Rural Healthcare Staffing Stability: Effective Tools and Practice

• Registration is open from April 2-May 30, 2018
• Course run dates May 15-June 30, 2018

Course description

Most rural health care organizations face significant pressures to achieve results, do more with less, and satisfy many competing demands. Recruiting, selecting, and retaining staff members in order to achieve staffing stability are key components in accomplishing these goals. This course provides insights toward understanding and applying concepts such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and employee engagement in a theory-to-practice context. The theory-to-practice context is applied to several practice tools, techniques, and best practices for more effective outcomes. The course is designed for supervisors, managers, HR practitioners, administrative staff, and organization leaders who are engaged in policy and practice for recruitment, selection, and retention of staff.

During the course you can expect to obtain the following knowledge and skills to leverage in practice toward improving recruitment, selection, and retention outcomes:

• Identify individual, group, and organizational factors associated with employee job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and engagement
• Adopt a broader understanding and perspective for employee engagement
• Adopt a theory-to-practice approach to application of tools and techniques to improve outcomes for staffing stability
• Align organization policy, practice, and resources with long-term organization commitment and retention outcomes

Each week’s reading is accompanied by a narrated PowerPoint presentation. All material will be accessible on the internet or provided on the course website by the instructor. No textbook required.

All course work must be completed by June 30, 2018.

Completion of the course provides:

• Certificate of completion
• 20 PDU’s/CEU’s of professional development units (PDU) or continuing education units (CEU) for individual submission to credentialing organizations
• This program has been approved for 15 continuing education unit(s) for use in fulfilling the continuing education requirements of the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Granting prior approval from AHIMA does not constitute endorsement of the program content or its program sponsor.
• Certificate good for one free credit** of tuition available for use in the fall 2018 start of the MBA in Rural Healthcare or the Healthcare Administration Certificate
• The certificate of completion may be added to your resume and/or LinkedIn profile

*PDU/CEU certificate will document 20 hours, Course Syllabus, and St. Scholastica as the course sponsor for individual PDU/CEU submissions.

**Credit valued at $549.00 other restrictions apply. Please see admission counselor for more information.

About the course instructor

Dave Lucia, Ph.D.
Professionally, I have worked in the field of human resource management, within healthcare, for over 25 years. As an HR practitioner in health care, I have worked in both the public and private sectors. I hold the position of Vice President of Human Resources with a multi-state healthcare organization composed of 17 skilled nursing facilities and 47 assisted living campuses, and as the Division HR Director for a national organization for skilled care nursing facilities. Prior to working in long-term care and assisted living, I held positions of Director of Human Resources and Manager of Labor and Employee Relations with a regional hospital system. I have also been fortunate to have served on the American Health Care Association (AHCA) national workforce committee for several years to include two years as the committee chairman, as well as several years of membership on the workforce and education committees with Care Providers of Minnesota.

Academically, I received a doctorate degree in human resource development from the University of Minnesota, and M.A. degree in management from The College of St. Scholastica. I have also been teaching as an adjunct professor and instructor for over 15 years in graduate programs on subjects such as leadership, human resource management, healthcare administration, organization development, organizational behavior, strategic management, and labor relations.

I live in Duluth, Minnesota, with my wife, Barb.

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