Program manager Joe Kloza, center, checks in with students Yetnayet Salahuddin, left, and Mindy Welsh during a class at the Employment Skills Center in downtown Carlisle, Cumberland County.
Salahuddin is studying to be a registered nurse, and Welsh recently completed nurse-aid training. Photo/Amy Spangler
Mindy Welsh was 16 years old when she had her first child.
The Carlisle resident didn't graduate from high school but instead went to work at Wendy's to support her young family.
In June, the now-28-year-old mother of five, decided it was time to stop depending on others to support her family.
"I'd rather just go out there and do it myself," she said.
That's exactly what she did.
Welsh is one of 70 people since last year to pass a pre-clinical class in Carlisle for those interested in becoming nurse aides, health workers that care for and help the elderly and infirm at nursing homes and long-care facilities.
She also is one of 41 individuals to pass the clinical program through Harrisburg Area Community College to become a nurse aide July 25. Claremont Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, hired Welsh, but she has to take her final test to be certified with the state as a nurse aide Sept. 15. She starts work at Claremont Aug. 26.
The pre-clinical class is a new initiative of the South Central Workforce Investment Board (SCWIB). Funding for the WIB program came from a variety of public, private and philanthropic partners.
The class offered through the Employment Skills Center in Carlisle is the pilot program of that initiative, said David Rancke, the health care coordinator with the SCWIB. He also is interim executive director of the Pennsylvania Center for Health Careers, an office of the state Department of Labor and Industry.
"We would never be where we are today if it had not been for all these collaborations," Rancke said about the initiative's funding diversity.
The WIB and its partners raised more than $150,000 to start the initiative.
The funding partnership includes public entities, such as the SCWIB and state Department of Public Welfare. It also includes private organizations, such as the Healthcare Consortium of South Central Pennsylvania, a group of hospitals, medical centers, doctors and educational institutions. Philanthropic organizations, like the United Way of the Capital Region, contributed as well. Money and services were all part of the mix, according to the SCWIB.
The effort is helping, said Ruth Mirin, director of nursing at Sara A. Todd Memorial Home, a retirement and long-term care facility in Carlisle. Todd Memorial is operated by Camp Hill-based nonprofit United Church of Christ Homes.
The pre-clinical program prepares people to be a nurse aide, she said. Later, those applicants have a leg up on others seeking the job she said. That's important because nurse aides are in demand in health care, she said.
"(Positions) are difficult to fill because you may interview a lot of people, but you don't hire everyone you interview," she said.
The job is demanding, physically and emotionally, Mirin said. Nurse aides help patients with dressing, bathing and other tasks that most people take for granted.
"The Employment Skills Center is very supportive of the students. Most are adults who have been out of education for some time," Mirin said.
That support network during and after pre-clinical classes is necessary, said Joe Kloza, program manager for nurse-aide training at the Employment Skills Center, a workforce-readiness center in Carlisle. Most of the students are women. And most of the students have some confidence problems stemming from abusive relationships or other issues from their past. Some have just never been told that they can achieve better things, Kloza said.
"In order for them to serve someone else, they need to care more about themselves," he said.
The program started in 2007 and has exceeded all of its goals, Kloza said, including the number of people signing up just from word-of-mouth.
The Employment Skills Center planned to recruit 60 people for pre-clinical classes. It ended up with 76 students. It figured only 30 would go on to start clinical courses, but 53 signed up, and 41 of those students passed their class.
It figured on 25 students going to work in health care, but 33 are employed, with another nine anticipated to begin work soon.
"We're doing very well with the program, but this is the first time we're finding there is this much demand for it," Kloza said.
But that's what the program is about, he said: doing better.
Welsh sees that now. Making $8 an hour and having help from Social Security didn't cut it, she said. Depending on her children's father - who was in and out of her life over seven years - wouldn't cut it anymore, she said.
She wants to study to become a registered nurse in pediatrics.
"I don't want to stop here; I want to keep going," Welsh said. "That's why I'm getting my GED. So I can do better things." (source)
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