Promoting Workforce Development While Curbing the COVID-19 Pandemic
Program
Highlights
In addition to helping curb the COVID-19 pandemic through PHI’s Tracing Health contact tracing program, PHI and our partners Kaiser Permanente and Futuro Health are also helping to create a more diverse workforce for the future. From 2020-21, 34 staff from Tracing Health took the opportunity to further their healthcare careers with additional training in a University of Delaware Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Certificate Program.
17 Tracing Health staff who were eligible were all accepted into the Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Certificate Program
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Focus Areas
Capacity Building & Leadership, Communicable Disease Prevention -
Issues
Technology & Telehealth, Workforce Development -
Expertise
Leadership Development -
Strategic Initiatives
COVID-19 -
Experts
Emily Henke, MPH, BA
In addition to helping curb the COVID-19 pandemic through PHI’s Tracing Health contact tracing program, PHI and our partners Kaiser Permanente and Futuro Health are also helping to support workforce development for the future. There are many roles in healthcare employment that are in demand, including a wide range of clinical, administrative and support functions. As telehealth continues to expand, more health systems are looking for help in coordinating and administering their telemedicine programs.
From 2020-21, 34 Tracing Health team members who were eligible were accepted into the University of Delaware Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Certificate Program. Futuro Health sponsored the Tracing Health staff in this training to attend the 15-week training tuition-free.
Tracing Health also partnered with the El Sol Neighborhood Education Center on workforce development. In 2021, thirty Tracing Health staff worked toward their Community Health Worker (CHW) certificates.
While preparing staff for future healthcare employment, our workforce development program also aims to help build a more diverse healthcare workforce. The majority of our Tracing Health staff are hired from within the communities we serve, and most are bi- or multi-lingual. By supporting our diverse staff in their professional development, Tracing Health is supporting staff who otherwise may face systematic unequal access to career and educational opportunities. Ultimately we aim to help create a healthcare workforce that looks more like the communities we serve, while also interrupting systemic racism in healthcare delivery and creating better care and outcomes for communities of color.
The Advanced Telehealth Coordinator training program is for healthcare staff with at least three years of current or recent health care experience, especially those interested in clinical roles with responsibility for coordinating or administering telehealth. Tracing Health staff will continue in their roles with the Tracing Health program while attending the Delaware training on their own time.
At the inception of the PHI and Kaiser Permanente partnership, Futuro Health CEO Van Ton-Quinlivan welcomed the collaboration:
“At a time when COVID-19 cases are surging in California, Futuro Health is pleased to
join Kaiser Permanente, the Newsom Administration, the Public Health Institute, and the philanthropic community to support efforts in contact tracing and those who will serve on these agile community health teams.”
For more information see the University of Delaware Advanced Telehealth Coordinator Certificate Program website.
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