St. Louis Park, MN-based senior living and care provider Saint Therese is partnering with Rasmussen University–Bloomington to help train the next generation of nurses.
The effort to firm up the organization’s and industry’s workforce pipeline began before the pandemic and initially included only one of the five Saint Therese campuses.
“We didn’t have the pandemic. We didn’t have the labor shortage,” Lisa Kalla, chief operating officer for Saint Therese, told the McKnight’s Business Daily on Tuesday. “The relationship … with Rasmussen was more just a clinical rotation, in and out, where now it’s a lot more thoughtful and a lot more structured, to make sure they really understand senior care and the importance of working in senior care and the rewards in working in senior care.”
After many of the COVID-19-related restrictions eased in congregate settings, Saint Therese began meeting with college officials to determine how they might expand the program, Kalla said.
“We looked at what Saint Therese has to offer and how we can impact students’ lives and really show them how rewarding [a long-term care career] actually can be,” she said.
Moving forward, she said, Saint Therese plans to “get ahead of the students” by meeting with them during their initial college orientation. There, they can plant the seed of their working in nursing in a long-term care setting and introduce them to the benefits of working in the sector.
“I think that one thing that senior living offers versus a hospital setting — where we’re usually competing for nurses once they graduate … is that you’re able to build a deeper relationship with the resident. You’re really able to learn your residents and all the multicomplex issues,” Kalla said. “It’s a more holistic approach than what an acute care setting typically offers in a hospital.”
With the changes to the partnership, Saint Therese also will meet with nursing students right before they graduate to talk about the benefits of working with the Catholic faith-based organization, she said.
“Saint Therese has a wonderful reputation here in Minnesota,” she said. “We feel like we have so much to offer a new nurse coming out.”
Participating students are part of the registered nurse program at Rasmussen’s Bloomington program, which includes campuses in Bloomington, Hennepin/Anoka (Blaine and Brooklyn Park) and Lake Elmo/Woodbury in Minnesota. As of last month, Saint Therese began hosting nursing students for their clinical rotations at three of its communities: Saint Therese at Oxbow Lake (Brooklyn Park), Saint Therese of Woodbury and Saint Therese of New Hope. The provider offers a continuum of care, including independent living, assisted living, memory care, skilled nursing and transitional care.
Under the supervision of a Rasmussen instructor, 24 students began clinical rotations at the Saint Therese communities Oct. 17 and will finish Dec. 2. A new cohort will begin in the next quarter, Kalla said.
“People aged 65 and older account for more than one-third (35%) of US healthcare spending. Hospitals are sending home patients to long-term facilities that traditionally would remain in the acute care setting of a hospital,” Savitri Dixon-Saxon, PhD, senior vice president and provost at Rasmussen University, said in a statement. “Saint Therese offers an amazing window into how nurses can help deliver care to this population.”
Kalla said that Saint Therese has a variety of scholarships to offer to nursing students. Additionally, she said, Rasmussen offers current Saint Therese employees a discount on education, including coursework outside of the clinical setting. For example, an employee could segue into IT or marketing within Saint Therese through the university’s courses.
“There’s a lot of other options so that maybe if someone working in a clinical area, or even a nonclinical area, says, ‘This isn’t for me,’ there’s other opportunities that are available, too, that they benefit from our partnership with Rasmussen,” she said.
Rasmussen has 22 campuses nationwide, including seven in Minnesota.
