Soon employees will have more options to explore career paths and expand professional development opportunities at AU Health.
AU Health has a new Learning and Organizational Development department for employees of the health system. This department provides both virtual and in-person training and professional development opportunities that create pathways for advancement.
Dr. Jackson Drumgoole
The new department currently consists of three employees. Dr. Jackson Drumgoole is the department’s director. Courtney Tinsley is the Learning Management System and Training Specialist, and Cozette Brown is the Orientation and Engagement Specialist.
Drumgoole develops, organizes, and administers training, staff development and organizational development programs in support of the mission, vision and goals of the health system. He works collaboratively with all constituencies to assess the training and staff development needs of clinical, support areas, and leadership, bringing about organizational, group or individual change and performance improvement.
Tinsley leads new employee onboarding training and annual compliance trainings required by The Joint Commission that are conducted through HealthStream, as well as developing professional development opportunities for current employees. Much of her role involves maintaining and updating HealthStream, a complex learning management platform with a library of courses for both initiatives.
Courtney Tinsley
Brown manages ongoing organizational new employee orientation and is developing an updated orientation program for non-benefits eligible employees. She ensures all orientations are more focused on the health system than they previously had been and that orientation processes run smoothly. She also assists with professional development training and engagement and retention efforts at the organizational level.
“My major activities so far that I’ve been tasked with are Health System Week – which we recently celebrated – and the next one coming up will be the Years of Service celebrations, which are very special and important to the organization,” she said.
In addition, she will be working with local high schools in Columbia and Richmond counties, to establish a Work-Based Learning program, which will enable students who are juniors or seniors in high school to work a paid internship at AU Health. Some of these students will already have some skills and credentials through school programs, and all will be trained in HIPAA and CPR certification where applicable.
Cozette Brown
“We’re hoping to introduce students to not only clinical roles, but other opportunities such as, environmental services, food and nutrition, and transporter roles. This allows us to showcase our hospital and our clinics to high school students who might not have considered a health care career,” she said. “They tend to think healthcare jobs are just for doctors and nurses, so they need to know that there are more options available. We’re hoping that some of these students will come on as full-time employees if they don’t want to join the military or go to college.”
Increasing the workforce is one thing, but keeping employees is another. The department’s overarching goal is to help train leadership development. Tinsley said the department onboards between 50 and 100 individuals per week and is seeking to improve overall retention.
“We want to survey and find out why employees leave. We know that some of the employees leave for better compensation as money is a variable. But there are a lot of health benefits and other incentives offered that factor into compensation. We hope to increase awareness of these incentives and create a diverse culture that promotes belonging and encourages learning. Through our efforts, employees may choose to work for and stay at AU Health,” Tinsley said.
Brown said in addition, she would like to see professional development pathways established so that people can easily find, perhaps on the intranet, the steps needed to achieve a new goal.
“If an employee wants to become a manager in his or her department, for instance, he or she should be able to view the L&OD page and find the different steps needed to get there. Or employees will soon be able to explore different routes and get to a different goal based on skill level, or education, or by transitioning from department to department,” she said. “I’d like to see more of these pathways clearly laid out for employees, so our people will know what their options are. If something isn’t working, there are other opportunities they might be able to pursue to improve their career trajectory.”
For more information about any of these initiatives, call the Office of Learning and Organizational Development at 706-721-6706.
