BeYourLocalHero Regional Recruitment Campaign
Leatherstocking Collaborative Health Partners (LCHP) is a PPS that serves several counties in upstate New York with 98 partners dedicated to transforming healthcare delivery in their communities towards a more collaborative, patient-centered, and accessible model. From the onset of DSRIP in 2014, HWNY has collaborated and consulted with LCHP on successfully launching its key workforce initiatives.
LCHP’s partner network is spread out geographically across five counties in Upstate/Central New York, much of it rural, which caused problems with streamlining information, data, processes, and projects. It needed a technology partner to advise and implement a capable solution to workforce development across its network.
Because LCHP’s network is mostly rural, it was facing major recruitment and retention challenges to address the growing workforce attrition in the region.
HWNY provided a customized LMS for LCHP which was built to capture and report on key project metrics for DSRIP, as well as account services and end-user support to provide a great experience while using the platform. Additionally, HWNY provides workforce consulting and support to ensure that LCHP is able to report quarterly to New York State on the progress of its network’s workforce development.
In 2018, HWNY created and launched a recruitment campaign in the LCHP region aimed at filling key healthcare positions in the area. The three key goals of the ongoing campaign are to:
- Recruit High School students and individuals living in the region into high-need careers
- Bring healthcare providers into the region to practice
- Provide career development and growth opportunities to healthcare workers in the region
The campaign is hosted on a website designed and managed by HWNY and promoted across multiple social media platforms in the form of various digital media content.
Through HWNY’s solutions, LCHP has been able to deliver trainings across its network, as well as successfully report all workforce data across its network.
Through years of consulting, HWNY has advised and recommended sustainability strategies for long-term workforce development. In 2018, HWNY designed and piloted a recruitment campaign that is still ongoing, as mentioned above.
To date, efforts to make this recruitment campaign successful include:
- An online digital engagement platform
This platform highlights high-need health careers in the LCHP region, shares a multitude of resources focused on professional growth and development, and provides relevant information about the region. In addition, online users can also access relocation resources and information on trainings, experiential opportunities, and educational programs to help with career pipelines all within the LCHP region. To date, there have been over 700 page views on the website since September 2019 when it went live.
- Interviewing local healthcare professionals within the high-need careers
Between April and December of 2019, HWNY interviewed 15 healthcare professionals at 5 different healthcare organizations across the LCHP region. The individuals interviewed are featured on social media and on the campaign website. Additionally, more healthcare professionals have agreed to be filmed and interviewed.
- Social media presence and digital media
With the use of social media, HWNY was able to create and share campaign-driven digital media content. Multiple HWNY-produced videos and images have been posted since the launching of the campaign accompanied by a campaign-specific hashtag. One video garnered over 1,000 views and 28 shares on Facebook alone. Another video reached over 800 views and 18 shares on Facebook. This resulted in an increase of new users coming to the website. In addition, a campaign video was created and shared, resulting in nearly 900 views across all platforms.
The BeYourLocalHero campaign continues to drive candidates to the recruitment website, and plans for additional interviews and media curation have been established. HWNY continues to promote the heroes of LCHP and inspire those interested in the field to learn more.
Med Students Immerse into Rural Health
NAHEC and CNYAHEC are nonprofits within the AHEC system whose missions are to improve healthcare workforce development in New York. The Rural Immersion Program is a highly successful program that allows medical students to meet various healthcare professionals over a week long period in a rural healthcare facility.
NAHEC and CNYAHEC wanted to increase the number of participants in the program, so they began working with HWNY to assist them with their recruitment needs. HWNY helped create a seamless, mobile accessible registration platform for the program. In addition to this, a video was produced to promote the program, along with rural health as a whole. The video can be viewed here.
Between 2013 and August of 2019, 116 students participated in the Rural Immersion program. Some of the rural health facilities involved in the program include:
- River Hospital Nursing Home
- Little Falls Hospital
- Canton-Potsdam Hospital
- Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center
- Oswego Hospital
The NAHEC website says this about the Program’s success:
So far, the program has been highly accredited and extremely successful in influencing undergraduate students to continue studying medicine with the intent to bring their services to rural areas.
With HWNY’s assistance, applying and registering for programs like Rural Immersion has been made easier and more accessible. It is also conveniently managed on the back-end for CNYAHEC and NAHEC staff.