Health First has supported the nonprofit with grants over the last four years
Teri Jones’ Medical Education Technology and Career Academy is helping address a critical staffing shortage.
■ For many adult learners, Teri Jones’ Medical Education Technology and Career Academy is the running start – and financial assistance – many of them need to begin pursuing their dreams of becoming a bedside healthcare professional.
■ Nationally, surveys show healthcare professionals are in demand, earn above-average compensation, enjoy scheduling flexibility and the ability to travel for work, among other benefits.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Recruiting sites highlighting healthcare as a career choice rave – hospitals and clinics offer stimulating environments populated by a variety of entry-level jobs; there’s a strong demand for skilled work with above-average pay; dynamic people are rewarded, and the opportunities keep pace with one’s professional development – and accomplishments.
So why are state agencies reporting a critical shortage of bedside caregivers?
For many, the hardest part is simply how to begin. Teri Jones started the Medical Education Technology and Career Academy to address that very question.
METCA is “a bridge,” she says, to the classrooms and accreditations required to become licensed practical nurses (LPNs), certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and home health aides (HHAs).
Health First, for example, employs about 5,000 healthcare clinicians. Many are registered nurses, but just as many are LPNs, CNAs and HHAs. While a registered nurse (RN) requires two full years in a college classroom (LPNs, one) and a passing score on the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX), CNAs and HHAs can start with much less classroom time – but not none.
“METCA is a bridge for those individuals who have a professional dream, but who have no experience, no background, and especially, who lack the academics to progress into it,” says Jones. “METCA takes people in from all walks of life, but particularly low-income and disadvantaged learners, many who haven’t been inside a classroom in years.”
They begin by attending one of two recruitment fairs, typically in August-September or January. Classes for HHAs and CNAs are three weeks, for LPNs, six. METCA students pay $75 up front, but that investment is returned when they enroll and complete HHA-CNA classes, or the LPN program, because METCA is a preparatory program and scholarship coordinating nonprofit, Jones says.
HHA and CNA students will pay several hundred dollars at a nursing education center, but METCA students pay just the $75 registration fee, then another $100 program enrollment. For LPNs, it’s even greater – thousands of dollars in scholarship funds awarded to offset the costs of schooling.
Health First has supported the nonprofit with grants over the last four years totaling more than $160,000. As a not-for-profit health system, Health First has prioritized expanding access to care, and clinical caregivers are important in meeting that need while sharpening the employment picture in Brevard County.
In a METCA class, students get a running start on their early coursework. They get classroom time and resources, including face time with experienced professionals. They practice interviewing and get a glimpse of the business and operation of healthcare.
“You never know, I might have an individual who wants to start their own healthcare service.”
The three private education centers METCA prepares students for are Brevard Nursing Academy, Educare Envision College of Nursing and DOXA Academy.
“Our students are adult learners who have been out of school for a while, who may struggle with even a TEAS test” – the Test of Essential Academic Skills, an entrance exam for aspiring healthcare professionals – “much less a classroom learning environment, so Teri [Jones] prepares them so that when they come to us, they’ve at least completed tests, they have a study buddy and know how to work together. Yes, her students are a little bit stronger and more prepared.”
Jeff Jurinak, a Health First Vice President in Human Resources for Talent Acquisition, says there are job opening needs up and down the county for all four roles – HHA, CNA, LPN and RN – and Health First’s support of education doesn’t stop once the job is filled.
“Health First is proud to offer tuition reimbursement, as well as other vehicles to support our associates,” he says. “We want to support our Home Health Aides and Certified Nursing Assistants as they pursue the classroom work and test prep to become Licensed Practical Nurses. We continue that support as they become RNs.
“Today, we’re reimbursing tuition for candidates for Nurse Practitioner who began as Nurse Techs and Transporters. When we say ‘Come Grow with Us,’ we put it in your benefits package.”
Jones says more than 400 aspiring CNAs and HHAs, LPNs and RNs have graduated from METCA.
One of Jones’ younger graduates is Harielle Bernadotte, a Nurse Tech on the seventh-floor Medical Surgical Unit at Health First’s Holmes Regional Medical Center.
A graduate of Bayside High School in Palm Bay, Bernadotte took time off after high school to “find herself.” METCA, she says, was a life-changing choice.
“When I tell you METCA has been a foundation of support, I mean the guidance, the support, and the encouragement that Ms. Teri provided me and continues to provide me while I am in nursing school. I always date my success back to METCA.”
Bernadotte has begun the LPN program at Educare Envision, where she recently reunited with Jones.
“Ms. Teri,” she told her, “You care. I hear it when you speak, and the way you check up on your students.”
“Everything has just come together for me here.”
To learn more about the Medical Education Technology and Career Academy, visit metcainc.org, or call (321) 626-6571. To explore Health First nursing opportunities, including setting an automatic alert for new job postings, visit hf.org/careers.
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