Illinois Hospital Association

Members Login Automatically
login
  User ID:   Password: Forgot your password?
Don't have a password?

Expanding Program Capacity and Efficiency Initiatives

Expanding Program Capacity

  • Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove
    Leases two master’s prepared registered nurses to the College of DuPage (COD) as adjunct faculty. Has clinical affiliation agreements with nine colleges; hosts  hundreds of undergraduates each year. Offers evening and weekend clinical rotations to all nine area schools. Partners with Elmhurst College for a graduate nurse clinical practicum. Participates in a Universal (Standardized) Orientation with COD. Participates in planning of DuPage County pilot project for centralized online clinical site scheduling.
  • Edward Hospital, Naperville
    - Provides masters-prepared nursing staff as part-time faculty for clinical rotations to six area nursing programs, including College of DuPage, University of Illinois, Lewis University, Rush School of Nursing, University of St. Francis, and Northern Illinois University.
    - Provides hospital space and MSN staff for nursing schools to conduct onsite classes to qualified hospital employees to earn nursing degrees at the workplace.
    - Offers a 10-week paid Summer Student Nurse Clinical Advancement Program. To qualify for the program, candidates must be enrolled in an accredited nursing program and must have completed at least one year of clinical nursing education. Nursing students spend four hours each week in a classroom setting and in addition are paired with a preceptor to plan, organize, and deliver care.
  • Greenville Regional Hospital, Greenville
    - Participates in clinical affiliation agreements for RNs, LPNs, and radiological technicians with Kaskaskia Community College.
    - Partners with Kaskaskia College to offer First Responder and EMT classes.
    - Partners with Washington University and St. Louis University for students interested in Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy.
    - Offers Nurse Assistant Training classes seven times each year for the Long Term Care Facility.
  • Hamilton Memorial Hospital District, McLeansboro
    Partners with Rend Lake College to offer a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) class at the hospital, with 20 to 25 residents usually enrolled.
  • Hillsboro Area Hospital, Hillsboro
    - A partnership with the Hillsboro School system offers an onsite high school certified nurses aid program. A previous program offered high school health occupations class orienting students to each department emphasizing health care career opportunities.
    - A partnership with Lincoln Land Community College offers an onsite EMT, LPN, and adult certified nurses aid class.
    - Beginning Fall 2008, a new health care occupations classroom will be constructed onsite for LLCC health care programs.
    - In partnership with Lincoln Land Community College, clinical affiliation is offered to radiology students.
    - In partnership with Kaskaskia College, onsite nursing student clinicals are offered.
  • Memorial Medical Center, Springfield; and Passavant Area Hospital, Jacksonville
    Collaborates with Lincoln Land Community College to expand the nursing program. Currently, discussing and exploring options to include evening and weekend classes, use of simulators, and loaned faculty.
  • Mount Sinai Hospital, Chicago
    - Partners with Olivet Nazarene University in an RN to BSN program - 10 RNs will complete the program in 2006.
    - Partners with Robert Morris College in an Associate Degree RN program at the Chicago main campus. The first class will start in February 2007 and graduate 30 RNs in Spring 2009.
    - Provides onsite training for nurses.
  • Northwest Community Hospital, Arlington Heights; and St. Alexius Medical Center, Hoffman Estates
    Partners with Harper College to conduct onsite part-time evening and weekend nursing program for incumbent workers.
  • Pekin Hospital, Pekin
    Participates in the centralized scheduling program with nursing schools. Two hospitals and three colleges offer hospital clinical rotations at hospitals at various times. Respiratory students, Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist students, pharmacy students, and radiology students spend time at clinical rotation sites. The medical staff participates in the Rural Medical Education Student program during the summer, and often have residents working with them at their offices.
  • Pinckneyville Community Hospital, Pinckneyville
    Participates in clinical affiliation agreements with Rend Lake Community College for RNs, LPNs, CNAs, and laboratory technicians. Partners with Kaskaskia Community College with students seeking radiological technology degrees.
  • St. John's Hospital, Springfield
    - Formed an Advisory Group to identify retention and recruitment strategies that include weekend options, admission process improvement, retention bonus programs, support for professional development, and certification with levels of competence.
    - Invested in three patient simulation mannequins that provide real-life scenarios and challenges for staff. A Simulation Learning Center is a work in progress.
  • Southern Illinois Healthcare (Hamilton Memorial Hospital District, McLeansboro; Harrisburg Medical Center, Harrisburg; Herrin Hospital, Herrin; Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, Carbondale; St. Joseph Memorial Hospital, Murphysboro; and St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Inc., Centralia)
    The Center for Nursing Excellence offers a 32-week comprehensive competency based orientation program that focuses on critical care nursing. The program fosters nurse’s participation in decision making at all levels through a Circle Team. The Circle Team eases transition from student to novice critical care nurse and provides networking opportunities.

Expanding Program Efficiency

  • Adjunct Faculty Program - College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn
    A shortage of registered professional nurses has been well documented both nationally and in the State of Illinois. Colleges have experienced a shortage of qualified registered nurses to serve as faculty to a college. The faculty lease agreement empowers hospitals to lease employees with an MSN or higher with a major in nursing to serve as faculty at the college. The services shall be provided at the request of the college and shall be under the direction of the college’s Director of School of Nursing.

    The hospital and college enter into a contractual relationship temporarily where hospital masters-prepared nursing staff serve as faculty. The leased faculty shall abide by the policies, procedures, rules, and regulations of the college while performing services for the college.

    The College of DuPage and the Leadership Council are sharing their faculty lease agreement with other schools. The faculty lease agreement has existed for 18 months with plans to disseminate the program statewide. For more information, please contact Jeri Lynn Else at elsejeri@cod.edu or (630) 942-2855.
  • Online Standardized Student Orientation - North and Northwest Suburban Health Care Workforce, Harper College, Palatine
    Students spend one to two days of each clinical rotation in orientation. The North and Northwest Suburban Health Care Workforce Task Force concluded that the clinical setting is a crucial component of the clinical experience. The number of different rotations that each student experiences during their total nursing program averages 9 to 12, consuming faculty, hospital staff and students’ time. In addition, most hospitals host more than one school program and typically address orientation separately with each school.
In an effort to maximize both hospital and academic center efficiencies so that students can spend more of their actual clinical time caring for patients, rather than hearing repeated information unnecessarily, the schools and hospitals are working to identify a universal preparation that focuses on core topics common to all clinical sites.

The benefits of an online standardized orientation include: reduced time and resources committed by the agency to orientation; consistency in orientation content, materials and presentation; online provider updates material in an ongoing fashion to reflect current regulations; ability to verify training received in each topic by each student/faculty; ability to verify student learning; more hands-on clinical time for students; students and faculty have access to training; the majority of orientation is provided by the college rather than the clinical agency; less redundancy for students and faculty; and ability to customize material for each agency as needed. Kick-off for the Standardized Online Student Orientation project will begin Fall 2006. For more information, please contact Vickie Gukenberger, Ph.D., vgkenbe@harpercollege.edu or (847) 925-6682.