Three years ago, St. Charles Health System was experiencing a persistent shortage of Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), with just 30 to 40 percent of positions regularly filled.

“We couldn’t hire them fast enough to fill the need. We were always short CNAs,” said Donna Harrison, operations coordinator for St. Charles.

Now, thanks to an innovative partnership between St. Charles Health System and Central Oregon Community College (COCC), that staffing shortage has closed significantly. Since March 2020, 165 CNAs have gone through the fast-paced immersive program and 10 new trainees just began a new cohort of the successful program.

Under the creative workforce solution, individuals who join the CNA training program are paid and receive benefits while undergoing their intensive 6-week training course. COCC instructors provide the instruction and facilitate the testing and the participants receive hands-on training at St. Charles Bend.

“Our goal with this program is to eliminate as many barriers as possible,” said Harrison. That meant condensing and intensifying the training and making the students employees beginning on the first day.

“COCC is proud to be a reliable, successful, and long-term workforce training partner to St. Charles,” said Laurie Chesley, president of COCC. “Health care staffing shortages require responsive solutions, and together our two institutions have developed a sustainable, replicable approach.”

“With our nationally certified curriculums, established clinical partnerships, and experienced local faculty, COCC was able to quickly deploy an accelerated, on-site cohort model specifically for St. Charles,” adds Julie Downing, instructional dean overseeing Allied Health programs at COCC.

Encouraged by the success of this model, in April 2022 St. Charles also started a similar training program for medical assistants (with a goal to graduate 24 medical assistants annually). St. Charles is also in the beginning stages of developing a program for pharmacy technicians in partnership with COCC.

Vital role

In his role as nurse manager on the progressive care unit, Don Jacobs sees the positive impact CNAs have on patient care every day. “They are doing the things that help patients feel better, like brushing hair, brushing teeth, taking a shower, helping patients get up and walk. The work our CNAs do is what helps our patients heal.”

Jacobs said when the unit wasn’t fully staffed with CNAs, those tasks often fell to nurses, which meant nurses were able to take care of fewer patients, which in turn led to fewer patients being able to be served.

“This program has been a huge success and the CNAs coming out of it are well trained and able to jump in and contribute right away,” said Jacobs.

Serving as a CNA can be an entry point to other careers in health care, with many going on to find careers as nurses, pharmacists etc. But for some, being a CNA is a calling. That’s true for St. Charles Bend CNA Naomi Steele, who discovered her passion for caring for people while taking care of a loved one. The experience inspired her to switch careers and she started the CNA training program six months ago.

“This has been in my bones my whole life. Once I learned that the CNA role spent the most time at the bedside, that’s when I knew that’s where I wanted to be.” Steele says the program was an ideal fit for her. “They not only pay for the program, but they pay you to be in the program. All of it checked all the boxes,” said Steele.

Individuals who are interested in applying to be part of the next CNA cohort can apply now to fill one of 20 seats. The next cohort will begin in October and applications close Aug. 20.

Learn more about the CNA program.