GROWING CAREERS

Hospitals searching for trained technical staff looked at their current employee rosters and set up programs to help those employees get training for key jobs.

Ten years ago, many hospitals were facing a shortage of clinical and technical workers like medical technicians, radiologists, nurses and therapists. But a group of health care executives pulled together to avert any crisis.

Led by Earl Norman, board chairman and president of HSCA, a health services company in Cape Girardeau, the executives formed the Health Careers Foundation, which offers a joint loan and scholarship program.

The program has been successful and satisfying, Norman said. "It seems like the right thing to do."

Norman said he knew there were plenty of people who could benefit from the program, and hospital settings provide a base for career mentoring, too.

"Hospitals are realizing that they have valuable people already working for them," said Craig Boring, executive director of the Health Careers Foundation, but many of those employees weren't taking jobs in key clinical and technical positions. Now hospitals can offer their employees a chance to change careers or finish a degree without deciding between school and work.

The Health Careers Foundation offers a 50-50 loan and scholarship to hospital staff seeking to advance a career. It is available to students interested in returning to school at the full-time or part-time level. Students don't pay any interest on the loan portion while they are in school. After completing their education, the loan rate becomes 4 percent.

The financial aid centers on nine areas of health care: nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, medical technician, radiation, dietetics, respiratory therapist and speech pathology.

Since 1991, the Health Careers Foundation has helped 2,600 people take accreditation courses, earn associate's degrees or finish college by offering nearly $6.2 million in scholarships and low-interest loans.

"We could give 10 times as much in scholarships depending on the funding available," Norman said.

More than 400 hospitals in 38 states participate in the program, including St. Francis Medical Center and Southeast Missouri Hospital in Cape Girardeau, Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston, Mo., and Perry County Memorial Hospital in Perryville, Mo.

"We ask the hospitals to be our eyes and ears and hand out the applications," Boring said. "Typically it is an older individual or a single parent who is already working as a nurse's aid or a clerk but wants to develop a career that will help them and reward them and be satisfying."

Some of those scholarships and low-interest loans helped people in Southeast Missouri return to school for more education and gained them better jobs.

Meike Rhodes is grateful to the foundation for the support they offered her during pharmacy school. "There aren't many companies that support financial aid programs like that," she said.

HSCA is the only company in the health care industry offering such a program, Norman said."We get financial contributions from vendors and we've tried to get our competitors interested."

While working at the pharmacy at Southeast Missouri Hospital, Rhodes learned about the scholarship program, applied and was accepted.

The program helped her pay tuition at the St. Louis College of Pharmacy. "They helped significantly," she said.

Rhodes also had to balance her college work and the demands of trying to raise a baby as a single parent. Her son, Preston, is now 9 but he was just a year old when she began school. Rhodes recently returned to Cape Girardeau after three years in St. Louis. She now works at Bill's Family Pharmacy in Doctor's Park.

Many of the participants are working in rural areas, and the program encourages them to go back to school but stay in the area. Hospitals in Livingston, Mont., Dodge City, Kansas, and Sioux Falls, Iowa and outstate Missouri like the program for that reason, Boring said.

Health care companies like HSCA, Merck, SmithKline Beecham, Mallinkrodt and others support the program financially. There are also benefit events that fund the scholarships.

A camp with the St. Louis Cardinals in February will help raise money for the foundation through a sports fantasy experience. Adults over age 30 can participate in spring training with the Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla., from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11. The Foundation began managing the camp only a year ago.

Participants "are making memories and reliving memories and helping to raise money," Boring said.

For information about the Foundation, call (877) HCF-1626 or visit them on the Web at www.hcfinfo.org. The site also has information about the sports camp and other fund-raising events.

HEALTH CAREERS FOUNDATION 1998-99 AWARDS

The breakdown of Health Careers Foundation Awards for 1998-99

Nursing, 37%

Physical therapy, 19%

Occupational therapy, 11%

Pharmacy, 10%

Physician assistant, 8%

Radiology, 5%

Speech pathology, 3%

Medical technology, 3%

Respiratory therapy, 1%