Industry Partnerships ~ Healthcare
Partnerships in Healthcare
Partnerships in healthcare work to improve the health of Minnesotans through a well-educated and appropriately trained workforce. The system’s Healthcare Education Industry Partnership is an example of a statewide planning effort to address the education and workforce needs of the healthcare industry. Hosted by Minnesota State University, Mankato, and coordinated through the Strategic Partnership Unit, the Healthcare Education Partnership (HEIP) has been effective in addressing the nursing shortage, the need for improving technology in healthcare education through simulation, and increasing the number of faculty to teach in nursing and allied health programs.
Visit the Healthcare Education Partnership website at www.heip.org
Nursing Initiatives
According to the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, the healthcare industry has the highest number of vacancies accounting for 10,259 of the state’s 60,172 total vacancies. Registered nursing accounts for 1,977 of those vacancies, ranking it as the occupation with the third highest number of vacancies. With MnSCU graduating 78 percent of Minnesotas new nurses, HEIP has worked diligently to address issues facing nursing education and the nursing needs of Minnesota’s employers.
Partnership Council
The HEIP Partnership Council serves as a broad-based, expert-laden, dedicated, and passionate group that routinely gives up one day per quarter to attend and participate in HEIP Partnership Council meetings. Made up of representatives of Minnesota’s largest healthcare systems, state agencies, associations, educators, rural providers, and others, the quarterly council meetings provide a valued forum for exchanging ideas, concerns, and information.
Clinical Coordination
A critical problem facing nursing and allied health programs is securing clinical education placement sites for students. Currently, many healthcare facilities report they are at full capacity and unable to expand to meet the growing needs of programs. This creates a bottleneck situation in which programs are unable to expand without additional clinical space. HEIP has worked to identify models of clinical scheduling to streamline the process and to, ultimately, expand capacity.
HEIP is currently in the process of preparing an annual report and a new Go Places Healthcare brochure. Check back soon for updates!
