The Minnesota Nursing Facility Employee Scholarship Program

The Minnesota Nursing Facility Employee Scholarship Program was enacted in 2001 to support long-term care facilities' efforts to recruit and retain qualified employees and to expand and improve Minnesota's long-term care workforce. Further, it seeks to improve the education and skills of long-term care employees, and provide them with a means of career advancement.

Over the past two decades, staff shortages within the nursing field have become acute, as an aging workforce, low wages, and lack of career advancement opportunities have hurt efforts to recruit and retain a sufficient number of employees to care for Minnesota's aging population. Given the population over 65 is projected to double over the next 30-40 years, it is imperative that we expand and improve care services to adequately meet both current and future needs.

An Innovative, Valued Tool
Since its adoption in July 2001, the Nursing Facility Employee Scholarship Program has been a highly utilized, innovative, and valued tool employed by most of Minnesota's long-term care facilities in their efforts to maintain a quality workforce. According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, over 2,300 scholarships were awarded in 2004 alone, helping train and educate long-term care staff statewide. Of these employees, nearly 75 percent pursued careers in nursing or other direct care positions, while most of the remaining 25 percent sought to improve their job-related skills in other long-term care fields, such as social work, activity planning, business management, or psychology.

The Program itself costs very little, and if ever eliminated, the actual savings will be minimal. Recent projections by House Fiscal Analysis forecast the program's costs to be less that $740,000 annually through fiscal year 2007. When compared with the direct and immediate benefits the program provides, any costs incurred, especially as low as those projected, are effectively mitigated. In essence, the scholarship program is perhaps the quintessential low-input, high-yield venture, whose tangible long-term benefits vastly outweigh the state’s nominal initial investment.

The program helps address shortages within long-term care by infusing an already depleted workforce with homegrown, newly educated nurses and care staff who likely would not have access to higher education. As it exists, the scholarship program is one of the few educational programs geared directly toward providing career advancement opportunities to line staff and low-wage employees, allowing for a means of self-improvement in a field frequently lacking advancement opportunities. Further, since comparatively low wages often preclude direct care staff from pursuing higher-education, the scholarship monies become and essential tool for attracting, developing, and retaining qualified staff in long-term care settings. Equally important, the scholarship program allows facilities to improve the standard of care by further educating and training existing staff to better perform their care responsibilities.

Need For Expansion
With Minnesota's rapidly growing population of citizens over the age of 65, the difficulties for the long-term care community are self-evident. To adequately meet projected needs, the fields, workforce must drastically grow and improve, even before taking into account the additional problem of current staff shortages. Certainly, we cannot sit idly by and ignore the statewide staffing problems facing the long-term care community, simply hoping that more nurses or students choose to pursue careers in long-term care. Instead, a more proactive strategy is needed. This program, though not the total solution, is unquestionably a step in the right direction. In just under three years, the program helped educate and train over 2,300 new nurses and advanced-level employees in nursing facilities statewide. Further, most Minnesota Health & Housing Alliance member facilities indicate that with assurance of the program’s future, they would either increase the number of scholarships awarded and/or increase the amount of money they disperse.

Aging services in Minnesota have long been providing the best possible care to their residents despite insufficient government support. As the state makes a commitment to care giving, the scholarship program is a small investment that goes a long way for the provider community, employees, and the communities they serve. By providing money for nursing employee scholarships, Minnesota has begun to address current staffing issues and prepare for future challenges. Now, the Legislature has the opportunity to make certain that such progress is sustained.

Simply put, the Nursing Facility Employee Scholarship Program is not merely a luxury item for the state's eldercare provider community, but rather is indispensable in helping to resolve their immediate and future healthcare workforce challenges. Its continued application and growth will help ensure that each nursing facility is equipped with sufficient and well-trained staff to meet the ever-growing demands and needs of their field and to provide the best possible care to ever nursing facility resident in Minnesota.

MHHA's Report, released in 2005 to key stakeholder groups, member facilities and all of Minnesota's elected officials, shares heartfelt testimonials from caregivers, program administrators and leaders in the higher education community and can be customized with the student-employees and administrator testimonials from specific districts. Thanks to the help of all involved with the creation of this report, the future of the program has been greatly strengthened.

2001 DHS Bulletin (#01-62-05) describing the program
http://www.mhha.com/inc/data/DHS.Bulletin.2001.pdf

2003 DHS Bulletin (#03-62-01) describing changes to the program
http://www.mhha.com/inc/data/DHS.Bulletin.2003.pdf

MHHA thanks 2008 Annual Sponsor and our other sponsors for their support and partnership.