Kathleeen Wessel (Host): Join us as we uncover the secrets of harnessing workforce insights pave the way for sustainable workforce models built on centralized data intelligence. Welcome to a HA Associates Bringing Value, a podcast from the American Hospital Association. In this series of podcasts, we speak with a HA associate program, business partners, and check in on their efforts and learn how they support a HA hospital and health system members.

I'm Kathleen Wessel, vice President of Business Management and Operations at the a HA, and today I'm joined by Larissa Africa, vice President of Healthcare Workforce Solutions at Ascend Learning. And Jenna Loy Fisher, vice President of Clinical Excellence Healthcare Workforce Solutions, also at Ascent Learning. Larissa and Jenna, welcome to the podcast.

I wanna get started. With our first question, you know, the field overall looks for innovative strategies to address the intertwined challenges of retaining team members and helping them thrive. What can Ascend Learning healthcare workforce solutions do to help a HA members in terms of building stronger talent Pipelines.

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: Yeah, it's a great question Kathleen, and I think you know really because we originated out of National Health Career Association, which we refer to as NHA, That is a sister company of ours under Ascend Learning. And our expertise really spans across allied health roles like patient care techs, medical assistance, phlebotomy, techs, all the way through nursing and medicine.

And our approach always begins with strategic development. Align to build those strong relationships, those strong pipelines for hire and really developing staff to advance all along their career path for the entirety that they are in their career. We really refer to that as supporting them from hire to retire.

Larissa Africa: Well, you know, and coming from Verson where we led the market and competency base onboarding. Our focus was on new graduate nurses. Since Brunt was acquired by Ascend, a learning technology company with clinical ladders and competency management platform from staff Garden. Uh, healthcare Workforce Solutions is bringing all these critical components together to tackle workforce development.

Our structure, processes and framework at a center are designed to propel the clinical workforce into the future.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): Wonderful stage setting for us. Can you share your background at Ascend Learning Healthcare Workforce Solutions, you know, what experiences led you to your current roles? Larissa, why don't we start with you?

Larissa Africa: Sure, absolutely. So I've been a nurse for over 25 years, and 23 of those 25 have been focused on transition to practice programs or TTPI was a new graduate resident and A TTP myself. I was a preceptor. Curriculum coordinator and program manager, I helped transition what was a department based capability into a national provider of transition to practice program where I created a competency based framework for onboarding.

As a former CEO and President for Competency Solutions, I spent a lot of time strategizing with leaders of organizations nationwide, as well as with nationally known key opinion leaders on how we continue to support the initial and ongoing development of our nursing workforce. Last fall, as I mentioned earlier, as an acquired versent, and I'm just really excited to have joined a learning and technology organization that will take what I've built to the next level

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: From my standpoint. My background also spans maybe a little over 25 years. Not quite too far over, but my background is pretty diverse in how I started. I started originally as a certified nursing assistant and went on to become a registered nurse. And shortly thereafter, really, um, developed a desire to become a nurse practitioner.

And I worked as a nurse practitioner for 12 years in urology specialized. And in that particular practice, we were early adopters of the electronic health record, And we really didn't have the workforce to support that early adoption. So I would go home in the evenings and weekends and really learn how to build and architect that system to support.

Our needs, the clinical workflow needs within the practice that I was in. Um, And that really, really fueled my passion around technology and how technology can be used to aid and support clinicians in any of our healthcare settings. So really wanting to further my leadership role. I went on to become the leader of a pre-licensure nursing program and.

Really, again, technology was there at that intersection of education and healthcare where we were really needing our students to be able to be technologically savvy. So we really had to incorporate and, and update our curriculum to really ensure that we had that in there where they were comfortable with technology because it was now ubiquitous in the care that they were providing.

From that role, we really did advance that program and I was recruited back to the healthcare system to work as their inaugural chief nursing informatics officer, where they were bringing the disparate electronic health records, getting rid of them, and moving to one integrated healthcare system, electronic health records system.

Great experience, great time there to really support the clinicians in that role. I also was able to work as the interim CIO for about nine months. And, um, take them through a full ERP implementation as well. But when I transitioned back to the CNIO role, I also became the VP of clinical excellence.

I had to support the clinical educators And the teams that really did serve the clinicians in the acute care setting, as well as nursing research, nursing quality, the simulation center. And it really did give me a really good lens to look through the difference between academic. Education and preparation versus practice education and continued ongoing support for them.

When Ascend really decided they were trying to make that decision of over 25 years supporting the academic world, both students and faculty, I joined Ascend to really work through what does the practicing clinicians, what do they need? Could we support those needs? And so that's when I transitioned into this role in 2022 and have been very proud of the work that Ascend is putting in And the talent that we're bringing into the space, like with Larissa alongside us.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): First, I have to comment you like a challenge, don't you?

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: I do like a challenge. It's fun to build things. I like to renovate, so to speak.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): I love that. And also bringing technology into the learning environment and kind of making it part of, you know, what and how people learn because it is so important that you know, it becomes another tool that you can use, not something separate.

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: We always focus on people first, then process, then technology. The folks that we work with and alongside, we really have to understand their needs to bring a solution to market That is actually going to make a difference for them.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): That's wonderful Workforce. You know, great segue. Workforce is a primary focus here at a HA. It's, it's one of our, uh, key strategic priorities, um, and has been, You know, it, it's, it's part of, you know, everything we think about on a year to year basis when we're developing our strategies long and short term.

So it's clearly top of mind members. With Ascend Learning Healthcare Workforce Solutions, recently acquiring Staff Garden in their digital clinical ladder and competencies platform, as well as RS and their clinical competencies. Can you share a little more about these solutions and how they fit into your vision for where you wanna take workforce development to benefit a HM member hospitals?

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: Yeah, I mean, I think we really have to start with where most of the health systems are today. They have very fragmented systems. They have low tech processes. There are a lot of pain points that we are trying to address from a limited line of sight to limited insights that all these tools are giving back to you, right?

So we have lots of data in the healthcare world, And then we have to go through the laborious steps of really. Peeling the data apart, analyzing the data and figuring out what is the data trying to tell us, and really where we're getting to with technology, we should be able to have those insights delivered to us so that we're not having to spend an enormous amount of time even analyzing the data, but also it should be able to identify for us where are there gaps, where are there potential missed opportunities?

When we're working with our, um, clinical teams and our patient's, but then there's also this space within healthcare that's really burdened with a lot of paper processes, right? We go back to processes, and I mean the stacks of papers, or if it's not on paper, it's in some type of spreadsheet.

It's incredibly burdensome to get that data entered in. It requires a ton of non-productive hours for them to work through And also. It's not a very engaging process for our managers, our leaders, our clinicians at the bedside. And these tools, if it is on paper or spreadsheets, it really doesn't inspire us to continue to grow in our careers if our focus is around career development and advancement and retention of all those things.

So when we spent, we ascend Learning. Spent about 18 months really. Talking to key leaders, talking to chief nurse officers, talking to nursing professional development specialists, and talking to the nurses that are delivering that direct care to really hone in on those pain points and what's being done to really support our clinicians at the bedside.

And what we found was that it was a lot of laborious processes, so many steps just to be able to determine if you're eligible to be on like a ladder or things like that. We knew that ladders were very, very, uh, popular and useful. And we know that with clinical ladders, that if you are on that ladder and you achieve that ladder, you're more likely to stay with an organization.

And so we felt like ladders were really table stakes for us being in this particular market. And Staff Garden has a very robust solution for that. And we started talking with them. They are very passionate. In supporting this particular part of the workforce, and it was a really great fit for us.

It made sense for that partnership And that acquisition to happen, And we are incredibly thankful to have Staff Garden now within the Ascend Learning team within our company, And we are able to show that there is higher engagement in the ladders. There is better adoption of the ladders when you are working through that through a digital solution.

In addition to that, we also knew that competencies is also a huge pain point in this industry. And again, staff Garden has that along with our, um, NT competencies in working with Larissa. And so that really drove those decisions because we feel like these are foundational solutions that we need in order to get us to the longer term vision to support.

This workforce to really be transformational in how we support the clinicians, but also the leaders in this environment so that they have true line of sight. They have data That is turned into information where they can acquire knowledge and take action on. And that's really where we're trying to get to with these different solutions and growing.

Larissa Africa: I think just to quickly add to what Jenna was saying, it's really about putting all of these processes and structures together, right? The challenge for many organizations is siloed approaches to onboarding, to development, to. Competency management across units and across individual organizations, which results in inefficiencies across systems. So for us, bringing all of these critical components and workforce development just has a larger impact on the quality of care and making sure that the workforce has ability to practice a top of their scope and license and reduces the burnout among the workforce as well.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): Wonderful information. You know, uh, members are constantly looking for data insights to help make strategic decisions. Manage are leveraging technologies, but often struggle with how to translate that data into action. Can you share some thoughts? On what listeners should be thinking about.

Larissa Africa: Yeah, absolutely. And I'll take that and Jenna, please add, um, to it as well. You know, when I started in nursing, everything was manual, paper-based. It took a long time to capture the data, which means by the time we're ready to address areas for improvement, circumstances have changed. So now we use technology in everything we do.

We have tens and thousands of data points captured in everyday interactions. Unfortunately, the challenge is. How do you use all of this data and leverage that to develop our strategies? So for example, one of the challenges many organizations experience is how to minimize inefficiencies around onboarding. When we use technology, we can see the progress of each individual in real-time.

Then you can determine when are they ready to practice independently. We need to move away from a time-based orientation, for example, and focus on competency-based onboarding. There's a study that I did a couple of years ago that where we were able to show that using a competency-based onboarding. Can save an organization, an average of 12 BA days of orientation, translating to about $6,000 per nurse.

So the technology is here in order to support workforce development strategies. We just need to make sure that we're using that data to make our decision and ongoing strategies.

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: Yeah, and I think in addition to that, with just having that line of sight around retention and engagement, if we come back around to the ladders and think about. If you're on paper or you're on a spreadsheet, it's very difficult to even get line of sight of how many clinicians you even actually have on the ladder and where they are in that process to understand whether or not you need to reach out to them to maybe give them some encouragement or see what's happening with them.

If they started out strong on the ladder And then have all of a sudden fallen off of the ladder And we have data around that to say that anyone on the ladder. Advances on the ladder is likely to stay. If they're on a digital ladder, they're likely to continue to engage in the ladder and complete it because these technologies make it easier to engage, not just for the leader, but also for the clinician.

Where am I in my journey on the ladder? What else do I have left to do? It provides an easy way to view how you are accomplishing the steps needed to complete that ladder, to get that submitted. But also gives that information to the leader as well, to engage with their staff.

That also helps the leader of those different units that they care about their team because they're staying engaged with that and understanding where they are on the ladder.

Larissa Africa: You know, just to add one last thing about the administrative burden that many of our leaders are experiencing, especially when you have a clinical ladder that you are managing manually, right? It takes time away from the things that they really need to do and supporting their staff. So using a digital platform for managing clinical ladder, like what we have with Staff Garden, it reduces that administrative burden.

Enhances communication between leaders. Leaders can focus on the strategic initiatives that align with both their team and organizational goals, and it fosters an environment where quality care is consistently delivered instead of them spending time managing a paper-based system.

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: And the same goes for things like if they are on their magnet journey or if they're. Working through some type of accreditation where they're having to track their outcomes or they're having to know the data around their team. For example, if they're needing to know how many of their nurses are eligible for certification, and of those, how many are actually certified to be able to deliver those reports to the different accrediting bodies.

We want the technology to make it easy for us to achieve these things, and I think that goes back to where the people And the process are so incredibly important because we need to understand what those requirements are and how that data's being captured so that we can architect the system in such a way that allows the technology to easily let you capture that.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): What I'm hearing you say is that you'll help develop staff from onboarding through clinical judgment and continuous career advancement. Can you paint a picture for us of what exactly Ascend Learning Solutions does to relieve some of these workforce challenges faced daily by a HA members, and are those solutions available today?

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: Yes, you're absolutely right. It's all of those things that you talked about with onboarding, with clinical judgment, And we need to have things that are really transformative, and that's what we're proposing here is the idea that health systems adopt a comprehensive strategy. Probably one of the most important things as we continue to work with our partners, where we're able to work with them strategically to digitally integrate solutions that span across their workforce.

All the way through their development from the time that they're onboarded all the way through, so that from that hire all the way through to the where they retire. So from hire to retire, we really wanna support the clinicians And the leaders that are serving and supporting those clinicians.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): Can you give us more on what clinical onboarding is? You know, the clinical development. Describe a little bit of that for us, and can it be beneficial for a HA members across their entire health systems?

Larissa Africa: Great question, Kathleen. You know, when we think about clinical onboarding and development. Organizations must adopt a systemic approach to building a pipeline across the healthcare workforce. You know, I volunteer at middle schools, I talk about nursing, and many are not aware of opportunities in nursing or that even that nursing is even an option for them.

Right? So an ascend. We're creating these opportunities for individuals by deploying training and certification programs that can serve as a springboard for other careers in healthcare. In one of our programs who are only six months into transitioning their CNAs to patient care techs, they shared that four of their patient care techs already started their journey into nursing school.

So it's really more than just about nursing. A clinical onboarding and development strategy has benefits and considerations for both the individual And the organization. For the individual. For example, a robust clinical onboarding promotes confidence and competence in whatever role that individual is in nursing or not. And as these individuals, uh, clinically and professionally develop, they have an option to continue and grow within the same role, or engage in a career pathway for advancement for the organization supporting a robust clinical onboarding and professional development strategy.

As Jenna said, requires innovative and transformative solutions that would ease the administrative burden that's inherent in operationalizing workforce strategies. We need to use technology to manage the competencies of our team, which will provide us with insights on their performance, for example. Nurses in my mind, regardless of experience, want to feel valued.

They aspire to grow and desire opportunities to use their talents. So let's use technology to help them move up that clinical ladder. Manual management of these types of programs are just inefficient and non-sustainable. So as HA members think about their workforce development strategies, let's think about. Leveraging technology for clinical onboarding and professional development.

It's a win-win for both the individual And the organization.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): I think that's wonderful. I, I think as we wrap up, any quick final comments, uh, that you would have on any next step for members as they look to implement new workforce solutions?

Larissa Africa: I think something to think about is organizations look to implement new workforce initiatives. It's important to start from getting clarity on their organizational objectives, which Jenna. The time is now to use a technology driven cross system approach that enables them to transform today's paper-based system or manually prepared spreadsheets into usable insights to help them achieve their strategic goals, whether that's around retention, culture quality, being an employer of choice or something else.

But empowering teams through technology is. No longer just for the point of care. It's really for all the work that goes behind the scenes as well to make sure that patient experiences are of the highest quality And that our workforce who are caring for our patient's, are competent, confident, and they feel valued.

Jenna Lloyd Fisher: Yeah, and I would just add to that, you know. Takeaways for me are when you're looking to implement different solutions that support your strategic direction, right? That's what, that's one of the things that I would say. We really do take our partnerships seriously when we engage with our customers to understand where they're wanting to go from a strategy perspective to ensure that we are.

Partnered alongside them as they enter into a journey to bring yet another system into their world, to really partner with them, to understand strategically where they wanna go, but also be able to configure the system in a way that delivers system value, but also has a little bit of flexibility for those different nuances within the system.

Always looking at that technology, looking at the people and process first. But that technology to Larissa's point around really a lot, what we hear a lot is trying to reduce that administrative burden. So architecting these solutions in a way, partnering with different vendors who understand the pain points that are.

In this industry where we're able to develop a solution that actually does meet the needs that, um, you're trying to achieve, the goals that you're trying to get to. And I think That is a differentiator, honestly, when we are working with different customers, different clients, to really take it to the next level and understand where they're wanting to go, And also being able to integrate with the many different systems that they have.

What we are finding is that integration is key in this industry, and, um, being able to have that option available for our partners, for our customers is, is incredibly important. So as you look at those different initiatives that sometimes could be a mile long or SEMA mile long, And in your annual planning, really look at these different engagements that you do as a true partnership and, and bring alongside.

A company and a partner that really wants to see you do well and just get better and better.

Kathleeen Wessel (Host): Those are wonderful suggestions and I wanna thank both of you, Larissa Gena, thank you for joining the podcast and sharing your takeaway with a HA members. For listeners, if you'd like to learn more about anything we've talked about today on the podcast or the associate program. Please visit us@sponsor.aha.org.

This has been a, A Associates Bringing Value Podcast brought to you by the American Hospital Association. Thanks for listening.