionals the best as they experiment with this new system and evaluate its effectiveness. More importantly, we thank them for serving as models of regional collaboration – an example that could advance many efforts as we look toward a bright future for Central Illinois. Is there an initiative in your profession or scope of activities that could benefit from diverse partnerships, added support or an increase in geographic range?
The Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort is an attempt to promote regional collaboration in the broad sense through enhanced networking, promotion of collaborative processes and communication of regional initiatives. Initial grant funds have been received at the EDC to investigate interest in and the presence of regional collaboration in Central Illinois as compared to other areas of the state. For grant purposes, Central Illinois is defined as the 22 counties comprising the Central and North Central Economic Development Regions (as defined by the Illinois Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity), but fluid boundaries are anticipated as initiatives evolve. Currently, the EDR’s include Bloomington-Normal, Decatur, Jacksonville, Springfield, Peoria and surrounding areas.
For various reasons identified through regional focus groups, initial emphasis will be on collaborative healthcare workforce efforts. A number equivalent to approximately 25 percent of the McLean County workforce commutes into or out of our county. Simply stated, this indicates that about ¼ of our workforce lives in McLean County and commutes to surrounding counties to work, or lives outside of McLean County and commutes into McLean County to work. Additionally, the healthcare industry is projected to experience the most rapid growth over the next two decades, offers high paying jobs and represents a service of value to every community and citizen.
In order to demonstrate collaboration around healthcare workforce efforts, initial activities will be coordinated to investigate specific regional nursing workforce issues. Central Illinois Placements will offer regional schools of nursing and medical centers a free, voluntary pilot of a web-based tool aimed at increasing efficiency, enhancing partnerships and assessing clinical space utilization for student nurse experiences. The Nurse Faculty Capacity Grant is being coordinated to offer incentives for regional nurses to pursue a PhD or Master’s degree in nursing in exchange for a commitment to serve as a nurse educator. The evolution of additional activities is anticipated over time.
The state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and two private foundations have encouraged the EDC to proceed with promoting regional collaboration initially focused on healthcare workforce activities. Recently, the EDC began utilizing grant funds for part-time assistance from three professionals with varied expertise. Kevin Wiand works at Illinois State University - Research and Sponsored Projects, and is assisting with grants accounting and recommendations for upgrades to the EDC accounting software. Emily Todino is the new regional coordinator for Central Illinois Placements. Emily has been a project coordinator at State Farm Bank and has experience in systems implementation and training, similar to the needs for the Central Illinois Placements pilot. Joni Schenkel currently supervises the Clinical Education Department at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center and will offer her expertise in nursing education and practice to assist in the pilot system implementation. The EDC would like to welcome these three excellent professionals.
The Central Illinois Regional Collaborative Effort is underway and we are excited to model collaboration while simultaneously enhancing efforts to address the healthcare workforce needs in Central Illinois.
Progress toward regional collaboration in Central Illinois continues, led by the EDC of the B-N Area. Below is a brief summary of activities to date and intentions to move forward.
April 2009 - Five regional focus groups were held to gather input on regional collaboration*
May 2009 – Summary and results of focus group meetings were sent to all stakeholders in database*
June/July 2009 – Individual and small group meetings conducted with healthcare, education and workforce administrators to seek input regarding regional healthcare workforce efforts.
*Look for this detailed information soon on the EDC’s new “Regional Workforce Collaborative” webpage at www.bnbiz.org.
Our original intent was to hold a large regional meeting on July 23rd and offer information on recommendations for moving forward, compiled from our focus groups, our consultant and our research. We postponed the regional meeting to address 1) the need to seek more collaborative input and 2) the need to follow up on greater than anticipated partner interest toward implementation of an initial regional activity (pilot of online clinical scheduling for nursing education). We will be rescheduling the regional meeting in the fall.
Over the next few months, we will continue seeking support for this regional collaborative effort, with the possibility of additional deliverables being developed and implemented as the collaborative process unfolds. Depending on the level of outside support obtained, these may include:
- Implementation of an online clinical placement system with nursing educators and healthcare employer partners to increase efficiency and. in the long-term, identify additional opportunities for clinical experiences for students;
- Expansion of the efforts (Nurse Faculty Capacity Grant and other) which utilize Workforce Investment Area (WIA) incumbent worker funds to assist masters and doctoral level nursing students, in turn adding to the pool of nurses qualified for teaching positions;
- Initiation of a Nurse Re-entry Program to identify and engage non-practicing nurses which will add to the nursing workforce and possibly increase interest in teaching roles;
- Hosting of quarterly meetings to build upon current regional momentum. This would include engaging additional partners, continuing to define the common needs of the area, and creating a proposal for collaboration that reflects the needs communicated by those involved in the process;
- Coordination of online communication of partner information and healthcare initiatives in Central Illinois.
Healthcare continues to be the industry experiencing the most growth, and these deliverables are in direct response to needs communicated by nursing education leaders, healthcare employers and workforce leaders throughout the region. They strategically address workforce issues at a systemic level which ideally will result in expanded educational capacity, greater opportunities to assist individuals in pursuing healthcare careers and the continued insurance of a qualified and adequately staffed healthcare workforce.
Though a high quality healthcare system is imperative to any local economy, there are additional long-term benefits anticipated from this regional effort. The collaborative relationships built and processes modeled by addressing regional healthcare workforce issues will serve to set the stage for future regional efforts. Whatever we choose to address down the road – alternative industry workforce issues or broader goals such as marketing the region or global competitiveness – McLean County and other Central Illinois areas will gain in many respects through an ability to utilize regional partnerships and collaborative processes.
Please feel free to send your thoughts or comments to Kelli Hill at kelli@bnbiz.org.
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