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St. Joseph's Health presents another edition of its podcast, St. Joseph's Health MedCast.  



Bill Klaproth: So if you're looking for a career in nursing, This may be the opportunity you're looking for. St. Joseph's Health or SJH is looking for passionate, motivated nurses who want to grow their skills and potential while working within a nationally recognized hospital. In fact, SJH offers the first Magnet-designated nursing team in central New York that will also assist you in advancing your career while advancing the future of medicine.  



So let's learn more about this with Suzanne Talarico, a registered nurse and the manager of talent acquisition at St. Joseph's Health. Suzanne, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. So first off, why St. Joseph's Health and what makes SJH stand out?   



Suzanne Talarico: First of all, thank you so much for having me. As someone who has been part of the St Joseph's Health Organization as a nurse for a lot of years, I was able to kind of grow up in St. Joseph's Health. And as people might say, sometimes I drink the Kool-Aid, but there are so many reasons why St. Joseph's is a great place to work. We've been part of the Syracuse community for over 150 years. Our roots are really embedded in the sisters who founded the organization and it's just sort of been tenant of the north side of Syracuse for a number of years. And really our community partnerships, the culture, everybody kind of says that their culture is something, but we have evidence of that in so many legacy families that function within the St Joseph's network, siblings, spouses, children. We've gone through generations of being able to serve the community that we live in. And There are so many reasons why St Joseph's Health, but that really is something that stands out, kind of our legacy of being able to employ families and to really continue that  employment opportunity for people across the generations.  



Bill Klaproth: It's okay to drink the Kool-Aid. It's good Kool-Aid.  



Suzanne Talarico: It is good Kool-Aid. It changes flavors from day to day, but it's definitely good Kool-Aid.  



Bill Klaproth: It's good. It's very good. Not a problem there. So Suzanne, tell us what is the nursing model. 



Suzanne Talarico: It's really a team-based care delivery model. The whole pandemic certainly changed things in a lot of places, healthcare being a primary one. But when the pandemic surge started to become eminent, we really had to look at some of the things within our nursing model and how are we going to be able to accommodate the potential influx of sicker, more acute patients.  



So within that development and planning, really kind of shifted this team-based care delivery model concept. It's always been primary care patient-centered care, but this team-based care where you're kind of working within sometimes a set team,  you might be working within the same team over a period of time so that you become very familiar with one another.  



But it's really this team-based care delivery that creates this ability to rely on your colleagues, your partners. The onus of everything doesn't fall onto one person, you're able to collaborate and really work together to ensure that the patient gets the best care. So it's really a team-based care delivery model is what we call it and how we promote it. But it was something that we had wanted to do, I think, prior to the pandemic or had thought about how we could shift the model more in that direction, but the pandemic really expedited it. And then once the surge did not hit us quite as seriously as it has in some other places, it really was a great opportunity to kind of continue on in the development of that model and certainly not without some pain points and certainly growing pains, but our staff is resilient. Healthcare workers are resilient and we're kind of pushing through some of those pain points and really starting to see some of the benefits of this model.  



Bill Klaproth: So you mentioned it's a team-based care delivery model, does that include centralized scheduling then? And if so, what are the benefits of centralized scheduling?  



Suzanne Talarico: The model itself, the scheduling is a little bit separate from the actual model, but the way that the model is managed is really through this centralized scheduling. And again, one of the changes was  to sort of change scheduling based on a number of different criteria to really kind of creating these predictive scheduling patterns.  



And so by having this scheduling pattern, essentially of 12-hour shifts, it affords the opportunity to really look out over a longer and in a period of time to sort of plan your life, make appointments. We know that sometimes it's very difficult when you're working during the day to be able to schedule appointments for your children or for your family. Oftentimes that those are scheduled quite a ways out and that it becomes very difficult to determine whether you're going to get that day off or not.  



The benefit of the predictive scheduling is that you're able to look out, that pattern repeats and repeats and repeats over an extended period of time, and you're able to look ahead and really map out your scheduling rather than the previous model, which was more of a 30-day look ahead to see what your schedule would be. So it really has the ability to enhance, and it has enhanced kind of that work-life balance planning for our colleagues and staff. It's been good. It's one of those things that initially people were kind of looking at it and not so happy with it.  



We did have some turnover because of it. And we're happy to say actually that we're having a lot of people come back because as we've moved through some of those pain points, people are really recognizing the benefit that that does have to be predictive and to have that centralized repository for a scheduling pattern. 



Bill Klaproth: Well, I could see where being able to map out your schedule would be very beneficial. You did touch on work-life balance. I'm wondering if you can go into that a little bit more, what the work-life balance is like for nurses at SJH.   



Suzanne Talarico: I sure can. You know, I think in healthcare, we know that work-life balance, it's funny because it is hard to have a balance sometimes. Healthcare work is hard. There's no way to make it easy. I've been a nurse for almost 30 years and there has been challenges throughout that period of time. It's never easy work. But hard work doesn't mean bad work. And so having the ability to look at a predictive schedule, to perhaps have two or three 12-hour shifts with the remaining days off or the opportunity to pick up extra shifts at your leisure, you know, at your decision, and planning, it does really help to be able to account for time off to plan vacation time, to kind of bundle your days off or days on as works for you. Some people they want to work three 12-hour shifts in a row and then have four days off. Other people want to kind of have work a couple of days, have a couple of days off, work another day. So these patterns really afford the opportunity for people to be able to flex to what works for them, for their families, for their lifestyle and the things that they want to do.  



Bill Klaproth: Everybody's schedule and family and what they like to do in their off hours is different. So you mentioned flex, having that ability in there to make it work for your own family is really important and can contribute to a positive work-life balance. So another question, Suzanne, what role does the College of Nursing, play in the relationship with the hospital?   



Suzanne Talarico: Oh, absolutely. We are very fortunate to have a College of Nursing not all hospitals or organizations do. And within the Trinity Health System, there are only a handful really that have a college program affiliated with the ministry. So, we are very fortunate for that. It's a benefit to the college as well because our relationship afford them the ability to have a place where students can do their clinicals consistently. For a number of nursing programs, that becomes one of the biggest challenges, is finding a place for all of their students to do clinical work. So we're very fortunate that we have the opportunity to partner with our college of nursing and entertain all of the clinical students throughout their programs, whether it's a two or four-year program, and then into some of their transitions practice experiences. And then we also are very fortunate that we get to begin recruiting and have a pretty high success rate with recruiting those staff into permanent positions as they graduate and move on to becoming professional nurses.  



Bill Klaproth: And then let's stay on continuing opportunities. Can you talk more about the GN residency program? And what are the continuing opportunities for professional growth in nursing?   



Suzanne Talarico: Well, we actually have a professional growth and development department and leader that's pretty new. We have had a strong educational program for our nurses after they graduate. But the nurse residency program is something that we have really begun more strongly recruiting into over the past several months. We've kind of re-identified how that graduate nurse residency program looks, what the opportunities are to try and diversify the opportunities that graduate nurses have.  



And certainly, when a nurse goes into school, begins their program, a lot of them have kind of in mind what type of specialty that they want to go into. And sometimes that changes throughout the course of their clinical experiences. Sometimes it stays the same. But going to school and then getting out into the real world, into the the actual process, many times they have the opportunity to change their minds by either the relationships that they've developed on different units, or it might be back to the work-life balance discussion. There might be a different pattern or scheduling type that is in a different specialty than they thought. So they have the opportunity to explore that. And the GN residency program really gives them the opportunity to look at a number of different types of specialties throughout their next year, which is really a transitional year in  their professional growth.  



Bill Klaproth: So these continual learning opportunities really set you up for consistent growth in your career.   



Suzanne Talarico: You know, if you think of a residency program for physicians, there's kind of different years and layers and levels. They have different expanded experiences after what they've received in some of their initial clinical experiences. So it's kind of just layering on to the foundation. Once you complete your program, you're eligible to sit for the boards. You take the boards and the majority of the time pass, become a registered nurse. But that's kind of just the next platform level. I mean, there's a lot more to learn and the residency program really provides a very solid foundation for that next learning experience.  



Bill Klaproth: Which is really important. And right now there is a great opportunity for someone who wants to become a nurse. Because St. Joseph's Health is committed to giving nurses the opportunities and resources they need, you are now offering employment incentives and tuition benefits within their first 36 months. Tell us about that.   



Suzanne Talarico: That is correct. We have a number of different opportunities, layers of benefits. New nurses are eligible, graduate nurses, as we've talked about, also experienced. And then we have another  platform for nurses who have left and are interested in coming back, we call them boomerangs or rehires.  



So, potentially up to $10,000 in cash incentives over that period of time, the 36 months. In addition to that, the education tuition benefit of over $5,000 per year is also something that many of our nurses, all of our colleagues are really eligible for that. But our nurses certainly take advantage of, because depending on what type of program they'd gone to, where they are in their professional development, what their aspirations are over time. They can certainly continue their education while working in a predictable schedule pattern where they can accommodate their work-life balance and still take classes if desired.  



Bill Klaproth: Right. That's really good. So thank you for explaining that to us. Last question then, Suzanne, for someone listening to this podcast, who's thinking about getting into the nursing field. Why is this a rewarding field career to undertake. For someone listening, why should they become a nurse? 



Suzanne Talarico: Well, as we started with, or as I mentioned during part of this discussion, healthcare is hard. But nursing really is a calling. It's not for everyone. But we have great opportunities within the organization to come in at different levels, patient care techs, and different kinds of techs or assistance to see if it is the type of career. But our nurses, nursing is a special breed, but nursing at St. Joseph's Health, we have the opportunity to impact our community and our patients and our families in a way that no one else can. And the safety and security and the compassion that you're able to deliver as a nurse at the bedside is just a rewarding experience that it truly is a calling.  



Bill Klaproth: Right. Absolutely. Well, Suzanne, thank you so much for this information. We appreciate it. Thank you again.  



Suzanne Talarico: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.  



Bill Klaproth: And that is Suzanne Talarico. And to learn more, please visit sjhsyr.org/nursingjobs. Once again, sjhsyr.org/nursingjobs. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. This is St. Joseph's Health MedCast from St. Joseph's Health. I'm Bill Klaproth. Thanks for listening.