Published: Mar 18, 2024
California Workforce Development Board’s High Road Training Partnership grantee Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD) recently celebrated its first cohort graduation. The program is designed to address critical school nursing shortages and used High Road Framework to create the Sacramento Nurse Residency and Pathway Program. “Over 40% of the school nurse positions were vacant despite a growing need for health services in the schools following the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Hellan Roth Dowden, Teachers for Healthy Kids. The impacts of this HRTP project are clear: SCUSD vacancies were reduced to 5%, creating an opportunity to support additional health aid positions. Historically, the industry faces low retention rates, a challenge SCUSD expects to improve with their fully trained and credentialed staff.
The SCUSD program uses an apprenticeship and residency model to provide mentorship and financial and social support to current non-credentialed nurses and healthcare workers while earning their one-year nursing credential. “This effort can be a model for other school districts in the state: An apprenticeship workplace-based model for helping meet California’s critical shortages of school nurses, psychologists, counselors, and social workers,” said Lisa Musser, SCUSD Project Manager.
Graduates and program facilitators: (left to right) Kirsten Munk, Eva Hipolito, Melissa Linck, Crystal Roberson, Vida Kem-Gray, Fumi Tamenaha, Tracy Starnes, Raisa Gavrilchik, Michele Penman, Michelle Gonzalez, Christy London, Lisa Musser
Recent graduate, Vida Kem-Gray, shared that the program gave her a solid foundation and helped her continue her education while gaining skills and confidence through mentorship. gained skills and confidence because of the mentorship she received through the program. During the graduation ceremony, she shared that the program laid a solid foundation and helped her continue her education, creating a promising future in school nursing. Eva Hipolito, another graduate in the first cohort, was able to find her niche in the nursing profession when she connected with Lisa Musser, the SCUSD Project Manager. (Left to right: Crystal Roberson, Melissa Linck, Eva Hipolito, and Vida Kem-Gray)
Retention of school nurses is a nation-wide problem. Statewide, there is one nurse for every 2,410 students, well below the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended staffing of one nurse for every 750 students. Crystal Roberson was deciding whether to stay or leave like so many before her when she connected to the Sacramento Nurse Residency and Pathway Program. Upon learning of the opportunity High Road funding would provide, she didn’t hesitate to apply. “This program really gave me that chance to be in a role that I love, not give up on school nursing, and be able to thrive,” said Crystal at the graduation ceremony.
Melissa Linck had already overcome the hurdles of maintaining a family and obtaining her bachelor’s degree when she had to choose whether to continue investing in her dream to be a school nurse. The funding from this High Road Training Partnership program addresses the financial stress many school nurses feel when deciding to stay in the profession. Melissa described this opportunity as “nothing short of a blessing, and I am so fortunate.” Melissa Linck (second from the left)
During the first cohort graduation, graduate Michele Penman shared how the mentorship component and the “open door policy” with faculty built her confidence, unlike any other training or education experience.
School nurses are often solo providers, a very different environment from a hospital or physician’s office setting. Christy London (on the right) worked as a preceptor for the first cohort and knows what it’s like to be the only medical person serving multiple campuses. At the graduation, Christy described how beneficial it was to connect and collaborate with her mentees, exercise her leadership skills, and revisit the best practices she learned years ago. When asked if she would be a preceptor again, Christy said, “I would do it again a million times over!”