Tracing a Career Path during COVID

Alice Le wants to serve, and the COVID-19 pandemic will not get in her way.

A nursing assistant at Regions Hospital who started her position in May 2020 during the early months of the pandemic, Alice didn’t hesitate before stepping up to the front lines of hospital work in a time of crisis.

“I really like being in trauma and the Level I clinical setting – I like the adrenaline rush,” says Alice. “At the end of summer when COVID was high, I was interacting a lot with respiratory therapists. Being in the hospital, there was a high level of pulmonary consultation and direct experience in bedside patient care. I like being a healthcare worker in an area that puts me in a helping position with COVID patients, and the pandemic brought out my interest in respiratory care.”

C3 Fellow Alice Le

C3 Fellow Alice Le

 
I like being a healthcare worker in an area that puts me in a helping position with COVID patients, and the pandemic brought out my interest in respiratory care.

Connecting through C3 Fellows

Alice, a junior at St. Catherine University, has been drawn to healthcare since childhood. “I always knew I wanted to do something in healthcare to help people,” says Alice. “I grew up down the street from Regions in the heart of Saint Paul, and many of my family members also work at Regions. I’ve been around healthcare professionals for most of my life, and once I got into the field I liked it.”

Alice was already in the process of applying to a job at Regions when she came across the Central Corridor College (C3) Fellows program in an email message. The C3 Fellows program is an initiative of the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership that connects healthcare students from diverse backgrounds to opportunities in their fields of study at M Health Fairview, Hennepin Health, and Regions/Health Partners.

Participating colleges include Augsburg University, Minneapolis College, Saint Paul College, University of St. Thomas/Dougherty Family College, and St. Catherine University. Program Director Shawn Vang works with college and employer partners to facilitate career connections for students.

C3 Fellows Program Director Shawn Vang

C3 Fellows Program Director Shawn Vang

When Shawn received Alice’s application to C3 Fellows, he reached out to Alice and to the HR team at Regions to help make sure the connection was made.

“Shawn helps me build connections, and checks in regularly to see how I am doing,” says Alice. “He checked in back in March when I was supposed to start my role at Regions, and continues checking in to see if I have any concerns about the work environment.”

Alice was slated to begin her nursing assistant job in March, but onboarding was delayed because of the pandemic. 

Linking School, Work, and Career Readiness

Alice’s role as a nursing assistant in a float pool at Regions has worked well with her school schedule, enabling her to gain career-relevant work experience while fulfilling her academic requirements. “Float is more flexible. Each unit already has a nursing assistant, and we fill gaps,” explains Alice. “My nurse manager has been understanding about schedules.” 

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Alice obtained her CNA certification in 2018 and worked in a transitional care unit prior to looking for a clinical role. Before May, Alice thought about pursuing nursing but was overall undecided about the direction of her medical career.

While at Regions, she has learned more about respiratory care, and sees how respiratory therapists work in a hospital setting. In the clinic, she sees procedures like intubations and learns more about what respiratory therapists do. 

“Before working at Regions, I didn’t know much about respiratory care. Over the summer, I went out on a limb and chose respiratory care as my major,” says Alice. “My experience at Regions opened my eyes and made me more interested in learning about what respiratory therapists do. There was so much I didn’t know. Being in a hospital setting helps me get my foot in the door and stay active in the clinical environment.” 

Being in a hospital setting helps me get my foot in the door and stay active in the clinical environment.

Alice adds that she has felt secure working in a hospital during the pandemic. “Regions has many protocols in place in response to COVID that I had to learn when I started my role. It was a lot to learn, and a little confusing at first, but now I understand it.”

A rotation in Regions’ intensive care unit (ICU) put Alice in the same room with the head of respiratory care at Regions, and Alice struck up a conversation about her career goals. This connection led to an invitation for Alice to job shadow respiratory therapists at Regions, and the department head gave Alice her number for future reference and questions. 

Mapping a Career Pathway

Alice took a maternity leave from her role at Regions at the end of August, and will be back to work in December. She is currently in a clinicals rotation in respiratory care at Hennepin County Medical Center.

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She plans to graduate in 2022 with her respiratory care degree, take the board exam to obtain a registered respiratory therapist certification, then apply for a job as a respiratory therapist at a hospital in the Twin Cities. 

Within a few years, Alice plans to go back to school to become a physician assistant specializing in cardio-pulmonary patients. “I would like to use my respiratory care training and a specialty in cardio to combine my love of those two areas of medicine,” she says.

Making Goods Available for Less to Local Small Businesses, CCAP Partners

The Central Corridor Anchor Partnership (CCAP), through the leadership of partners HealthPartners and M Health Fairview, is enabling costs savings for small businesses and CCAP partners on a wide array of goods and products.

CCAP members and local small businesses are invited to utilize Premier Pricing to save on everything from office supplies to personal protective equipment to IT products.

Savings throughout your business' graphic, courtesy of Premier

Savings throughout your business' graphic, courtesy of Premier

Premier is a nationally recognized performance improvement organization that is committed to delivering long-term cost savings to its members. The group purchasing organization enables members to, among other services, reduce expenditures by purchasing goods and products at discounted rates. HealthPartners and M Health Fairview are making this discounted pricing opportunity available to all CCAP partners and Central Corridor small businesses. 

About CCAP

CCAP is a group of colleges, universities, hospitals, and health care organizations located near the Green Line in Minneapolis–St. Paul.  Once established, anchor institutions tend not to move, and therefore may play an important role in our local economies.  Our health care partners include M Health Fairview, Hennepin Health, and Regions/HealthPartners, and college partners include Augsburg University, Minneapolis College, University of St. Thomas/Dougherty Family College, and St. Catherine University. Each partner organization has invested greatly in its physical infrastructure to serve its patients, students, and employees. In that sense, our partners are anchored to the health, vitality, and growth of the neighborhoods around us. 

The opening of the Green Line LRT provided CCAP partners an organizing occasion to collaborate to, among other goals, spend more of our procurement dollars with Central Corridor businesses to make our organizations stronger and bring more prosperity to the Twin Cities region. Central Corridor zip codes are: 55101, 55102, 55103, 55104, 55105, 55106, 55107, 55114, 55117, 55130, 55401, 55402, 55403, 55404, 55411, 55414, 55415, 55454, and 55455.

CCAP Procurement Initiatives

In addition to the Premier group pricing opportunity, CCAP continues to work toward its goals of creating and attracting jobs to the Central Corridor by increasing the amount of local purchasing made by anchor institutions, and by creating cost savings over time for anchors through collective procurement, through the following strategies:

  • driving individual anchor institution purchasing to Central Corridor vendors and tracking results;

  • contracting with Central Corridor suppliers to provide goods/services to anchors through below-list pricing or joint contracts; and

  • growing or attracting suppliers to the corridor to meet anchor spend that is currently being exported out of Minnesota.

Making Discounted Pricing Widely Available through Access to Premier

Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at HealthPartners, has first-hand experience with the challenges of identifying significant purchasing opportunities with businesses within the Central Corridor. 

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"The primary local procurement challenge for CCAP partners, particularly healthcare partners, is that they are limited to buying goods and services that are very healthcare-centric, and may not be available within the Central Corridor," says Manchanda. "The second challenge is that some suppliers in the corridor do not possess the supply-side scale that many CCAP partners need." 

Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at Health Partners

Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services at Health Partners

Manchanda offered a new solution for CCAP to support local businesses: rather than buying directly from Corridor businesses, CCAP could help small businesses save money by making an array of goods available to them at a discounted rate through Premier.

"We are happy to make this discounted pricing opportunity available to local small businesses and to move the needle on the prosperity of the businesses in Central Corridor," says Manchanda. 

“At the macro level, this opportunity is about helping small businesses with their bottom lines by cutting their costs,” adds Ellen Watters, CCAP Partnership staff. 

The Premier group pricing opportunity is available to Central Corridor small businesses free of charge. CCAP is promoting this opportunity through chambers of commerce, business associations, and small business intermediaries that work with small businesses in the Central Corridor. 

Premier will track small business engagement with the pricing opportunity, which is available to Central Corridor small businesses indefinitely at this time. Premier will provide CCAP with the results.

There are no purchasing minimums, and small businesses and partners are encouraged to try Premier purchasing to determine if it works for their needs. 

Early indications are positive from small business groups that have been made aware of the opportunity, with strong initial interest in trying Premier pricing. 

For more information about Premier group purchasing, contact Brock Close, 440-724-064, brock_close@premierinc.com, and let him know your organization is a member of CCAP.

Inspired by the Impact of Care

Mohamed Ahmed’s passion for a career in health care came from lived experience, as he spent many hours in hospitals supporting family members.

“I was in and around hospitals a lot growing up, and I always have appreciated how responsible health care workers are, and how they have a direct impact on others’ lives,” says Ahmed, a freshman at Dougherty Family College.

C3 Fellow Mohamed Ahmed

C3 Fellow Mohamed Ahmed

“Someone can come in and not be feeling their best, and a nurse can make them feel better, so that emotionally and mentally, [the patient] is in a whole different space.”

C3 Fellows career connection

Ahmed connected to the C3 Fellows program at the urging of Kris Donnelly, Corporate Internship Program Director at Dougherty Family College. The C3 Fellows program is an initiative of the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership that connects health care students from diverse backgrounds to opportunities in their fields of study at M Health Fairview, Hennepin Health, and Regions/Health Partners.

Participating colleges include Augsburg University, Minneapolis College, Saint Paul College, University of St. Thomas/Dougherty Family College, and St. Catherine University. Program Director Shawn Vang works with college and employer partners to facilitate career connections for students.

At the start of the school year, Ahmed planned to study full-time and not take on the additional responsibility of a job. He changed his mind when Donnelly connected him with Vang. 

Kris Donnelly, Corporate Internship Program Director,Dougherty Family College

Kris Donnelly, Corporate Internship Program Director,

Dougherty Family College

“I told Kris [Donnelly] about my ambitions and wanting to be in the medical field, and she told me she could connect me with the right people to get my foot in the door,” explains Ahmed.

“I interviewed with Shawn for the C3 Fellows program and he gave me options of places to work as well as available opportunities."

Ahmed appreciates the leg up C3 Fellows provided in obtaining a health care job. "It helped to have the C3 Fellows connection when I interviewed with St. Joseph’s because the interviewer who I connected with over the phone had been told by Shawn about me, and she already knew where I was coming from," says Ahmed. "Without the program, I would be a little lost in terms of starting work and where to go.”  

"Without the program, I would be a little lost in terms of starting work and where to go."

School-work balance

Ahmed, whose parents immigrated to the United States but who has lived his whole life in the Twin Cities, says that the C3 Fellows program helped him smoothly transition from being a full-time student into his current, flexible part time job as a patient transport aide at St. Joseph’s Hospital, part of the M Health Fairview system. 

“I am in a more casual position that is more flexible, and I am meeting other transporters and other staff in general,” says Ahmed. “I work everywhere around the hospital and take patients everywhere."

"This opportunity would have shown me if health care wasn’t something I wanted to be in," Ahmed continues.

C3 Fellows Director Shawn Vang

C3 Fellows Director Shawn Vang

"For me, it’s done the opposite. Seeing what nurses are doing every day to directly care for patients has reassured my admiration for the health care profession. It makes me know I want to be here, and gives me experience and exposure to working in health care."

As Ahmed begins his new role, he appreciates Vang’s continued support.

“We had a back and forth before and after my interview, and he is always checking in to see if I am liking my work,” says Ahmed of Vang. “He’s been great. If I get my CNA license, I can talk to Shawn to see what other opportunities are out there.”

"Seeing what nurses are doing every day to directly care for patients has reassured my admiration for the health care profession. It makes me know I want to be here, and gives me experience and exposure to working in health care."

Continued commitment to care

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This summer, Ahmed plans to take on more hours as a patient transport aide, and has his sights set on continuing to blend his educational and career growth.

“In five years, I plan to be in PA school or medical school, and I can see myself still working part time, as a patient transport aide or in another role in health care, getting more patient care experience," says Ahmed.

"I might want to get training while I’m still in school to work part time as an EMT in an ambulance, or as a first responder, providing help necessary to people in emergency situations.”