FirstFutures - Growing Our Own
Our most recent initiative is focused on a collaborative, long-term, community action plan designed to ensure FirstHealth remains appropriately staffed, and therefore, self-sustaining and independent. Because the majority of long tenured employees have one thing in common - they grew up in the area - our first step is providing student and financial aid and financial incentives through the area's community colleges with an emphasis on nursing and allied health scholarships, as well as an adjunct professor assistance program. The professor assistance program provides a semester stipend to FirstHealth qualified instructors. Staffing is the top issue negatively impacting FirstHealth today and Growing Our Own is crucial to our continued success.
Stand Up 4 Nurses
Through your generosity, you can ensure that our nurses receive the support they need. As a grateful patient, family member or someone who has been touched by their care - please consider a gift to show your support and Stand Up 4 Nursing. Your gift also helps with nurse recruitment and retention. Adopting a culture of retention is key to maintaining adequate staffing levels to meet the complex care needs of our FirstHealth patients. Your support through The Foundation of FirstHealth helps make us a health system of choice for current and future nurses.
Honor Our Nurses
Every day, patients and their families come to FirstHealth hoping to find a friendly face to help, support and care for them. At FirstHealth, that first friendly face is often a nurse. FirstHealth’s nurses exceed the call of duty to help the patients they care for.
By honoring a nurse who has made a difference in your life or in the life of a family member or friend, you strengthen our nursing program. Your generous gift helps build a nursing endowment to:
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Make scholarships available to help train the next generation of advanced nurses
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Offer certification and simulation training to improve patient care
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Conduct programs to ensure continuity in nurse staffing
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Increase access to continuing education and professional conferences.
Continuing Education
The American Nurses Association (ANA) defines continuing education as any post-basic nursing education aimed at actively engaging nurses in a lifelong process of learning, with the ultimate goal of improving delivery of health care. Keeping nurses up-to-date amidst the rapid changes taking place in health care poses a significant challenge. The Foundation of FirstHealth has made a sizable investment to address this challenge. At a time when funding for continuing education programs and scholarships for nurses have remained flat, the Foundation has contributed over $350,000 over the last six years to nursing education – to provide nurses the opportunity to attend national conferences and participate in on-site seminars, board certification preparation and clinical specialty education. Your support helps keep our continuing education program strong and focused on priority training needs.
