Community Based Job Training Grant

Quarterly Progress Report

7-1-06 to 9-30-06
4th Quarter of the Grant

Section I: General Grant Information

A. Grant Identification:

Community Based Job Training Grant CB15210-06-60
Jeanette S. Matrone RN, PhD, CNAA, BC
Program Manager
Community College of Rhode Island
1762 Louisquisset Pike
Lincoln, RI 02865

B. Summary of General Grant Activities

During this quarter great strides were made in establishing an infrastructure for the Health Futures Grant. The information Technology Department gave the information technologist access to all the necessary data bases, and we, as a HFG team, were able to identify where we needed to get information to track outcomes. This may seem elementary, but it is difficult to achieve. Our sources of data come from several places: the faculty, student success, the Banner system of the college, institutional research, and outside contractors. I can say, at this point, we have a good structure in place to receive and track the outcomes of the grant.

We are behind schedule in achieving many of the outcomes because it took almost a year to hire the health science coordinators (HSC), given the state process for hiring full time staff. However these health science coordinators hit the ground running; they are very experienced and self directed and have already made significant contributions. The student success center participants have increased 400 % since the HSCs were hired. Although the raw numbers are still small, in all probability the goals regarding retention and persistence through graduation will be achieved. The HSCs were also involved with the Department of Labor and Training in the state to pursue a bridge between the grant and the unemployed, so that these participants will be screened and be able to become students at CCRI in the health sciences. The timeframes for the grant have been advanced to facilitate the grant processes, and we expect to achieve all outcomes by October 1, 2008.

The community support for helping with the grant continues. Care New England is progressing with the plan to secure 32 nursing seats, taking their employees who are on the wait list and combining these with other interested employees interested in nursing. Butler Hospital is participating by offering a clinical instructor in exchange for Butler Hospital applicants to bypass the wait list in nursing. Many other hospitals have inquired about using their master’s prepared nurses to help with the program. Rhode Island Health Care Association is partnering with our grant in hopes to achieve another department of labor grant. These are exactly the activities that will help Rhode Island recruit and secure funds for recruiting more health care practitioners. There is more money available, but it takes dedication and effort to pursue these grants.

There is a great deal of interest in the health care facilities to utilize the currently employed master’s prepared nurses as adjunct faculty. We received several adjunct faculty applications, and we must devise ways to utilize their skills and remain consistent with CCRI’s clinical schedule.

The Hospital Association of Rhode Island (HARI) recruited and assigned 4 externs to mentors this quarter. HARI also offered a professional development program for nursing students and industry staff nurses so each would learn about the effect their roles had on the teaching and learning environment in the hospitals. This program received excellent evaluations.

Assessment of faculty needs for education

We surveyed the entire HFG faculty on any innovations they are using in the classroom, and their interest in learning new ways to teach. The return rate was 31 out of 85 faculty (response rate= 27%). The results of the survey show that the faculty are interested in learning new ways to teach and are most favorably interested in self learning of new methods. Seventy five percent of the faculty have provided students means for students to become aware of cultural diversity, and 10 (32 %) have integrated distance learning in their teaching. The results are summarized in the table below.

Section II: Results from Learning Survey

Results from Learning Tools Survey for HCF Focus Group	Average	Maximum	Minimum
Level of interest in integrating distance learning	3.03	5.0	1.0
Level of interest in videotaping lecture materials	3.23	5.0	1.0
Level of interest in understanding teaching learning styles	4.2	5.0	2.0
Level of interest in supporting diversity	4.33	5.0	3.0
Level of interest in encourage learning partnerships	4.24	5.0	3.0
Level of interest in students working together	4	5.0	2.0
Level of interest in teaching self learning techniques	4.47	5.0	3.0
Level of interest in Faculty mentoring program	4.13	5.0	3.0
Level of interest in Creating communities of learning	3.8	5.0	3.0
Level of interest in practical teaching workshops	4.23	5.0	1.0
Level of interest in Chats on line	3.3	5.0	1.0

The Health Science Coordinators are currently interviewing many self identified minority students, and they are also conducting 2 focus groups to determine the satisfaction level of the students’ learning experiences. This will inform us of discrepancies in perception of needs between the minority students’ needs and those of the faculty. Educational offerings for faculty will be partially based on these results.

Faculty workshops were conducted in August. The focus of this educational offering was to introduce different strategies to enhance learning and teaching.

We look forward to continuing to revise the budget to facilitate the new activity schedule, and we are optimistic about achieving the outcomes of the grant.

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