On Feb. 21, 2014, Rush University Medical Center in Chicago held its official dedication event for the Road Home Program at the Rush Center for Veterans and their Families, a 3,200 square foot facility designed to offer help and support during the transition back to civilian life. The center offers counseling and care to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, military sexual trauma and other mental health conditions, along with family counseling and navigation services for the veterans' family members.
During the center's planning stages, Jaime Parent, vice president of IT operations and associate CIO at Rush as well as a retired lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, was brought on to the planning team to help with fundraising. As the plans for the center began to take shape, one question lingered in Mr. Parent's mind — what will happen to the veterans after they are treated and leave the center?
It was then that he came up with the idea for the EN-Abled Veterans program, which brings veterans from the center into Rush's information systems department to train for a career in health IT. "There's a need for skilled health IT workers, and we can enable [the veterans] with the necessary training and skills development," he says.
Rush's IS department already had a large project underway for the veterans to work on: replacing leased PCs with virtual thin clients that deliver the same performance through a more economical device. "Since a large number of other organizations are moving to this technology, knowing how to install thin clients would provide the veterans in the program with an in-demand skill," says Mr. Parent.
The six-month program is currently comprised of 16-hour work weeks with flexible hours that allow participants to go to medical appointments, go to school or hold other jobs as needed. Participants are also allowed unlimited volunteer hours during which they can shadow a Rush engineer to gain on-the-job experience beyond their formal training.
Through partnerships with some of Rush's vendors, the program also offers veterans the opportunity to access additional educational material and work toward a specific IT certification. Outside firms have also volunteered to provide ancillary training, such as resume-building or interview skills, to the program participants.
"By the time they leave the program, they not only have a lot of on-the-job training, but the educational background and skills needed to build a career," says Mr. Parent.
By providing veterans with health IT training, Rush is not only providing a valuable career service for those who have defended our country, but is also filling a need for qualified IT staffers within the healthcare industry. According to the HIMSS Leadership Survey, more than one-third (39 percent) of hospitals and health systems plan to add at least one full-time IT employee in the next year.
"IT [in healthcare] is a hot job market," says Mr. Parent. "Health IT will remain a viable career. If we can provide the proper training, we will enable each veteran will to embark on a successful IT career."
The program currently has four participants and one graduate. Mr. Parent is working with local Department of Veterans Affairs offices and veteran advocacy groups to help bring more veterans into the program. He is also looking to expand the program to include the veterans' family members.
"Some of the veterans coming home have a long way to go in terms of rehabilitation, and may not be able to work," says Mr. Parent. "We're open to training family members… so there can be a breadwinner building a successful career while the veteran is healing."
One of Mr. Parent's ultimate goals for this program is to have it replicated at other organizations across the country. "Once we get it worked out I'd like to be able to package it and have other organizations use it as a model," he says, "to give other medical centers the opportunity to train future healthcare workers in their communities."
More information can be found at www.roadhomeprogram.org.
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