REGION — Spruce Mountain Adult and Community Education, MaineHealth and the Maine Community College System have partnered to offer a new CNA [Certified Nursing Assistant] training program that pays students while they learn.
Former Spruce Mountain CNA students Cansis Widger, standing at left and Charlene Frank beside her watch a demonstration on how to properly lift a patient out of a wheelchair during a field trip to Beal University in Wilton. Nursing and doctoral students from the University of New England were in the Farmington area for their rural health immersion program and spent the evening with CNA students showing them best practices and appropriate bedside manner. Submitted photo
“We couldn’t keep doing what we had been doing, waiting for another entity to get CNAs out there,” Tania Dawson, Franklin Memorial Hospital clinical resource manager said in a recent interview. “It simply wasn’t working anymore. We needed to do something, think outside the box to get CNAs in here sooner rather than later.
“Partnering with Spruce Mountain Adult and Community Education has been a really huge win for us already. Then when you look at the other things, the medical assistant class that we’ve partnered with them. Spruce has done an amazing job as far as workforce development goes, especially for health care and especially for Franklin Memorial Hospital.”
It was a no-brainer to partner with that adult education program again, Dawson stated. “Sometimes I come up with these crazy ideas and Robyn [Raymond, the adult education director] goes, ‘Yep, let’s go.'”
“Our ‘earn-while-you-learn’ CNA program is a game changer for community members who wish to enroll in a workforce training program but may find it challenging to step away from or cut back their current employment hours to return to school,” Raymond noted in a later email. “We hear that feedback quite often.
“It’s not that people don’t want to engage in furthering their education or earning a credential that could provide upward mobility; it’s the issue of having to earn enough month-to-month to keep the bills paid and the household afloat that can deter someone from taking a perceived risk.”
Raymond continued, “This partnership with MaineHealth and the Maine Community College System aligns well with our goals to grow our own talent in greater Franklin County and provide opportunities for community members to find meaningful employment where future career growth is attainable.
“Many of our previous students who began as CNAs or certified clinical medical assistants have discovered how much they enjoy working in healthcare. They are now back in school at KVCC or CMCC to become registered nurses. The college and career guidance students receive in our adult education center recognizes the importance of instilling confidence in learners.”
It can be daunting for adults to return to school with so many unknowns, Raymond stressed. “Time management, expectations for using new technology, revisiting academic concepts they may not have seen since high school … etc. We understand that fear and work to make sure learners build strong relationships with our instructors so we can alleviate those barriers and begin to focus on new learning.”
“The third partner in this program is the Maine Community College System,” Dawson reiterated. “One of their grants will be paying for all of our students’ tuition. That is a pretty huge win as well.”
Spruce Mountain adult education and Franklin Memorial Hospital, which is part of MaineHealth, had partnered in the past to provide training for careers as CNAs and Medical Assistants, Dawson noted.
An accelerated CNA course completed the 130 hours necessary for the state’s curriculum in about six weeks, Dawson said. Students are hired into a paid apprenticeship program for 36 weeks while in class, she noted.
Those students are coming off their orientation, Dawson noted. Five students started, one had to leave for family reasons, there are now four new CNAs from that program.
The new program will also be accelerated. “It’s going to be six weeks,” Dawson said. “We are hiring them in, they will be getting paid for 32 hours per week. There will be four weeks of class, two weeks clinical. They will have all of their time wrapped up into that to meet the curriculum.
“Then we are going to slide them into CNA positions. They will get a $2 per hour raise.”
Students who don’t pass the exam will continue to learn and be paid for 30 days, at which time they can retake the test, Dawson stated.
“The difference between this program and the last one is that we are involving all of MaineHealth,” Dawson said. “We have other organizations in MaineHealth that are going to join us. I might be teaching at Spruce Mountain High School on Monday and the other four organizations will be on Zoom listening to me teach. When we are doing lab work or clinicals, they will have their own instructor at that time. Then on Tuesday, the teacher might be from Mid Coast or Southern Maine Community College.
“We are trying to spread out. The problem with rural CNA classes is the simple fact we have a hard time getting enough people in our classes to be able to run and let the school break even, let alone make any kid of profit.”
Spruce Mountain will still be the lead, there will be one cohort, just in different places, Dawson stressed. To get into the class, students have to apply and take a basic assessment test to determine their reading comprehension and math skills.
“Based on those scores, we can then turn around and meet the student where they are at,” Dawson said. “Part of the CNA class is learning the metric system and some medical terminology, that jargon but being able to meet them with the math.
“Potential students do a job shadow for two hours with one of our CNAs here at the hospital so they will understand what the job really is, if it is something they really want to do.”
The assessment test shows an applicant can do the job, the job shadow indicates the person wants to do the job and an interview determines the person is wanted for the job, Dawson said. It’s a way to weed out anybody who may think they want to be a CNA but after getting into it realizes it isn’t for them, she stated.
“There is a one year work commitment to work for any of the participating organizations,” Dawson noted. “We are putting forth the instructors and paying them.”
Application deadline for the program is July 5.
The CNA program starts with orientation on Monday, July 23, and classes beginning that Tuesday.
Franklin Memorial Hospital plans to definitely take five students, the other organizations three to seven depending on what their needs are, Dawson said.
Those from outside this area may apply through the participating hospitals: Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, Southern Maine Medical Center in Biddeford, Waldo County Health Center in Belfast or Stephens Memorial Hospital in Norway.
“While apprentices, students will be paid $17 per hour, when hired as a CNA it goes to $19 per hour,” Dawson noted. “It is 32 hours per week for class, goes up to 36 hours per week when they start working as a CNA. Work as a CNA will be on the medical/surgical ward or in the emergency room.”
Raymond noted, “We want to expand this earn-while-you-learn model to other workforce training courses. We are still hopeful that Spruce Mountain Adult and Community Education will be a successful applicant for Congressionally Directed Spending [CDS], allowing us to start a CDL program. Local employers are looking to hire qualified candidates, but we need to be able to provide the training opportunity to assist in both our potential adult students and our business community’s success.”
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