HANNIBAL (WGEM) – Officials with Hannibal Regional Healthcare System report staffing shortages in some areas, but now have a way to help fix that.
President and CEO Todd Ahrens said a grant from the Missouri Chamber Foundation funds their apprenticeship program, which provides training for free to people wanting to get into the healthcare workforce who might not have the financial means to do so. He said the grant will reimburse them up to $2,000 for every apprentice they train
He said the apprenticeship provides training for tech jobs, patient care tech jobs, medical assistants, which he said they see a shortage of. He said filling these positions helps their patients and staff.
“If you have a gap in patient care techs or medical assistants or somebody or some of these other apprenticeship program opportunities, that can limit our ability to take care of folks just as much as it would be if we didn’t have the nurses and physicians that we need,” Ahrens said.
He said anyone can sign up to be an apprentice and it’s free. He said they started recruiting for their apprenticeship program before they got the money and so far have 25 people in the program. With the new money, they now hope to grow that number
Ahrens said it also provides the opportunity for them to advance their career to go further, like become a nurse or physician. Anne Riggs, the Coordinator of Nurse Development, said this would really help them recruit more local staff to their organization.
“Anytime you got local staff they know the area, they know the patients, and so it provides an opportunity to have good, cohesive care that maybe you wouldn’t get otherwise and so it’s always nice to have staff that are local,” Riggs said.
She said their nurse staffing looks good now, though they are using traveling nurses to fill their numbers. She said the apprenticeship opens up a great opportunity to get more people into the nursing field and fill nursing jobs at Hannibal Regional so they won’t have to use as many traveling nurses.
If you are interested in becoming an apprentice you can call Hannibal Regional Hospital at (573) 248-1300.
Copyright 2023 WGEM. All rights reserved.