Holy Cross Health is a not-for-profit health system in Maryland that serves the community through its hospitals, primary care sites, specialty care and wellness programs. It is also serving its own employees with a relatively new program to help them advance their careers and boost their earnings.

In 2019, Holy Cross undertook a social needs screening process to identify key areas where their employees required assistance, particularly those working in departments with lower wages. In the process, two of the needs employees frequently identified were higher wages and greater food security. Consequently, in 2023, Holy Cross Health launched the Holy Cross Health Career Pathways Program to address its employees’ desire to progress in their careers and earn a higher wage.

The Holy Cross Career Pathway program currently includes pathways for Certified Medical Assistants, Certified Nursing Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians, Central Sterile Processing Technicians, Certified Healthcare Access Associates, and Phlebotomy Technicians. To be eligible, participants are required to be employed by Holy Cross Health for at least two years and have a GED or high school diploma only. Those employee-applicants who are selected enroll in certification courses tailored to their career goals.

The first launch of the pathway program in 2023 enrolled 16 employees in the certificate programs, of which 11 were able to finish and accepted full time positions with Holy Cross Health. The second launch, which started in June 2024, has 10 employees enrolled in the certificate programs.

In addition to the career pathways program, Holy Cross Health launched a monthly mobile market to help their employees secure healthy food, and started a SNAP enrollment training program to help the wider community access this important nutrition benefit.

By providing career advancement opportunities, this pathways program addresses income inequality while promoting retention and career growth within Holy Cross. It also contributes to a diverse and more robust healthcare workforce, which is an AARP priority. As part of its ongoing work in this area, AARP supported the creation of the Leaders in Equity and Diversity (LEAD) Collaborative, made up of 30 diverse organizations in the Mid-Atlantic region committed to work on at least one aim to address a health disparity at their organization or within their community. As a member of the LEAD Collaborative, Holy Cross targeted workforce development and the reduction of income inequality in its own workforce. Read the LEAD Fact Sheet.

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https://www.nursing.umaryland.edu/academics/pe/events/mdac/

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A nurse from Maryland is one of five winners of this year’s AARP Purpose Prize Award for people age 50+ who are giving back, solving problems, and changing lives. They will all be celebrated at a virtual awards show on Wednesday, December 15^th which the public is invited to attend. (Register here.) Michelle Miller, co-host of “CBS Saturday Morning” is emceeing the celebration, which will include a live chat with Dr. Vic Strecher, a visionary leader and professor of health behavior and health education at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health. Actor Michael J. Fox will be given an honorary award for his work helping to advance scientific progress toward a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Ify Nwabukwu BSN, RN, is receiving the award for her work seeking to reduce the burden of cancer on African immigrant women and their families by providing equal access to screening and care.​ She is executive director of the African Women’s Cancer Awareness Association, which she founded in 2004 after watching her mother, recently immigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria, struggle to navigate her own breast cancer diagnosis and care.

The other winners who will be celebrated on December 15^th are:

• William Bracken of Fountain Valley, California, the founder and culinary director of Bracken’s Kitchen, which produces meals to contribute to solving the growing issues of food waste and food insecurity.
• Raymond Jetson, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, founder and chief executive of catalyst of MetroMorphosis, which seeks to develop and mobilize a critical mass of engaged citizens to design and implement sustainable solutions to persistent community challenges.​​
• Alan Miller of Bethesda, Maryland, founder and CEO of the News Literacy Project, which teaches people of all ages and backgrounds how to identify credible news and other information.
• Rita Zimmer of New York City, founder and executive director of HousingPlus, which provides community-based housing and comprehensive services to women to support them in overcoming poverty, homelessness, addiction, trauma and the effects of incarceration.

The annual Purpose Prize is for people who have used their knowledge and life experience to solve challenging social problems, and who undertook this work later in life, at age 40 or older. If you or someone you know fits this description, you can find prize application information at this link.​​

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The Maryland Action Coalition created a survey to assess state stakeholders’ interest in and prioritization of the nine recommendations. Feel free to download and use the survey as a starting point for you to survey your state stakeholders.

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Join us for the 2021 MDAC Virtual Leadership Summit!
Registration and Call for Abstracts Now Open

Meeting Challenges Head On: Maryland Nurses Respond

Monday, May 24, 2021
9:15 a.m. – 4:15 p.m.
offered virtually

Keynote Speakers:
• Brian Castrucci, Author, The Practical Playbook: Public Health and Primary Care Together

• Susan B. Hassmiller, Senior Advisor for Nursing, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• Katie Wunderlich, Executive Director, Health Services Cost Review Commission

The first 100 registrants will receive a complimentary copy of keynote speaker Brian Castrucci’s book, The Practical Playbook: Public Health and Primary Care Together.

MDAC leads innovation in improving the health of individuals, communities, and populations through efforts that build and sustain a culture of health.

The development of innovative educational and clinical processes during challenging times such as a pandemic is key to the preparation of nurses for practice in an ever-evolving and complex health care environment. This conference is designed to explore models, interventions, practices and policies that are advancing the preparation of the future nursing workforce and innovation in academic and practice partnerships.

Continuing education credits for nurses will be available.

Learn more about agenda, objectives, learning outcome, abstract submission guidelines, and more on our website.

Registration is offered at no cost. Registration with CE is $30.
Call for Abstracts: Opens Feb. 10 | Closes April 8

Registration costs for this year’s summit are being subsidized by the Maryland Nursing Workforce Center, a Nurse Support Program II-funded initiative.

The University of Maryland School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

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“If public health does its job well, you generally don’t know we exist.”

Yet the public health nurse who said that is well-known—and it is because she is doing an exceptionally good job at an exceptional time in her home state of Tennessee. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter, DNP, RN, PHNA-BC, is the first nurse to lead that health department. She is also among public health nurses around the country making decisions and keeping the public informed during well-covered briefings about COVID-19. Haushalter was until recently also the co-leader of the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action’s Tennessee Action Coalition.

In Baltimore, another public health nurse, Fran Phillips, RN, MHA, Maryland’s deputy health secretary, is also in the headlines and on TV as she helps guide that state’s response to the crisis. A profile of Phillips in the Baltimore Sun details her unflappable nature during what she calls “really, really intense” days of nonstop decision-making and conferences with other leaders. In news conferences, says Baltimore’s former health commissioner Joshua Sharfstein of Phillips, “She combines both an obvious sense of commitment and caring with a matter-of-fact tone. She’s the nurse who tells you what’s really going on.”

The profile of Haushalter in the Daily Memphian gives an idea of how the seemingly minute-by-minute changes of the once-in-a-century pandemic like COVID make the job of leading the way a high-wire act.

“There’s a lot of pressure to be perfect in the moment,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, the county mayor. Of Haushalter, he said, “She doesn’t break a sweat.”

Phillips went into public health nursing to try to treat the root causes of illness. Similarly, says  Haushalter in another profile of the nurse leader, “This is what all of our training has led to,” referring to her nearly four decades in public health. “This is an opportunity for us as public health officials to use our talents for a greater good beyond ourselves.”

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MDAC 2020:

While we were unable to gather for the in-person MDAC Summit this year, we are pleased to present the selected peer-reviewed abstracts and presentations online, for you to view at your convenience.

VIEW THE PRESENTATIONS

You may also view them on the Nurse Support Program II website.

Save the Date for Next Year’s MDAC Summit:
May 24, 2021

MDAC leads innovation in improving the health of individuals, communities, and populations through efforts that build and sustain a culture of health.

The University of Maryland School of Nursing is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

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A major recommendation of the Institute of Medicine’s 2010 Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health report, written to improve health and health care for all Americans, is to allow advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) to order and certify home health services. Starting in January, Maryland’s nurse practitioners (NPs) will be able to do so.

What are home health services, and why Maryland?

Home health services are Medicare benefits provided to beneficiaries in their homes, including wound care, physical and occupational therapy, patient and caregiver education, and monitoring serious illness. A year ago — in January 2019 — Maryland and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services launched the state’s Total Cost of Care Model, which set an annual savings for each Medicare beneficiary. But that came up against the federal law requiring that homebound patients be under the care of a physician to receive home health care services—a rule that increases costs and delays services when an NP is the primary care provider. Thus was born change request (CR) number 11330, the Maryland waiver to this federal restriction that went into  effect January 1.

Cost savings are not the only reason this waiver makes sense. NPs make most of the nation’s house calls. As I wrote in 2012, allowing Maryland’s NPs to certify home health services will benefit consumers by increasing continuity of care and benefit physicians by removing this paperwork requirement.

Maryland’s NPs, their patients, hospitals and other referral sources, and home health agencies need to learn about the waiver to ensure a smooth transition. Among organizations helping spread the news:

• The Nurse Practitioner Association of Maryland created a webpage about the waiver and provides updates in weekly email blasts.
• The American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) posted an advocacy webpage about the Maryland waiver with an email to its Maryland members.
• Maryland-National Capital Homecare Association is charged with getting the word out to its members, troubleshooting billing issues, and encouraging home health agencies to collect data about the number of referrals from NPs, type and length of services, and number of unplanned emergency department visits or rehospitalizations.

This last point is especially important, as data collection is essential for the successful implementation of the waiver and for future efforts in other states and nationally.

What about the rest of the nation? Current legislation to allow NPs and other APRNs to certify home health services, the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act (S. 296/H.R. 2150), is supported by AARP, AANP, and the American Academy of Home Care Medicine. These bills have bipartisan support, including 38 co-sponsors in the United States Senate and 122 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives. Advocates are hopeful that this legislation will be passed or that the bill language will be inserted in other successful legislation.

Andrea Brassard is a senior strategic policy adviser for the Center to Champion Nursing in America, an initiative of AARP Foundation, AARP, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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Monday, May 20, 2019

University of Maryland School of Nursing

655 W. Lombard St., Baltimore Maryland

Overview

The Maryland Action Coalition (MDAC) serves as one of the driving forces for transforming state health care. Recognizing the important work already underway in Maryland and with a goal of improved health outcomes for its residents, the Maryland Action Coalition leads innovation in the health of the population through efforts that build and sustain a culture of health.

The 2019 Summit:

• Recaps the achievements and opportunities to improving health care services, health outcomes, and minimizing health disparities in Maryland.
• Examines advancements in improving health outcomes for Maryland’s diverse populations and communities.
• Provides a forum in which to disseminate innovation in practice, education, policy, and research in advancing a culture of health.

We welcome everyone to the Summit and are proud to be part of this nationwide movement.

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