Professionals from health care institutions from the Salt Lake and Davis County area came together recently for a Health Care Leadership roundtable at Davis Technical College to discuss what their personnel needs are and how Davis Tech programs can help produce highly skilled workers. 

“It’s our gold standard to get a certified, registered MA,” said Ashlee Shemenski, with Tanner Clinic. “We do have another track that supports the CNA and more recently the EMT basic. We have a different clinical track that they can climb up that ladder based on certifications and things like that.” 

Shemenski said they are capturing the entire market rather than just hyper focusing on MA. “That program seems to be a little more challenging, a little more time consuming. These students want to get in, get their feet wet and then get to the career that they want. So from that standpoint, we certainly hire more MAs than CNAs, but I see value in having a CNA and then they’ll get their phlebotomy and then they go and get the injection course at the Catalyst Center. I feel like we’re pretty successful, but our applicants are very slim.”

For CNA, because of the regulations, they have to be working under the direction of a licensed nurse, said Jodi Buttars, Practical Nurse Coordinator, Davis Tech. “CNAs have to renew their certification every two years and only the licensed nurse can sign that renewal form for them. So we sometimes have them working in positions where they are not working directly under a nurse and there’s not a nurse in that office and we’re not able to accept their renewal. So as you’re hiring and the physician doesn’t know it has to be a licensed nurse and that’s part of the federal regulations of the nursing assistant.”

“We’re implementing a hybrid model, which is online too,” said Davis Tech President Darrin Brush. “So we want the maximum flexibility for all our students. A lot of students want the in person experience. We’re adding the online experience. We’re slowly adding that really judiciously.”

“Because we’re talking about MAs I’d like to add RAD tech into this particularly because we all know that’s an area where we don’t have enough RAD techs,” said Board President and CEO of Lakeview Hospital, Troy Wood. “My understanding is if you have your MA then you can become a limited RAD tech in a short time frame.”

“We have a limited RAD tech program here,” said Dee Weaver, director of Health Programs at Davis Tech. “It’s not taught through our academics. It’s taught through our community ed. It’s usually an occupational upgrade and we do have that here on our campus. We thought about incorporating or maybe making it an addition to the MA at the end if the student chooses.”

Salt Lake Community College offers associates and then Weber are the only ones in the state, I think, said Wood. “I think your tech colleges don’t offer any degrees.”

“The course we teach here they actually do teach positioning and some X-rays because we have an X-ray machine that is attached or an X-ray room that was attached to medical assisting when we built the Allied Health Building that was put in,” said Weaver. “So our instructor does teach positioning and those sorts of things.”

Another area of concern is the shortage of surgical techs. “I know Intermountain and University of Utah, we have you guys sponsor students to come to Davis Tech,” said Weaver. “So we’re getting them in and out as quickly as we can. It’s the clinicals. We seem to have a backlog in their clinicals.”

“When I talk to my team about this, it’s not so much finding an apprentice-type who’s just coming out,” said Wood. “Those are easy to find. So they haven’t had a job yet. I gotta get my course training and you try to put one of those with a spine surgeon or an orthopod and they’re just gonna throw a gasket.”

So everybody is always looking for an experienced person, because it’s hard to put them right into the OR, he said. “If you have great training then you’re ahead of the game. You’re really trying to get that two, three-year vet, even more if you can. So maybe as they’re coming out of school, that first job might be a little harder to get.”

The group plans to meet quarterly. The next meeting should focus on specific competencies across programs.