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VITAS Healthcare and Health Workforce Initiative Collaborate

Employer Engagement

A Win-Win Partnership!

VITAS Healthcare and the Health Workforce Initiative work to provide student learning opportunities for remote direct patient care activity for Nursing and Allied Health Programs at the California Community Colleges. 

Copy of the presentation from Tuesday, June 4, 2020

FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES:

  • Students receive clinical hours while providing remote check-in calls from home
  • Students learn psychosocial and spiritual dynamics and how to communicate effectively with the terminally ill patient and their caregivers

FOR VITAS HEALTHCARE:

  • Improve VITAS hospice patient and caregiver experience with supportive check-in calls
  • Increase volunteer hours required by Medicare
  • Train potential hospice care workers of tomorrow!

VITAS Requirements:

  • Students have completed background check (VITAS will complete if they do not)
  • Students attend PART ONE and PART TWO proactive call training
  • Programs/ Students commit to a minimum of 35 total hours (includes 2 hours training)

Onboarding Process

  • VITAS and each CC Division/ Department will secure an MOU ASAP! MOU would be valid for five years.
  • VITAS will obtain a list of students and contact information from CC department liaison
  • VITAS will send video link for students to complete PART ONE Proactive Call Training (one hour):
  • Hospice Philosophy
  • Psychosocial and Spiritual Dynamics
  • Effective Communication Skills
  • HIPAA and Safety
  • Take a quiz and sign VITAS statements (confidentiality, etc.) via Survey Monkey link
  • Students will attend one of several offered Live (Zoom) PART TWO Proactive Call Training (one hour):
  • How to make and document the proactive calls
  • Students will receive official VITAS Volunteer Certificate and will be assigned a VITAS program
  • Students will be contacted by the program VITAS Volunteer manager to start making calls!
  • NOTE: Once MOU is signed, the student can be onboarded and ready to make calls as soon as 7-10 days!

Proactive Call Process

  • Student callers receive a weekly call list via secure email that contains patient and caregiver name and phone numbers
  • Students make the calls that week, using a script, and enter call responses into a website portal
  • The script asks how the patient and caregiver are doing and whether they have any need or concerns
  • Any identified needs and concerns are communicated immediately to the VITAS team
  • Students input their total volunteer hours into a Survey Monkey link weekly
  • The VITAS volunteer manager oversees the student callers and acts as a Liaison with the college liaison – sends student hours, etc.

The Opportunity :

Potential for additional student opportunities:

  • Course Instructor could listen in on Proactive Calls
  • Students could shadow a VITAS nurse, social worker when restrictions lifted.
  • Students could make in-person volunteer visits when restrictions lifted.
  • Students might receive additional course instruction on End of Life and Palliative care topics
  • VITAS will respond directly to you upon receipt with the MOU and process to partner
  • VITAS has more than 40 years of experience in hospice care and is the nation's largest single-source provider of end-of-life care.
  • 12,262 VITAS professionals provide care to approximately 19,215 patients daily throughout 14 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Currently, there are offices found throughout California in

  • East Bay
  • Inland Empire
  • Los Angeles and Ventura Counties
  • Orange County, CA
  • Sacramento
  • San Diego
  • San Francisco

Please contact: