HJBR Jan/Feb 2021

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE I  JAN / FEB 2021 13 Licensed Practical Nurse apprenticeship to our employees. We’ve also recently announced a pro- gram called Ochsner Scholars, which will support our workforce development efforts, academic partnerships and provide medical school reimbursements to help keep physi- cians in Louisiana. We’re focusing on pri- mary care and behavioral health to start, which are some of the community’s greatest needs. These are important programs and investments as they support today’s needs and set us up for long-term success. MOSBROKER Absolutely. 2020 has really brought to light the sometimes-insur- mountable task of balancing career and work obligations with our personal and family commitment and desires, especially for our professionals working in direct patient care where there is no option to “work remotely.” Our workforce experienced unprece- dented weather events during the middle of a historic pandemic. An entire workforce has been affected by a health crisis, a hur- ricane (or three), job loss or furlough and working under extraordinary situations with an unknown virus – perhaps all at the same time for some. HALPHEN Yes, COVID-19 has increased the need for nurses, in particular critical care nurses. There is also a concern for nurses who are faced with the stress of caring for COVID-19 patients and that fear for their own health leads to a move out of the hos- pital environment. Editor Has COVID-19 shifted the focus of the HR department? If so, how? MANINT In our organization, the HR department is part of the logistics arm of incident command. In March, initially we pivoted from recruiting to utilizing our existing staff to fill the new challenges that presented (i.e, utilization of temper- ature checkers at the doors, runners to move supplies from department to depart- ment); we received and set up laundry for the amazing cloth gowns that were made and donated to us so that we could safely conserve our personal protection equip- ment and supplies. Then, two weeks later, we moved into an accelerated recruiting/ orientationmode when the governor tapped us to open additional floors at the Mid City campus. The confluence of some outpatient services temporarily ceasing and creating brand-new services was like a giant puzzle and kept us extremely engaged and busy as an HR team; we worked hard to keep staff actively working and not furloughed. SCHAFFER Absolutely. The safety, health and wellness of our teammembers are our main concerns, just like our patients. Ensur- ing our teammembers have the equipment and resources necessary to feel safe while providing quality care of our patients is pri- ority. The focus of HR has shifted to provid- ing strategic workforce strategies focused on flexible and remote staffing, teammem- ber resilience, expanding team member resources and ensuring team member safety. SEALS COVID-19 created some significant challenges that we needed to solve very quickly. I feel lucky that our leadership team across the Ochsner system is extremely committed to supporting our employees. Our team and organization shifted rap- idly to support the needs of employees throughout the pandemic. When school closures were announced, we had to find solutions very quickly to ensure that front- line staff could continue to come into work and take care of patients. In a matter of days, we created a childcare program that sup- ported 1,500 employees across our system, including offering two childcare locations in Baton Rouge, and continued it through the summer. The stress of COVID-19 on employees, nurses and providers was also a critical issue to solve. Healthcare was not an easy industry before the pandemic, and burnout is common. We also were experiencing the stress of COVID-19 as parents, sons, daugh- ters, friends and neighbors. We already had an Office of Professional Wellbeing and worked to roll out programs includ- ing counseling, mindfulness education and the creation of decompression zones at our facilities. We also activated our Employee Assistance Fund to support teammembers experiencing financial challenges due to the pandemic. As many of our team members began working from home in March, we created and deployed professional development programs to help leaders manage their teams remotely. We redeployed teammem- bers from our clinics and trained them to serve in new roles, like temperature check- ers at our hospitals. Reimagining their roles helped us fill needs across the organization and ensured that we did not have furloughs or layoffs. MOSBROKER Yes. At the beginning of the pandemic, when the state healthcare man- dates were being published continuously, the biggest focus was ensuring compli- ance and keeping staff informed. We had to rethink how we communicate with our teamoffsite, shifting from in-person depart- ment meetings and huddles to utilizing our HRIS systemwith mass email blasts or tele- conference calls and our employee hotline. One of the best aspects of HR at SSC is we are small enough that everyone knows each other, and our department is seen as a true customer service center for our teammem- bers. They can feel comfortable express- ing their concerns or asking for assistance