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Amid shortage, one program lets health care workers advance education

Report shows over 200 LPN vacancies across the state

Pediatric medical assistant Ashley Bulosan is finally pursuing her dream of becoming a licensed practical nurse through a new training program, which aims to fill Hawaii’s nursing shortage while also building technical skills in primary and specialty care areas.

Kaiser Permanente, UNITE Here! Local 5 and the University of Hawaii Maui College are partnering in the launch of a Practical Nurse Trainee Program, an 18-month curriculum for current students and employees who wish to pursue a career in the nursing field.

“I always wanted to be a nurse, but it was just difficult with life, dealing with marriage, family and just balancing the whole things, so I’ve tried a couple times going back and getting into the nursing program, but of course, life happens,” said Bulosan, a Wailuku resident who’s worked at Kaiser for nearly 17 years. “It’s great, it’s a lot of work … The curriculum is awesome, we have amazing instructors and again, praise God for Local 5 for putting this together.”

Ever since she was a little girl, Bulosan told her grandmother, who raised her, that she wanted to be a nurse — her grandma passed away about 12 years ago.

“I am fulfilling that dream,” she said Thursday afternoon.

Bulosan started the courses in January and said that “it still gives you that opportunity to still provide for your family and go to school at the same time. It’s just an amazing program.”

The training program is meant to build and enhance technical skills in primary and specialty care areas, and to provide a pathway for employees to become licensed and fill open Kaiser Permanente LPN positions across the state, said Dionicia Lagapa, an advanced practiced registered nurse who is also vice president of Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Ambulatory Operations.

“This is a path to advance their careers, improve earning power and increase employment opportunities,” Lagapa said Wednesday.

The inaugural cohort consists of 34 students statewide, including 10 on Maui.

Kaiser Permanente employees applied and were selected in partnership with Local 5, based on UH testing and selection guidelines and collective bargaining unit seniority. Selected applicants had to meet the prerequisites of the UH-Maui College curriculum. They also had to be able to dedicate time for class and study, have the ability to start the program in January, and have a minimum of one year of direct patient service experience.

The program comes as the state continues to deal with a nursing shortage and vacancies, which were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with a demand for education programs that exceeds schools’ capacity.

The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations says there are an estimated 1,000 nurse vacancies in Hawaii and predicts that the demand for nurses will increase by 110 positions each year through 2030.

A 2022 report by the Healthcare Association of Hawaii showed more than 200 open LPN positions in the state, including 31 open positions on Maui. The average turnover rate is 21 percent.

There were 599 total health care openings on Maui representing 36 percent of all positions on the island, according to the report. More than a third of those openings (211) were for nursing assistant and certified nurse aide positions, which equates to 35 percent of all openings.

Other top openings included medical secretaries/ward clerks/unit clerks (35), licensed practical nurses (31), telemetry registered nurses (23) and other clinical specialty registered nurses (23).

And, according to the Hawaii State Center for Nursing’s 2021-22 annual report, the enrollment demand for pre-license nurse education programs at all levels of practice (LPN, RN and APRN) exceeded schools’ capacity to admit students.

“On average, pre-license programs received three times as many applications than they had seats for new students,” the report said.

As the full-time nurse faculty vacancy rate statewide increased from 7 percent to 16 percent through the pandemic, the majority of colleges cited difficulty recruiting full-time faculty and insufficient funds for faculty compensation as two of their major challenges, the report said.

Programs that make it possible for employees to develop their professional skills while on the job will help build the pipeline of nursing professionals in Hawaii, Practical Nurse Trainee Program organizers said Wednesday.

“This program is designed to address finding qualified workers during a labor shortage,” said Daniel Kerwin from UNITE Here! Local 5 in a news release late last month.

Kerwin said that unionized Local 5 workers don’t pay anything for the program or experience loss in wages, and they get schedule flexibility.

According to Mary Farmer, UH-MC’s Allied Health Department chairperson and associate nursing professor, the hybrid program is designed especially for current certified nurse aides and other health care professionals who want to become LPNs through a partnership with Hale Makua, Ohana Pacific Health and Kaiser.

The theory portion of the training is asynchronous and online as students are required to participate in lab or clinical two and half days per week, Farmer said Wednesday, which allows “for flexibility and also allowing the CNAs and MAs to continue to work 20 hours per week in their current positions.”

If enough support and funding is received following this program, then they plan to expand the cohort, she said.

“We will be working with UH Maui and our Local 5 labor partners to evaluate the success of the program, and we are very hopeful we’ll be able to expand in the coming years,” Lagapa said.

* Dakota Grossman can be reached at dgrossman@mauinews.com.

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