Jolene Alexander

‘Earn-and-Learn’ Initiative Has Helped Her Realize Her Dream

Jolene Alexander

Jolene Alexander says her father suffered his first heart attack when she was 10 years old. He had another one a year later.

It was a scary time in many ways, she recalled, adding that it was made easier — for her father and the rest of her family — by the care and compassion provided by the team at Baystate Medical Center’s cardiac intensive care unit.

“I just remember how pleasant those nurses were to my family; they were very empathetic toward the situation, and they were very thorough, and he ended up pulling through, even though they weren’t sure what the outcome would be,” said Alexander, adding that the experience helped instill a desire to join the healthcare profession and serve in that environment.

And she did, eventually serving as a certified nursing assistant (CNA), and more recently as a cardiac monitor tech.

The dream, though, was to become a nurse — a dream that was put on hold for the better part of two decades by that thing we call life.

“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse — I did all the pre-requisites, but life just kept getting in the way,” said Alexander. “I left it at the pre-reqs, and I didn’t continue; I decided to just move forward with life as a mom.”

Things were further complicated by ongoing heart issues for her father, including several incidents in 2022, that compelled her to cut back on her hours and focus on family, including care for her father.

But the dream was resurrected — and put on a path to fruition by the Workforce Planning & Development team at Baystate Health and an ‘earn-and-learn’ initiative that blends education, hands-on experience, and paid employment, enabling individuals to enter and advance within healthcare careers without the traditional financial barriers.

In Alexander’s case, she was paid her salary as a cardiac monitor tech while attending the LPN program at Holyoke Community, from which she will graduate this June and then begin the next chapter in her career.

As she tells the story, when she was ready to come back to work full time in 2023, her unit supervisor encouraged her to attend a networking event off campus with someone involved with workforce development at Baystate.

I blindly went into it not knowing what it was all about,” she recalled. “Eventually, I learned it was about a grant they were trying to receive to help some employees get through LPN training.

“That was perfect for me, and it was perfect timing,” she went on, adding that the grant was secured, and she soon started in the LPN certificate program at HCC, thus becoming part of larger initiatives at Baystate and elsewhere to put more nurses in the pipeline at a time when many are retiring from the profession.

She noted that LPNs (licensed practical nurses) do not earn as much as registered nurses (RNs), who must complete a two- or four-year degree program to receive that designation, but the salary represents a significant step up from her present work. Meanwhile, LPNs handle most, but not all, of the same duties as RNs, she noted, adding that this change represents a significant step forward for her.

And she’ll take that step in a familiar setting, her current cardiac unit. There was an opening there, she applied for it, and was hired, she said, adding that she expects to start in mid-August.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time, I’m a little nervous about it, just knowing that now, I’m the one who’s going to have to make those critical decisions,” she said of her next challenge. “It’s more exciting than anything, but also a little intimidating.”

And while this has been a rewarding experience on many levels, it is certainly not without its challenges, said Alexander, adding that balancing life and school is difficult, and she could not have taken this step forward career-wise if Baystate didn’t pay her to learn.

“Every day I got up I said, “I’m not going today, I’m not going through this, it’s too stressful,’” she recalled, adding that she was balancing her classes with parenting responsibilities and helping to manage her father’s care. “It’s a lot, but it’s more manageable not having to work full time; that’s the biggest helpful piece in this program.”

While looking ahead, Alexander also did some looking back, noting that she got her start at Baystate nearly 20 years ago through something called the Baystate Springfield Educational Partnership, or BSEP, as it’s called. This is a health school career pathway program for high school students in Springfield. It includes exploration of health careers, a teen mini-medical school, and summer work employment opportunities to give students interested in healthcare careers direct access to people currently employed in the field and health careers training, which often leads to internships and employment.

That was the case with Alexander, who participated in the program as a springboard to her work as a CNA, and now, two decades later, her daughter is participating in the BSEP program.

“She had an introduction to many units within the hospital to see if she had interest in those,” Alexander explained, adding that she will be involved again next year as a senior, with the goal of landing an internship.

And then possibly taking one of many pathways into a career in healthcare, as her mother did.

This latest pathway has enabled her to take a dream that was delayed and turn it into a dream realized.