Navigating Learning Resources at Ascension Health: A Comprehensive Guide
Ascension Health, in response to the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, prioritizes the continuing education of its healthcare team. This article provides a comprehensive overview of the learning resources available to Ascension associates, covering everything from tuition reimbursement and palliative care curriculum to navigating the learning management system and understanding course completion requirements.
Investing in Your Future: Education and Career Development at Ascension
Ascension believes in investing in its associates, supporting them in every stage of life. From day one, employees have access to career-building education options, including tuition reimbursement and the Vocare Education Program.
Tuition Reimbursement and Vocare Education Program: Associates can take advantage of up to $5,250 in prepaid tuition for degrees, certifications, and upskilling programs, with no waiting period.
Retirement Savings Program: Ascension offers a retirement savings program designed to make investing easy. Associates can contribute a portion of their paycheck through automatic payroll deductions. The organization also provides employer-paid automatic and matching contributions to help eligible associates reach their retirement goals.
Work-Life Balance: Ascension recognizes the importance of work-life balance, enabling associates to be both career-minded and family-focused.
Read also: Empowering Growth at Ascension
Accessing Palliative Care Education
Ascension Care Team members now have access to a free CAPC (Center to Advance Palliative Care) membership, providing unlimited access to palliative care curriculum and opportunities to earn credits.
Continuing Education for Nurses
While the state of Wisconsin does not require Continuing Education Contact Hours (CEU) for professional nurses’ license renewals, some Ascension hospitals do require them for professional development. Resources for finding CEU articles include searching for "CONTINUING education units" in databases. Organizations like Medscape, accredited by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), offer online CME and continuing education (CE) activities. Other valuable resources for nurses seeking to fulfill their continuing education requirements include NetCE, NurseCEU.com, and RN.com.
Navigating the Ascension Learning Environment
Ascension provides a variety of resources to ensure associates, instructors, and students can successfully contribute to the community.
Key Information: It is important to review the general information provided by Ascension. After reviewing this information, remember to move on to subsequent steps. Progress is not tracked in each course, so if you leave a course in the middle, you will need to start again from the beginning. Be sure to allocate adequate time to complete each course and complete the Attestation Form upon completion.
Electronic Health Record (EHR) Training: The majority of Ascension Wisconsin sites utilize an Electronic Health Record (EHR). Associates will need to learn the applications that apply to their discipline and to the site where they will be working. Different roles require different training. Resources are available for sites using Epic.
Read also: Your Counseling Career
Understanding Course Structure and Requirements
Ascension's learning resources are designed to be flexible and accessible.
Tracking Student Progress: Student progress can be tracked through automated reports for approximately 65% of courses. For the remaining courses, individual Progress Reports (PR) are obtained directly from the content developer. Students can also access live help via a toll-free number.
Course Completion: Course completion requirements differ by course. Most courses and programs are self-paced and open enrollment, allowing individuals to start their training immediately and move at their own pace. Completion times vary depending on the subject matter, with most programs completed within 4 to 6 months after registration. Each course and program lists the average number of hours to complete and the length of time you have to access your training.
Materials: Most necessary materials are included and covered by tuition. If materials are not included, associates will be informed by their Training Assessment Manager (TAM). Software is not included with any course or program. Included materials are shipped through ground service upon enrollment. Some courses and programs contain online material for download only.
Pace of Learning: Students are encouraged to work at their own individual pace to maximize the benefit from their course. The learning management system is accessible 24x7.
Read also: Explore Health Degrees
Technical Requirements: A stable internet connection is required, such as Cable, Fiber, DSL, or LEO Satellite. Cellular hotspots may cause connectivity issues due to potential high download and upload latency. While courses can be viewed on Android and iPhone devices, it is not recommended.
Course Types:
- Self-Paced Course: The student is given all of the resources necessary to study, understand, and pass the course.
- Instructor Supported Course: The course has an instructor who will dictate the flow of the course.
- Certificate Programs: Provide a student a certificate of completion at the end of their course.
- Certification Programs: Prepare a student to take a national certification exam after the program is completed. The cost of a certification exam is usually not included in the price of a course unless specified.
Purchasing Exams: To include an exam with a course, notify your Training Assessment Manager. You have up to one year after your course expires to get your voucher.
Financial Assistance and Support
Ascension understands that paying for training can be a financial burden. While financial assistance like Pell grants and FAFSA are not available for CE non-credit programs, resources are available to help students succeed.
Course Inquiries: During your course, questions will undoubtedly arise. If you do not have an instructor or mentor, your course URL typically will have a 'contact us' option.
Course Information: The hours and access length for a course is found at the top of the full outlines underneath the title of the course. The number of hours displayed is the amount of time it should take a normal student to complete that course.
Accessibility and Accommodations
Ascension is committed to providing accessible learning resources for all associates.
Accessibility: Reasonable efforts will be made to accommodate all users who require compliant web browsers, enabling software, or assistive devices. Accessible Web design provides benefits to both those using assistive technology, as well as others.
Accommodations: Students must notify ProTrain 10 days prior to the start date of their course for ProTrain to provide accommodations. For an academic adjustment, you will be required to provide documentation prepared by an appropriate professional, such as a medical doctor, psychologist, or other qualified diagnostician.
Additional Information
Tax Information: This school is not required to issue 1098 T forms at this time, pursuant to the IRS eligibility requirements. The student should seek guidance from a tax professional as to the possible deductibility of expenses, as this school is not authorized to provide tax advice.
Connect LIVE: Students should have at least a 10th grade reading level in order to take a course.
Student Support: Comprehensive services begin with the Registration Process and extend through your entire training journey. ProTrain ensures students always have access to current course material through content updates and provides ongoing student support throughout your training. Upon completion, students receive a Certificate of Completion and, where applicable, assistance with national certification exam registration.
Exam Changes: Students will be notified as soon as possible about upcoming exam changes via course outlines and monthly progress reports. If a student is in a course where the certification exam has expired, the student still has the remaining duration of their enrollment time in the current course content.
Refund Policy: There can be no refund for the course, once the first class has been concluded; or if any course material, including the eBook, is accessed. If extenuating circumstances exist, case by case situations will be reviewed by ProTrain. If a refund is issued, the refunded amount (- a $25 processing fee) will be dependent upon books being returned in excellent condition.
Grievance Policy: A student will attempt to resolve a grievance with the person involved. If a student is unable to resolve the grievance with the person involved, it should be submitted in writing to that person’s supervisor. A meeting will be set up to include the student, person involved, and someone from the executive leadership team. Every effort will be made to resolve the grievance at this point. Students that have addressed their concern to the executive leadership team and have not reached their desired outcome, or have an issue directly related to the executive leadership team the student will be referred to file a formal complaint with a higher governing authority.
Accreditation: ProTrain is accredited by Middle States Association Commissions on Elementary and Secondary Schools and must have a procedure and operational plan for handling student complaints. The student may also consider contacting he school’s accreditor.
Completion Rates: Completion Rate data is from the past two years and excludes learners who dropped or withdrew from their program. The completion rate based on students who have progressed through at least half of the program is a benchmark used by several content providers.
Proctoring Fees: If you require more than the two included attempts, a non-refundable $50 proctor service fee will be required for each subsequent attempt. This policy and its associated fees apply only to the proctoring service (the scheduled time slot and supervision). Your Certiport exam voucher code is separate and is only consumed when it is entered into the testing software at the beginning of an exam.
tags: #ascension #health #my #learning #resources
