California-based By the Bay Health is making long-term investments to mitigate the hospice workforce crisis.

The nonprofit has developed a high school internship program to introduce students to hospice care and associated careers, in collaboration with Marin County Office of Education in its home state. To date, the program has been implemented in one institution, San Marin High School, with plans to expand into more.

“Our mission is to be there for our communities when they need us at the end of life, and part of that means we need the workforce to provide that care,” Robertina Szolarova, chief administrative officer for By the Bay Health, told Hospice News. “We need to be proactive, not just in finding that workforce, but in developing it in our communities. We are taking a really proactive role in exposing young people to careers in health care, including hospice and home-based care, which is not a field that students are typically aware of.”

This initiative began with the creation of a course within the Office of Education’s Career and Technical Education Program, which By the Bay Health helped to design. It launched as a one-semester course last Spring with eight participating students. This Fall, it expands to a full-year course with more than 35 students enrolled.

Each student who takes the course is eligible to take on an internship at By the Bay Health, according to Szolarova.

“It was an introduction to the world of health care, which is, of course, a large world,” she said. “Because we felt that it was very important to represent not just the typical fields of health care, but to really make sure that students understood that care could be provided in the home, whether that was skilled home health, palliative or hospice care.”

The internships are paid and last for about eight weeks. Interns work between 20 and 40 hours-per-week in areas such as contracts, quality, patient support services, advancement, finance and marketing and communications. 

Student intern Camilla Flores said that the course and internship contributed to her decision to choose a career in health rather than her other interests.

“I was still making my mind up between wanting to do health care and engineering, because I’m in the engineering program at San Marin [High School],” Flores told Hospice News. “I took the class initially just because I was curious. But the longer the class went on, the more I was sure of my decision of wanting to do health care instead of engineering.”

For Emly Lopez, also a student participant, the program solidified her aspirations of entering the health care field as a pediatric nurse.

“I really wanted to get into health care, more specifically pediatrics, because I have a cousin who’s, like, always been to the hospital. We’re really close, so I just wanted to involve myself in health care,” Lopez told Hospice News. “I saw the opportunity to take the course, and I thought this is going to help me have more experience with becoming a nurse.”

In addition to the course and internship program, By the Bay Health has also developed a $50,000 scholarship program for Bachelor of Science in Nursing students. Branded as the By the Bay Health Pat Kendall Memorial Nursing Scholarship, two students from Dominican University of California will be awarded the financial aid. Pat Kendall was a local health care leader who served in the field for more than 50 years, according to By the Bay Health.

Each recipient will also have an exclusive recruitment opportunity with By the Bay Health in the Spring semester of their fourth year in nursing school.

“We are honored to establish this exciting new nursing scholarship in Pat Kendall’s name,” said Skelly Wingard, CEO of By the Bay Health, in a statement. “Pat devoted her entire 50-year career to advancing health, home-based care and community well-being in Marin County. She was a staunch advocate for the most vulnerable in our community, championing home-based services to ensure that all patients could receive equitable, high-quality and compassionate care in the comfort of their homes.”