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A Prescription for Healthcare Training in Tennessee (RX TN) received a $12,600,000 Round Two grant award to help ensure that high-quality healthcare training and critical support services, needed by students to successfully complete training and go to work, were available across the state. The core of the RX TN Grant were both the Training Prescriptions to build/enhance specific healthcare training programs where there were gaps in meeting industry-driven demand and Student Support Prescriptions to support all students in (or trying to gain access to) healthcare training at the 40 institutions to improve graduation/completion and employment outcomes.
“I am so thankful to the staff of RX TN for encouraging me to stay focused, and stay the course. The moral support, wiping my tears when I cried, encouraging me to keep going when I wanted to give up, allowing me to use books when I could not afford to buy books, being an advocate for me with the teachers, and giving me supplies to complete course work has helped me more than I can express.” – JoEvelyn
Defining Features of Project:
- Individual certification programs were developed to provide students with an option to exit into employment after one course or to stack multiple courses in a career lattice of services. This strategy, built around the value of a nationally recognized certification testing process, allowed students to enter and exit based on their income needs and desire to grow their career aspirations to higher levels.
- Developed Academic “Boot Camps” for students accepted into Nursing and Allied Health programs (includes digital literacy training).
- Significantly improved the availability of healthcare-related training to potential students in rural locations of the state which allowed employers in those areas to more readily acquire trained and capable staff.
| Project and Outcome Report | |
|---|---|
| Project | A Prescription for Training Healthcare Workers in Tennessee (RX TN) |
| Institution | Roane State Community College |
| Outcome Report | RX Tennessee Final Narrative Report |
| Industry Sector | Healthcare |
| Grant Completed | 9/30/16 |
| Grant Amount | $12,600,000 |
| State Profile Report | Tennessee State Profile Report |
| Participation Metrics | |
|---|---|
| Participation | 2,039 participants |
| Completed program of study | 1,500 students |
| Participants earning credentials | 2,275 |
| Employment* | 1,300 employed after completion |
*= As of the time of the Final Evaluation Report
Source: Grantee’s Third-Party Evaluation
Melinda was homeless, and her meal for the day was often a bag of rice. Through RX Tennessee, she now works at one of the nation’s top hospitals, has a place to live, and is hopeful about her future.
“I help with all kinds of procedures and exams,” she said. “I do patient work-ups and triage. It has even come about that I help with the stock/ordering for the clinic. Also, while being here another CCMA and I established and helped launch a new stocking system for the clinic. My job is work, and hard work for that matter, but it is a labor of love, humility, and excitement. Happiness does not even touch the description of feelings that I have when I put my badge on every morning and stand with my patients in the time of unknown and fear. Every day I get to be a part of a team that writes the Rx for hope, strength, health, and a big smile! Who could ask for more?” – Melinda