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 Holy Cross Provides Incentives for
Employees to Mentor Students
On a monthly basis, Carla Halik, RN, who heads the Holy
Cross Hospital Explorers Program, invites as many as 42 teenage students to her
work place. Halik brings students age 14 through 20 to the hospital to expose
them to various health careers in hopes of recruiting them into a health
profession of their choice. “Forty-two teenagers is quite a handful,”
she says, especially when you’re bringing them into a hospital.” When
the program first started 14 years ago, Halik would seek out her fellow
hospital employees to assist in getting the students around the hospital with
minimal disruption while ensuring that they had an engaging and educational
experience. It was often difficult to get staff to volunteer their time to take
students on a tour. Now Holy Cross Hospital has an Exceptional Contributions
Pay Program that incentivizes its employees to participate in the Explorer
Program. Since the implementation of the incentive program three years ago,
Halik reports that she now has employees coming to her to find out how they can
help with the Explorer Program.
“The Explorer Program is just one of many programs in
which our employees can participate to earn points through our Exceptional
Contributions Pay Program,” says Judy Greaver, Senior Nurse Recruiter. The
program allows employees in any department at any level to earn points that are
exchangeable for increases in hourly wages. A point value is associated with
each of the activities in which employees participate.
Before they can participate in the program, employees must
first meet a minimum requirement of having a satisfactory performance rating
and they must excel in at least two of five performance areas. Once this
requirement is met, the employee has a wide range of activities in which they
can participate to earn exceptional contribution pay ranging from the Explorer
Post to Hospital Week activities; inservice activities such as blood pressure
screenings, and advanced education activities. “Without a doubt, employee
participation in our Explorer Program has increased significantly since the
implementation of the incentive program,” explains Greaver.
The Holy Cross Explorer program was initially designed for
managers to host students on a monthly basis. Halik took over the program a
year after Holy Cross Explorers started, and took it to another level. She now
hosts students twice a month and hospital staff members at all levels get
involved. Halik is currently working with a group of five employees from
varying levels of the endoscopy and eye surgery department who will be
developing a program on the various occupations associated with this division
of the hospital. “We will first show the students the equipment and then
some pictures of various procedures,” said Everie Weathers, an LPN who is
a participant in the Exceptional Contributions Pay Program. Weathers
enthusiastically expressed delight with the Explorer Program adding “the
increase in pay is just an added bonus.” Joyce Collins, a manager in the
endoscopy department says, “It’s great because employees don’t
simply do their jobs and go home.” “This kind of involvement builds
morale.”
One of Halik’s former Explorer students who started the
program in 1993 is Monisha Chohda, RN, who is now a part time Labor and
Delivery nurse at Holy Cross. Even before she participated in the Explorer
Program she knew she wanted to be in the health care profession. “Besides
finding a specialty area I enjoy, the program introduced me to volunteerism
from which I learned life skills that have been invaluable,” said Chohda.
A former president of the Holy Cross Explorer Program, Chohda received
recognition for her outstanding participation in the program and continues to
participate in the program as a mentor. Halik sees Chohda as one of the shining
examples of why the Explorer Program and the employee incentive program are a
good combination and a worthy investment.
Contact:
Judy Greaver
Senior Nurse Recruiter
Holy Cross Hospital
301-754-7036
greavj@holycrosshealth.org
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