FTC: You have said that the graduates of Columbus Technical College are “ready to perform from the day they walk into the hospital.” Please expand upon how you feel about the relationship between St. Francis Hospital and Columbus Tech.

MG: First of all, we’re committed to the college because it is so important today with the significant shortage of healthcare personnel, not just nurses, but also, as you know, allied health people are also in great demand and there’s a shortage of employees in that area, too.

Healthcare is one of the few industries out there that’s in a growth mode, significant growth mode. In fact, I saw some statistics recently indicating that healthcare was the number one projected employer of the future in terms of opportunities. And that is so true because of the ageing of the population and a whole host of other characteristics that impact upon all of us. We have been very delighted with the fact that, first of all, Columbus Technical College has moved more aggressively into the training of healthcare specialities.

We are, basically, as many hospitals are now, facing a significant shortage of registered nurses. And we have committed to Columbus Technical College that we will be a major employer of their graduates coming out of the program. The reality is theirs is a two-year program, and some of the other programs in this community provide the four-year baccalaureate degreed registered nurse. But we’ve been very surprised and delighted to date with the quality of the people that have come out of Columbus Tech. So, it’s not like we have recognized some deficiency relative to the quality of the graduates.

Now, what we do (as many hospitals do) for the nurses we employ, regardless of the educational program they graduate from, is we provide a very extensive mentoring and ongoing educational program for all registered nurses.

FTC: Excellent.

MG: Yes, it is. It’s not due to any deficit of Columbus Technical College or any other school out there. All graduates who enter into our workforce here go through a fairly lengthy and very intense continuing education program. In other words, we have a new graduates program, and that’s what we call it – the New Graduates Program. We have our own internal staff who train these people real time. They are actually taking care of real patients, real time, but it is, literally, six months to a year, depending on the area, for a registered nurse graduate to be up to speed where they’re proficient to work independently. It just takes that long. If it’s in an I.C.U. setting, it may take a year to learn all of the things that go into it: the equipment and the charting and the technology and the characteristics of the organization and forms and policies and procedures. It takes a while to master all that, and it’s very complex, especially when you have a hospital like ours, which has 200-plus physicians who maybe are floating in and out and the nurses are taking care of their patients.

FTC: And the one constant is the nursing staff, in terms of all the doctors in and out.

MG: That’s right. That is right. The fact of the matter, as has often been said, a patient in the hospital’s care ultimately comes from the nurse. Doctor’s come in for a few minutes, usually twice a day, but the twenty-three hours in between, or literally twenty-three hours and forty-seven minutes are provided by nurses and other allied-health personnel.

What we have found, and what I think I was trying to say, is that these Columbus Technical College graduates have performed on a very equivalent basis with graduates of other programs, including four-year, in terms of their ability to assimilate and understand and work with our staff.

FTC: And then would they be encouraged, as their careers continue, to go and finish and get the four-year degree or other training?

MG: We have available to our staff here – not just in nursing, but throughout the organization – various programs – educational-support programs, tuition assistance, scholarships, a host of methods – to assist two-year graduates to get the four-year degree and also the licensed practical nurse to move on to the registered-nurse level.

FTC: That’s great. Growing your own workforce.

MG: It is, somewhat out of necessity, but we’ve been doing it for many years, even before this shortage became so acute. In fact, some of these nurses here at St. Francis are students at Columbus Technical College, and also at some of the other colleges around the community.

FTC: That’s very encouraging. And so it really is a true partnership with the school in terms of the supply and even in terms of the people cycling back in for other educational opportunities.

MG: That’s right. It’s not just us taking complete unknowns out of that program. Sometimes those people who come out of that program are our own people who’ve gone back to further their education.

FTC: The nature of this work, too, gives people more, perhaps, than certain other types of jobs, in that they may find certain deeper rewards.

MG: Well, there’s a real sense of accomplishment when things go right, and then there’s also the flip side, when circumstances fall outside of your ability to control them. Nursing takes a special personality, and the work is extremely vital. It’s a sad state of affairs that today, in this country, we have such a tremendous shortage of registered nurses relative to the demand.

Fortunately for this organization, we’re not nearly as acute as some facilities as far as the shortage. We have here, quite frankly, a mild shortage of registered nurses, but some hospitals throughout the state – throughout the country – are facing extremely severe situations where they are closing beds, they’re closing units, they’re closing services, because they don’t have the people they need.

FTC: So your work with the various educational institutions is obviously helping keep you in the better position.

MG: I think so. I’m just hoping that this is being duplicated throughout the state and throughout the country, with the emphasis now on the tremendous shortage, that a lot more resources are now being directed toward overcoming that shortage. I think in time we will see this catching up. But large hospital organizations, healthcare organizations like ours, are always going to have a need for nurses and allied health personnel.

FTC: And with the aging baby boomers, it’s not going to get any better soon.

MG: Exactly.

FTC: You’ve mentioned the other healthcare jobs your organization includes besides physicians and nurses. Could you speak about the whole range of other kinds of jobs that come out of Columbus Tech’s programs and are vital to your organization?

MG: Well, I guess if you look at the total context, there are not a lot of programs whose graduates we don’t have some need for – a lot of people do not realize that hospitals employ the full range of professions. We have working in this facility everyone from ministers and lawyers and engineers to clerical and maintenance and housekeeping and beyond.

FTC: Oh, that’s right. It’s a wide-ranging facility.

MG: Yes, it is. So there are a number of areas where, over the years, we’ve hired graduates out of Columbus Technical College that are not in health-related professions, per se. We hire people out of – and I don’t recall all of the programs they have, of course – but out of clerical programs and many technical and professional programs. Of course, we do hire and have great need for all of the health-related programs, whether it’s in the medical records arena, radiology, or respiratory therapy and many more. St. Francis, like most larger facilities, we have just about all the services. There’s very few healthcare professions that we don’t employ.

FTC: And then, too, as you’ve pointed out, there are all the things you need just to keep a business going.

MG: We have all of them. There’s very few professions, literally very few professions out there – such as accountants, other financial people, medical records people, the list just goes on and on. There are very few that we do not have a need for – the health-related areas, especially – that we don’t have a need for periodically at least. We probably hire, on average, thirty to forty people each month.

FTC: And that’s not exactly the trend for most businesses these days.

MG: That’s exactly right. Our situation is not driven so much by how other businesses are driven. Healthcare probably as much as any business is somewhat immune to the economic conditions that affect other employers. People are still going to have accidents, and people are still going to have babies, and they are still going to have heart attacks, and people are still going to get hurt, they’re going to get sick, all those things that happen in life, and so they’ll come in and they’ll need medical care, they’ll need rehab services, or they may need homecare services or they may need assisted-living arrangements. Maybe they need the outpatient services that we provide through our women’s center, through dietary training, and other services. We have a durable medical-equipment company and a number of other related activities that go somewhat outside the realm of traditional acute-care hospital situations.

We have public-relations people, we have bio-engineering, as most organizations do, we have HR functions, we have a psychiatric hospital – separate, but a part of our organization – that needs all kinds of psychiatric nurses, psychiatric counselors, mental-health consultants – you name it.

So when you add up the totality of all these different activities, there’s a good number of the graduates out of Columbus Technical College that would be candidates for employment with this organization.

FTC: You’ve really broadened the definition of the connection between St. Francis Hospital and Columbus Technical College. Is there anything else you’d like to add?

MG: The only other thing I would add is that I am hopeful – and confident, at the same time – that Columbus Technical College can continue to assimilate and provide those resources out there to continue the various programs that we’re talking about here into the future, that we can continue to see improvements. I am confident, also, that the number of people interested in health-related areas is going to continue to grow – and so will the number of applicants the school will experience.

I hope that all of our technical colleges, especially our local technical college, Columbus Tech, have the ability to accommodate all the different numbers that go into that mix and continue to put resources into keeping it, making it an ever-improving, quality program as it relates to all the health-related activities, especially nursing. I know they will, but that’s always the concern we have about any educational activity that involves people that we bring into this organization, to take care of our patients. We look forward to our future together.