Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 10

177 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 10 I LL INOI S HEALTH CARE ASSOC I AT ION ( IHCA) The upshot is they make more money, they have a new skill set, and the RN’s time is freed up to do other direct care work. It’s a wonderful ‘trickle up’ effect. It has a proven track record of working well in other states, so we are now fighting to make that pilot program permanent. “Another initiative that we run and maintain is a scholarship program – the Maitland Warner Scholarship Fund – where we award more than 20 scholarships a year to help individuals who are interested in pursuing long-term care nursing as a career. And we’re in the process the height of its highest unemployment rate in decades, we created 1700 new jobs in the state out of thin air with that program. That was a success story for us. “We also work constantly to create career ladder opportunities for CMAs (certified medical assistants) and for nursing. A few years ago, we did a pilot program to put medication technicians into long-term care. That program allows a CMA to become certified after appropriate training to do the time-consuming job of med passes under the direction of a nurse.