Paul Szmal: Good morning, it's 8.38, it's FLX Morning, Election Day Tuesday, it's time to get healthy with your medicine, Finger Lakes Health, and that means that Kimberly Ockwood is here. Good morning. Good morning, Ted. Now also, she's not here to talk, but we're just going to say a quick hello. Your new colleague, because basically Laura moved up to the COO position, you moved up a slot, and now we have the new Kimberly. Yes, we have Carolyn Scott, who is our new Director of Marketing and Digital Strategies, so she's here with us today, and I'm so excited to have her join our team. Alright, hi Carolyn. Hi. It's good to have you here. So she'll be coming in once in a while, if you're not able to make it, she'll be directing the conversation.
So last time we were here, you refused to tell me, so now I'll ask again, did you in fact acquire a flapper dress for the celebration?
Kathleen Mills: Sadly, I did not. Oh, well. I ended up just wearing a normal dress.
Paul Szmal: Alright, so how did it go?
Kathleen Mills: Actually we had so many people who dressed in 20s clothing, it was so much fun. Probably I would say half the group was dressed in 20s, and half the group was just dressed regular, and it was a nice mix of people, it was a beautiful night, it was at the mansion at Keuka Lake. Yeah. You couldn't have had a better view. We had nice music from Ron Miller, who played the piano for us, we had a photo booth, we had Lauren LaGroca, really, who was our administrative assistant, she did an amazing job decorating the venue. We had a beautiful historic display, everyone just had a wonderful time, food, drinks, and it was just, it was a wonderful night.
Paul Szmal: By the way, Lauren is a complete energizer, buzzy bunny when it comes to scheduling all these interviews. She's the one that sends me the interview and confirms, I think we're booked like eight months out or something, she's very efficient and does a great job, so shout out to her. And I thought also, because it's been such a great year for Soldiers and Sailors, who was the committee, or who were the main people who worked to put all this celebration together?
Kathleen Mills: I have to give a really huge shout out to Mary Sue Dean, who's our Director of Development, she really took the lead on this, and she worked really hard on all these events. Lauren did a lot of work on it, our whole team in Community Services and the Foundation, but Lori Mercutcher, who was with the health system for many years, she's part of the Soldiers and Sailors Auxiliary, she really did a lot of work. Sue Stork, who is a member of our Finger Lakes Health Board of Directors, she was a co-chair for the Mansion event, as well as Dr. DeWitt, a long-time physician with the health system. We also had Susie Eisenhardt, did a ton of work, Chris Hunt, who's a member of our Auxiliary. I'm hoping I'm not leaving everybody out, but so many people, it was such a great committee and we really appreciate everything that everyone did to help us.
Paul Szmal: So, there's still a way that you can support Soldiers and Sailors and its 100th anniversary, and that's with the Centennial Circle.
Kathleen Mills: Yes, if you go online to our website, flhealth.org, you'll see we still have a banner on our homepage talking about the Soldiers and Sailors Centennial this year. And if you make a gift of $100 or more, you'll be part of the Centennial Circle and you're listed on our website, and all funds that we're raising this year at Soldiers and Sailors are going towards our new digital x-ray suite and equipment.
Paul Szmal: Now, it's always, this is a happy time of year, and we'll go into this in more detail, but the facilities are doing their holiday remembrance trees.
Kathleen Mills: Yes, all three of our sites, Geneva, Soldiers, and Huntington, all three of the Auxiliaries are doing remembrance projects. All the applications to buy the gifts are online on flhealth.org. So at Geneva General, it's a pine cone, I believe it's $10. At Huntington, it is a star, and at Soldiers and Sailors, I believe it's So Their Lights May Shine is the name of their campaign. You make a gift, it's I believe $10 for each one, and then your name goes on their tree. And you can do it in honor or remembrance of someone and leave a, you know, in memory of message or anything like that as well. It's tied to either a pine cone, a star, or a light that goes on the tree. So again, we'll talk more about those, and we'll have those on our community calendar at fingerlakesdailynews.com.
Paul Szmal: So let's meet our provider-slash-administrator. So I'm very excited today. We have a return guest. We have Kathy Mills. Kathy is the Dean of our Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and she's the Director of our Marion S. Whalen School of Practical Nursing. And I'm very excited and proud to say that Kathy is finishing up her Doctorate of Education. She'll be finishing that up next month. So I'm so happy and proud of her for that.
Well, congratulations on that. So give us a little bit of history and background of the Marion S. Whalen School. It's been around for a long time, and it's so unique in being a hospital-based program. You would think that there'd be a bunch of those, but there aren't many in New York.
Kathleen Mills: No, there's only like two or three in New York State. So our LPN program started about 1956, and our program actually incorporates other coursework. So they take courses, classes that they can actually transfer to other programs. So they build in on that, along with doing the clinical and the hospital-based. And that's one of the things. It's so immersive. I mean, you get right into it. Right at the very start, you're going to be doing clinical rotations early on in your schooling.
Paul Szmal: Correct.
Kathleen Mills: And it's a 10-month program, so it happens pretty quickly.
Paul Szmal: Yep.
Kathleen Mills: Starts in August. We're actually excited to start a new cohort in January. So we're taking applications until January 3rd, and then that cohort will start January 20th.
Paul Szmal: And did I see, actually, this past month you had waived the application fee. Is that right?
Kathleen Mills: Yes. Correct. In the month of October. Pretty neat.
Paul Szmal: So take us through kind of a typical day for some of these student nurses and the course offerings and what they learn and how they progress.
Kathleen Mills: Sure. So it's three days a week. And so typically on a Monday, Friday, they'll go to clinical or lab, which is here in the Geneva campus. And then on Tuesday, they usually go to class. And class is pretty much most of the day, but that's when they get most of their coursework. And so then when they graduate, they have explained the certificate they get, and then the next step in the test to become an LPN. So they complete all of their clinical time and the time in the classroom, and then they'll get a certificate, and then they're able to sit for the LPN boards through the NCLEX, through New York State. And then if they want, they have a great start on becoming an RN.
Paul Szmal: So what's the next step to becoming an RN?
Kathleen Mills: So the LPN can complete their certificate, and then they can either take the challenge exam and come into our RN program that next September, or they can work as an LPN and then come back in January of the following year.
Paul Szmal: So explain the differences between the Marian S. Whalen School and the Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing and Health Sciences.
Kathleen Mills: So Marian S. Whalen is our LPN program, and you had mentioned hospital-based. Our Finger Lakes Health College of Nursing is our registered nursing program, and that's also an associate degree. So there's a certificate in the LPN, and then the RN is the associate degree. It's like a stepping stone. And then students are able to take some courses at FLCC as well, if they want?
Paul Szmal: Yep. They can take courses anywhere, really. They can take them at FLCC, or they can transfer them in from previous coursework.
Kathleen Mills: So do you know roughly what percentage of the graduates end up going to work for UR Medicine Finger Lakes Health?
Paul Szmal: Not sure. Last year, we had 12 from the graduating class join us at Finger Lakes Health, because we're really proud to grow our own. We want students to come into both the LPN school and the RN school, and then stay in the community and work and care for our patients and our community members. So you've been involved in this for quite a while. It seems to me that the profession of nursing has really gained respect over the last several years. People are beginning to recognize the role they play and how important that role is.
Kathleen Mills: Oh, absolutely. I think once we come out of the pandemic, and then people start to really look at the role and what they do, there's so many areas you can do, especially in nursing. If you want to work six days a week or seven days a week, you can. If you want to work one day a week or evenings only, it's very personalized to each person.
Paul Szmal: Is there any real part of nursing that's growing the most, where there's the most demand right now, whether it be surgical or in facilities like the Huntington Living Center? Is there a specific facet of nursing that's really high in demand right now?
Kathleen Mills: Right now, long-term care could use a lot of support there, and of course, acute care anywhere in the med-surg area. So that would be like your telemetry or your surgical.
Paul Szmal: So tell us about the application process, if somebody wants to get signed up for one of these new cohorts coming in.
Kathleen Mills: So you can get there in many different ways. You can get through the Finger Lakes Health. You can also get through to MSWSPN.com, just apply the application, and it'll go from there. Our admissions person will reach out and make contact and get you started.
Paul Szmal: Now I know another one of the educational programs is the New Visions program. Tell us a little bit about that, and do some of those students go on to one of the colleges?
Kathleen Mills: Some do. They have the New Visions right there at the hospital. Laura Van Neel oversees that program. If they have a nursing degree, you know, if they're looking for a nursing degree, they can come in our way, too. Because we've talked about this in the past, that some of the students start convinced they want to be one thing, and then they get exposed to something else, and then they pick up a new love, which I think is really cool.
Paul Szmal: Yeah. It's great to have them inside the hospital themselves so they can see each avenue and which way they really want to go.
So what's your vision going forward for the Marion S. Whalen School?
Kathleen Mills: To do the best that we can, to grow and develop as many nurses as we can, to be able to support our population and our community.
Paul Szmal: All right. Very good. And you can go to, my eyes need to be fixed here, MSWSPN.com for the Marion S. Whalen School of Practical Nursing, and of course, your Medicine Finger Lakes Health website for information on that or more. Thanks very much. Congratulations on all the great nurses that you've turned out over the years, and many of them staying in the system.
Kathleen Mills: Great. Thanks for having me.
Paul Szmal: Kim, thanks as always.
Kathleen Mills: Thanks, Ted. And I just want to add, we do offer a lot of tuition assistance, so when people apply to the schools, they'll work with the financial aid counselor, and we do a lot of incentives for employees who work at Finger Lakes Health who want to become an LPNR, an RN, or if people apply to the college and then start to work for us while they're taking classes, we offer a lot of tuition buyback, just a lot of different tuition opportunities. So it's very affordable to come for a 10-month program for your LPN, two years for your RN, and then you can come out almost debt-free if you want to commit to working for Finger Lakes Health. And we offer all of the hands-on experience that you can't find at a lot of other programs. The new group begins, you said, in January?
Paul Szmal: Yep. So this is a great time to sign up for the next class in January, and 10 months down the road, you'll be taking your LPN exam, $8.49 now at Finger Lakes Morning.
