WARWICK – There were at least two events held at the Crowne Plaza last week that are worthy of mention in discussions around future economic development plans in Rhode Island.

The first was the week-long national gathering of the Rhodesian Ridgeback Club of the U.S. and its 2015 National Specialty event, from Sept. 20-26, which drew hundreds of Rhodesian Ridgeback owners to Rhode Island – and with them, their tourism destination dollars. Who knew?

And, judging from the poster on the website for the Warwick event, “A Show of Elegance,” featuring a stylish woman in heels with her two well-behaved Rhodesian Ridgebacks on the deck of a boat, looking out at what appears a Newport mansion in the distance, the possibilities of a new market for tourism appear promising [though, for the record, based upon ConvergenceRI’s brief encounters with owners and their dogs, none of the owners were wearing heels and the Rhodesian Ridgebacks often appeared to be, ah, better groomed than many of the owners.]

The Rhodesian Ridgeback gathering is apparently one of many such events that come to Crowne Plaza. Imagine Rhode Island marketed as a dog-lovers destination, with a hotel that welcomes them and provides them with dog-friendly places to visit in the state. Stefan Pryor, take note.

Nursing job fair
A far more traditional event related to the state’s future economic success and its strategic workforce development was the Nursing Job Fair and Open House, hosted by Care New England on Sept. 22, at which all parts of the Rhode Island’s second largest health care delivery system – including Women & Infants Hospital, Butler Hospital, Kent Hospital, Memorial Hospital, The Providence Center and the VNA of Care New England – were holding on-the-spot interviews with potential candidates.

“If you’re a registered nurse with a desire to grow your career and work with some of the best in the field, Care New England is the place to be,” according the page on the website tweeted by The Providence Plan. “Our team is building a culture based on accountability, caring and teamwork to support the leading-edge transformation of health care in Rhode Island.”

Nursing may be one the most promising, future high-growth job creation sectors in Rhode Island, with the forecast that some 4,500 nurses will be required to fill the growing need for nurses in the state’s health care delivery system by 2018, according to the state’s Department of Labor and Training.

Indeed, there was a constant buzz of conversation in the Rotunda at the Crowne Plaza as more than 100 potential job seekers sought out opportunities.

We want you
ConvergenceRI visited the different tables, chatted with the representatives, and observed from afar the numerous one-on-one conversations and interviews going on with potential applicants.

It was not long before Tim Bigelow, the vice president of Human Resources at Butler Hospital and head of Recruitment Strategies at Care New England, came over to talk with ConvergenceRI, who clearly stuck out in the crowd.

Much like the others, Bigelow and ConvergenceRI then sat down for a brief, one-on-one interview, though the roles were reversed, with ConvergenceRI asking most of the questions.

ConvergenceRI: What was the genesis of this nursing job fair? How did it come about?
BIGELOW: In the last three to five months, we have become more and more concerned about vacant [nursing positions], particularly in the OR [operating room], ED [emergency department], and in some of the nurse management level positions.

We knew that these were happening, but we were struggling to fill them; [the trend] was becoming more apparent.

ConvergenceRI: The Department of Labor and Training has estimated that there will be some 4,500 new nursing jobs created by 2018 in Rhode Island. Is the job growth related to older nurses retiring? Is the demand in part from the expansion of accountable care organizations and patient-centered medical homes, as the role of nursing is elevated in the team approach?
BIGELOW: Exactly. Absolutely. Part of the problem is that as you have some of the experienced nurses leaving, and [even though] we’re creating new nurses in the pipeline though the colleges, most of the hospitals struggle with hiring these new nurses because they don’t have the proper training programs in place to get them up to speed.

ConvergenceRI: Isn’t there a push to create more emphasis on training at the colleges, pushing for a B.S. in nursing in Rhode Island, and graduate studies, too, such as the new doctorate of nursing practice program at Rhode Island College?
BIGELOW: Yes, there are new grad programs; there is an increase in residency programs…

ConvergenceRI: Isn’t there a nursing residency program in Rhode Island now?
BIGELOW: Yes. There are a number of our people who have participated in that, a number of nurses who are employees of ours, who went to nursing school and who were unable to get nursing positions. They took advantage of the residency program. I know that a number of those folks have been hired [by us].

ConvergenceRI: How important in terms of being hired for jobs in a hospital setting is the push toward more education for nurses, moving from the associate degree to the bachelor’s degree, and then, into the graduate level in studies?
BIGELOW: At the bedside level, what we’re really looking at is BSNs.

That’s a critical piece, and the reason for that, there’s a different between an ADN [associate degree nurse] and a BSN [bachelor of science nurse]. It really has to do with critical thinking.

When you go to a BSN program, you’re put into a lot of situations where you can begin using critical thinking in making the kinds of decisions that help you make the patient experience better, to help improve patient care.

Which is not to say that an ADN is bad, by any means, or that nurses with ADNs are not good nurses; they are [good nurses].

There is a different level. And what we want to do is to enhance our staff nursing levels across Care New England with the higher level of BSNs.

We’re not going to get rid of ADNs, but we want to improve the level [of education].

ConvergenceRI: Are you involved at all with the new innovative high school program, the Rhode Island Nursing Institute Middle College?
BIGELOW: We are very involved with the Middle College. Jody Jencks, who is our director of workforce development, is on the board.

ConvergenceRI: In holding today’s job fair, in trying to attract nurses, does it reflect that it has become harder to retain nurses?
BIGELOW: It’s become harder as time goes on, not because we’re not trying to do a good job [in retention], but the nursing [profession] is changing. And, we have to keep up as leaders.

We are working with our nurses on a regular basis to understand those changes, to help them figure out how to adapt to those changes.

The key piece for us, one of the things we’ve been talking about at Care New England, we’re in the process of finalizing a strategic plan to really enhance nursing care at Care New England.

[The plan will include] supporting employees, and nurses, and people who want to be nurses, to help them financially get nursing degrees, or to enhance their nursing degrees, and to provide leadership opportunities, leadership development training, and opportunities to move into management positions.

We’re trying to partner with some of the schools to figure out how we can work better to get folks on board, to get people to take their programs, maybe even creating our own company cohorts, [so that] nurses at Care New England can be in the same cohort and work with each other, collaborate with each other.

ConvergenceRI: How much of a buzz did what happened with Miss Colorado at the Miss America pageant create?
BIGELOW: Tell me what happened

ConvergenceRI: Miss Colorado, as her part in the talent competition, appeared in her nurses’ scrubs and talked about the importance of being more than just a nurse. Then Joy Behar on “The View” ridiculed her for appearing to be in a costume and wearing what Behar said was a doctor’s stethoscope.
BIGELOW: That’s ridiculous.

ConvergenceRI: It was the lead story in ConvergenceRI this week. I’ll email you the story. In it, one of the questions posed, in the “Under the Radar” sidebar, was wouldn’t it be apt if you could create a campaign, in promoting the nursing profession in Rhode Island, borrowing the closing line from Miss Colorado: in Rhode Island, I am never going to be just a nurse.
BIGELOW: I really like that. What you’re talking about is what we need to do.

Besides being in charge of [the job fair], I am the head of recruitment strategies at Care New England. I am also vice president of Human Resources at Butler Hospital. And, one of the things that I am very aware of is that it’s nurses that create the experience with the patients.

The doctors can muck it up, or add to it, but it is the nurses who are the ones who make the experience.