By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
A new respiratory therapy program at Missouri Western State University will open up a pipeline of students that Mosaic Life Care hopes will work for them once their studies are done.
Associate Director of Respiratory at Mosaic Danielle Steele says that Mosaic Life Care is excited about the new Respiratory Therapy Program at Missouri Western.
"Mosaic is a great place to work at, and I think that they will be able to see that as they start out training as students," Steele tells reporters. "Once they get past their second clinical, we will actually be able to hire them on as student hires."
Steele says what health workers have seen is that where a student trains, they are more likely to want to continue working at that hospital or facility.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Edward Kammerer echoes that, saying a common theme he has seen in health education is that where you train is most likely where you will start your career.
"So, the concept has been, whether it's from respiratory care, from nursing, to our medical school, is to get a continuum of a pipeline of people who have actually trained inside of our institution to help us carry our institution forward into the future, as well as to provide the future workforce," Kammerer explains. "And so, we're very excited about the idea of a respiratory program, this is one of the underserved fields."
Kammerer says the COVID-19 pandemic showed Mosaic a couple things, one of those being how important respiratory therapy is and how few workers the department has.
Mosaic Life Care and the Mosaic Foundation recently gave 500-thousand dollars to Missouri Western. The money will help pay for a new Interprofessional Lab, as well as the new Respiratory Therapy program.
Steele says students that come to work in the respiratory therapy department at Mosaic get a very hands-on learning experience.
"We allow them to do whatever they've been checked off in school, they can be part of the COVID population and be able to see those kinds of patients too and see what we have to deal with on a daily basis," Steele says. "We work as a great team with nursing."