Hello, everyone. This is Jacob Emerson with the
Becker's Payer Issues podcast.
Thrilled today to be joined by doctor Brandy
Hershberger, who's the chief nursing officer and vice
president of academic affairs at UPMC,
And Dan LaValle is the associate vice president
of community engagement at UPMC Health Plan.
Brandy, Dan, thank you both so much for
taking the time to be with me on
the podcast today. Thanks for having us. Yeah.
Thanks so much, Jacob. Yeah. And before we
dive into everything we wanna talk with you
both about, can you each, tell us a
little bit more about yourselves, your background in
health care, and what it is that you
both do today at UPMC?
Brandy, I'll come to you first.
Sure. Good morning, everyone. I'm doctor Brandy Hirschberger,
chief nursing officer and vice president of academic
affairs.
I've been a nurse for around twenty two
years, a chief nurse for around eight years,
and I actually am a boomeranger.
Grew up as a baby nurse at UPMC,
left for a little bit to get some
for profit experience, and I came back because
I do love UPMC.
And happy to be here with you today
to talk about,
you know, just our apprenticeships and everything that's
going on good in UPMC. So thanks for
having me.
Absolutely. How about you, Dan? It is wonderful
to be with you, Brandy, always. And, Jacob,
thanks. I'm Dan LaValle.
I've been at UPMC just about ten years
now. You know, I'm a native Yinser as
we call it here in Mister Rogers neighborhood
in Pittsburgh. You know, I lead our community
engagement efforts at at UPMC health plan that
includes,
you know, work in our communities workforce,
programming that we'll talk about today to help
our our Medicaid members in particularly,
you know, get, life changing careers. So it's
wonderful to be here and can't wait to
have them to chat.
Fantastic. Well, really glad to have you both,
sitting down with us.
So we're we're here today to talk a
little bit about,
workforce development initiatives at UPMC,
and really the success that the health system
is has seen in terms of assisting those,
your your Medicaid members with with finding
meaningful careers within the health system. So, Dan,
why don't you start us off? Talk about
why you're so passionate about this work overall.
Thanks. Thanks, Jacob. And, you know, so our
our journey into into our pathways to work
program as we called it started about five
years ago right in the beginning of the
pandemic. You know, we also had,
at that time, right before the incredibly challenging
time, we had a wonderful partnership,
with our department of human services that had
started something that they called a work supports
program. So just like anytime you get a
new Medicaid member as a as a payer,
you know, they had asked us to help
people find work. It wasn't a requirement, but
it was just help people who wanted to
find work when you were helping them find
a primary care physician. We thought that was
such a neat, you know, effort. And it
and it made us look what can we
do as a system. At the same time,
you know, we have hundreds of thousands of
Medicaid members. Many are already working. We also
are the largest nongovernmental
employer, you know, as an integrated system here
in Pennsylvania. So we had an opportunity with
thousands of open jobs and so many people
that were already in our family to make
sure that we were providing, you know, opportunities
for work. And then at that moment, you
know, when the pandemic hit and one in
three of our neighbors were filing jobless claims,
it was time for us, you know, to
step up and to show up in our
communities and help people that had skills, you
know, find careers with us that we're gonna
help care for our communities. So that's how
we started this Pathways to Work program. We're
able to work with Brandy and so many
other leaders on helping to place people in
careers, in apprenticeship programs, other training programs.
It's just been, you know, just a incredible
joy to work,
with you, Brandy, and so many others to
make this program work, and, can't wait to
talk more about it. Yeah. No. It's amazing.
I mean, you're really helping
your members beyond just just benefits.
What about you, Brandy? Why why'd you wanna
get involved in this kind of work?
So and it's a pleasure, you know, working
with the whole team and Dan,
at UPMC.
And part of my role is building pipelines
and, you know, filling those vacant positions that
are meaningful to provide patient care.
And why not helping others seek meaningful,
stable professions in health care and them having
a dream. We're helping them to fulfill the
dream, especially we're gonna get into apprenticeships,
but the apprenticeships help to provide on the
job training
while assisting them with their education cost and
expenses,
and really just
promoting what we have at UPMC.
Some of the times people don't really know.
Yes, they know about nursing, they know about
being a physician,
However, there is a multitude
of careers that we're going to get into
today that helps provide,
you know, services
from a health care arena and provide great
patient care.
Absolutely, and I'm glad you brought that up,
Brandy. Let's talk about what these apprenticeships
look like on the ground. What's available to
your members?
What exactly is the health system offering?
So some of the apprenticeships that we're offering
at UPMC,
we just new and improved, we just got
it approved as our LPN to RN or
RNR
or registered nurse resident
apprenticeship.
So we're very much in the infancy stages
to launch here, in the next few weeks.
We also have a surgical
technologist
apprenticeship
that we're working towards to get it launched
this fall as well sometime in the August
room
and then in the works we have our
imaging or diagnostic
tech apprenticeship
and those are the individuals that take x
rays. So if you have a broken bone,
they're gonna help. So we're working towards that
to launch this far fall
and then the pharmacy
tech apprenticeship,
which they are instrumental
in our pharmacies pharmacies
to really help prepare medications,
get our meds to our patients, and so
forth. And, Dan, I know you also,
have a few apprenticeships
too. Wow. Brandy, that is incredible. I like
hearing you. I can't wait for the fall.
This is just gonna be a beautiful day
in the neighborhood. I think Jacob too, one
of the the first kind of first one
that we had that we saw some success
to see where, you know, some of our
other leaders could look and see what they
could do was in facilities maintenance. And I
think, you know, as as we all know,
when you think the world pressure, if you
think a lot of the the trades and
which is wonderful, and they've laid the path
for that. And I think we saw that
we were, you know, having an an an
aging workforce and facilities maintenance across our 40
plus hospitals and other locations.
You know, our leaders took a chance, built
a program, you know, that where people get
some education here at one of our community
colleges and and other partners, and then are
able to work in our hospitals starting starting
young to make sure we're showing, you know,
what the the careers can be in getting
into some of the schools. So that was
kind of the gateway. We saw some of
that work, built some, you know, ability to,
you know, make sure that we could replicate
a model that, you know, we we believe
this could be the model for the country
and how a how a health care system
can, you know, build apprenticeships that also hire
individuals with barriers to work or off Medicaid.
So it's just a beautiful day.
Absolutely. It's so exciting, and it really it
spans the entire spectrum of what's available at
the health system, it sounds like.
And congratulations
on on the nursing one this fall. That's
very exciting.
Dan, can you expand a little bit for
us in terms of on the ground, what
these individuals are are seeing, what they're receiving
in terms of the benefits of participating in
something like this?
Yeah. So, you know, I think at the
beginning of our our journey, it was a
couple things. Like, we, at first, wanna make
sure that people who have skills can get
right into careers if they can. But then
if they desired some preemployment training, we built
a couple new programs there that were great,
five, six week programs that people could get
in and get into a, you know, a
career mostly entry level fields. I think what's
beautiful about apprenticeships
is that you're able to work, go to
school at the same time, and get other
supportive services, which has been great. Helping people
with transportation,
with materials, books, whatever it might be. You
know, I can't say enough about our department
of labor and industry here in the Commonwealth
and the governor's vision and secretary Walker here
around how they've looked at new sector apprenticeships
to make it available to people like me
and Brandy to to to try this and
to try to build it because the benefits,
you know, are right there. And we've seen
incredible retention rates, you know, with other employers
and other, you know, sectors, and we're seeing
that here. So I think that's kind of
the piece, kind of the wrap around supports,
you know, that that last quite a bit
longer than a three or four week program.
So that's a big benefit,
and also can't say enough about our workforce
investment board partnerships and, you know, how they're
willing to take a chance with us to
make something work.
Absolutely. And it's it's very it's exciting to
hear that this has been supported by by
the state as well. It would be, incredible
if this is a model that could be
spread, like you said, to the to the
rest of the country and to across other
systems.
Brandy, can you talk a little bit about,
what's the apprenticeship
grant that UPMC
most recently received, and what's the amount here?
What in dollars? What are we talking about?
Sure. So, Jacob, first, we are honored and
grateful to be the recipients
of this grant. It is actually the supporting
Pennsylvania's
health care sector through apprenticeships and pre apprenticeships
grant program. And we received $400,000
to support these apprenticeships.
And it's the four apprenticeships I talked about.
And
it will be instrumental. This will be providing
funding
that will support the apprentice.
And it will help with wages,
books, tuition, uniforms,
you name it. It helps this individual
or these individuals
in this apprenticeship program
to, as I talked about,
get the career of their dreams.
And specifically
with the LPN to RN apprenticeship program and
can I highlight we're the first in the
state
to get this apprenticeship
so then people in the state can duplicate
this apprenticeship will be phenomenal to help LPNs
get their RN
and then come into our workforce, stay in
Pennsylvania
and get wage reimbursement,
get help with tuition and so forth? And
the other apprenticeships will as well. So this
grant is instrumental, and that's why it's important
to have additional grants like this in the
future
to help apprentices
and to help our workforce and grow them
in the state of Pennsylvania.
Absolutely. So it's not just providing them that
career and education support, but also everything that
comes along with it as well, the tuition,
the books, all all that good stuff. It's
amazing.
Dan, in in terms of the work that
you're doing, how do you how do people
find out about this? How do they apply?
How do they actually,
you know, take advantage of something like this?
Yeah. It's a great question, Jacob. You know,
I think for us, you know, in our
our pathways to work model that we have,
we will show up anywhere, anytime, whether it's
a thousand people or one person that's interested
in a career with us or or elsewhere.
So what we've tried to do is make
sure that we have recruiters. We call them
dream makers, and they go out in the
community with me and and and our team
and and others to just share about careers,
to share that we have a place here
to help navigate. We work with other workforce
development partners, schools, of course, but then training
organizations, community based organizations
to make sure that they know if they
have someone interested in a career that they
can reach out. So we've had five years
of building trust here to make sure that,
you know, when people see us, they know
that we will help. It's not a guarantee
of a job always, but it's a guarantee
to have somebody there to help navigate, and
we're gonna use that model for these apprenticeship
programs that Brandy was going in to make
sure that we're working in our schools, working
in our neighborhoods that have higher unemployment rates,
you know, where people, you know, just desire
to have a, you know, a potential life
changing career. So I think it's all about
first just showing up and making sure that
we're showing up everywhere where people have an
interest in careers, but then really communicating, what
this
training programs look like, what an apprenticeship program
looks like to make sure we have no
no wrong door to enter our pathways to
work program, which we love. And Absolutely. Jacob
and Dan, if I can add too, not
only will the apprentice
be a UPMC
employee,
but they will be in school. So you
will be a student and an employee because
you're receiving valuable training, learning from the best
to be the best,
and you will find the apprenticeship
specifically,
as a career on upmccareers.com
and it will be labeled as such. And
you apply just like a regular employee would
and then you will be into The Apprentice.
And then with our either our own UPMC
schools or with our academic partners, you'll have
to meet the requirements for application
for a student, but it's a dual role.
So specifically towards some of our apprenticeships within,
the LPN to RN, the search tech imaging,
and pharm tech.
Perfect. Yeah. I appreciate that tag on there,
Brandy, on exactly how someone would access this.
One thing I do wanna ask you both
about because, obviously, as you both know, this
is a very quickly changing and evolving industry,
health care overall.
So how do these apprenticeships how does this
financial support that you're offering
members, how does that adapt to meet the
demands of of a very quickly changing industry?
Can you talk about that, Dan? I mean,
how does this how does this program stay
flexible?
Yeah. I'll I'll start, and then I know
Brandy can can rock through. I I think,
you know, for us, it's all about making
sure that we help people find the right
fit, and that may not be the first
time. You know? It's it's just maybe they
get into a career as a as a
patient care tech and wanna become a nurse
and, you know, can go along that that
journey. So I think for us,
that's key. And then also making sure that,
you know, that we are right there, you
know, partnering with our public sector and the
private sector here together. I think that's what's
made this beautiful is that we learned, you
know, pretty quickly. Okay. An an imaging career
and that that pathway, that education pipeline that
Brandy can go into more is perfect for
an apprenticeship, you know, and perfect to learn
a bit on the job and get this
done even if we just make sure that
we, you know, get get through the part
of getting it registered and and get it
moving. So I I see that as adapting,
and I think the beautiful thing is, you
you know, once we've we we continue to
have bits of success, and then that just
brings more partners and passionate people on to,
you know, make this work in other areas.
I don't know. Brandy, what do you think?
Yeah. And Jacob and Dan, those individuals that
come in as an EVS employee that says,
I wanna be a pharm
tech. We have the means and the pathway
to get them there. And one of our
brand new, hopefully, proved apprenticeships
for pharm tech will help an individual be
successful for wages and all the reimbursement and
all the covering of expenses.
These
apprenticeship programs and workforce development pathways
really help individuals who never thought it was
possible to pursue their dream career. And it
could be in nursing and say, I get
into nursing and this isn't for me. And
then I flip to imaging and that's okay.
But we have a multitude of of directions
that an individual can go providing the valuable
skills and instructions.
And these apprenticeship programs and the grant funding
is the funding.
It is so important to keep our pipelines
to fill our vacant workforce positions
while giving people the opportunity
to pursue these valuable careers.
And why not? Learning from the best to
be the best.
We give valuable instruction and provide them on
the job training to pursue these careers.
Wonderful. Well, before we go, I'd I'd love
to get any final thoughts, last tidbits of
advice you wanna offer all the other health
care leaders listening in from all over the
country. Brandy, why don't you start us off?
I'm just gonna say, why would you not
want apprenticeships
in health care arena?
You know, we need to be innovative, so
this isn't the time to sit on the
sidelines. Let's be innovative together.
So you create an apprenticeship, I create an
apprenticeship, and we're just gonna duplicate it because
we're going to feel the workforce. We're going
to feel the pipeline need,
and then getting exposure out to our middle
and high school students
are so important
because
we need to talk about the multitude
of professions
in our buildings today
so that people
will go towards those professions
and
have careers,
have dream careers. That's what we're all about
is making dreams happen.
And, Dan, your closing thoughts for us? I
I I love it, Brandy. It does make
me think about our our kinda third person
who's not with us today, our our our
HR leader. He always says we have every
career but a firefighter here at at UPMC,
and it's true. You know? And that's the
beautiful thing. There's a fit for everybody, but
that's up to us to continue to show
up and communicate that. I would say, Jacob,
one of the biggest things for us that's
that's helped us along the way is going
to meet our workforce investment boards. You know,
every county has one or group of counties
and just showing up and try trying things,
being a little bit vulnerable to try to,
you know, figure out what what might work
and, you know, even if something doesn't work,
just trying the next. And that's how we've
gotten here, just with common goals of trying
to help our communities and help our, you
know, impact that we wanna make in in
those communities and, just, you know, be with,
you know, those that are that are ready
to make a life changing difference, you know,
through a life changing career. So we we
love it. I would say that's the biggest
thing, though. That's helped us along the way
is our our workforce boards and then, of
course, the labor and industry team that's just
been wonderful here in the Commonwealth. And, you
know, we know that's everywhere. We're happy to
talk to anybody anytime who wants to talk
about this journey.
Fantastic. Well, you you can really feel the
passion you both have for for this work
and for the people you serve coming through
through the screen right now. So,
just really appreciate Dan, doctor Hershberger for for
taking the time to sit down with us
and for sharing about the impactful work going
on under under your leadership at UPMC. We
really appreciate it. Thank you. Our pleasure.
And to our listeners, if you'd like to
listen to more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare, you
can visit beckershospitalreview.com.