Pictured front row L to R: Nancy Crago, Theresa Angeletti, Glena Greene, Carmen Combs and Tina Lackey. Second row: Kim Brown, Christie Smith, Helen Skaggs, Audra Althouse, Edna Maxwell, and Class Coach, Lee Smallwood.

Fayette County Memorial Hospital recently held a reception for those completing the facility's first School as Work® Program (SAW). SAW is an eight month instructional program developed by Catalyst Learning of Louisville, Ky to help those employees interested in building a career ladder in healthcare.

"Our goal for this program was to offer continuing education to our employees in support positions so they could transition to clinical positions", stated Tina Powers, FCMH Vice President of Human Resources.

The FCMH SAW program began in May of 2005 with ten employees who had chosen to enroll in the program and had completed an assessment test. These employees met two hours each week and were led by either an instructor by DVD or in a computer lab working on modules. Lee Smallwood, Manager of Environmental Services and Tina Powers were the coaches for the weekly classes. They each attended a two day course hosted by Catalyst Learning to teach them how to manage the program.

The first portion of the program was "Introduction to Healthcare". This course was designed to provide the students with a brief review of the skills needed to succeed in the SAW Program and in the workplace. Some of the topics included were: career planning, grammar, math, communication skills and computer skills. The second portion of the studies was "Becoming a Healthcare Professional" and included medical terminology, medical ethics and policy, effective interpersonal skills for the healthcare professional, effective organizational skills, preparation for a role as a healthcare professional and anatomy and physiology.

The program ended in December under the direction of Lee Smallwood with 100% completion. Catalyst Learning has advised FCMH that this is the first time a coach has achieved a 100% retention rate. On February 8th, Lee will be sharing her ideas on keeping students motivated and engaged as they move through the SAW program with other SAW Coaches all over the United States.

Four of the attendees have made career ladder moves since completion of the SAW program. Tina Lackey has moved from Medical Records Department Secretary to Unit Coordinator in the Outpatient Specialty Clinic. Tina, a FCMH employee since 1999 felt the program was very helpful and she was able to achieve her goal to move into a clinical setting to work more closely with the patients.

Helen Skaggs stated, "I appreciated the opportunity to be included in the SAW Training Course. I wanted to stay focused and prayed for this opportunity for career advancement and for future training". Helen moved from her position in Environmental Services to Medical Records after completion of the course.

Edna Maxwell saw the program as a great opportunity to learn new skills and move forward in her career path and was grateful to the hospital for this opportunity. She also moved from Environmental Services to Medical Records.

Nancy Crago, with the skills learned through the program changed positions within her department of Medical Records.

Other attendees were greatly impacted by the educational offering. Many will be furthering their education with plans to pursue their dreams of a college education.

Additional comments expressed by some of the students included: Kim Brown, Dietary Department, who stated "I really enjoyed the great learning opportunity. The medical terminology portion made me want to broaden my horizons and further my education even more".

Theresa Angeletti said, "I felt the SAW program would be one step forward to better myself and give me the confidence to succeed". She especially enjoyed the computer skills training as she had not had the opportunity to work with a computer prior to the class.

FCMH plans to continue this program and has three employees to date on the waiting list for the 2006 class. Students for the 2005 class were: Tina Lackey, Christie Smith, Theresa Angeletti, Carmen Combs, Glena Green, Audra Althouse, Kim Brown, Nancy Crago, Helen Skaggs and Edna Maxwell.