The U.S. health care sector created 14,500 new jobs in January, while overall employment from all U.S. business sectors fell by 20,000 jobs, according to new Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) preliminary data released late this week.  Those additional health care sector jobs helped the national unemployment rate fall from 10 percent to 9.7 percent. 

Hospitals accounted for 5,000 new payroll additions in January, while ambulatory services accounted for 15,000 payroll additions and physicians’ offices accounted for 5,600 payroll additions.  Some areas of the health care sector lost jobs in January; nursing and residential care facilities reported 5,800 payroll reductions. 

The health care sector created 267,000 new jobs in 2009, including 22,000 payroll additions in December, according to BLS data.

Throughout the economic downturn, hospital and health care employment has remained relatively stable. Many Iowans who have lost their jobs have turned to health care to start new careers. This is a smart move; health care offers work that is challenging, rewarding and well-paying.

Many hospitals offer scholarships to help pay for college education in health care.  IHA has its own scholarship program that has helped dozens of Iowans start or advance their hospital careers.

About a month ago IHA wrapped up its 2009 Swinging for Scholars event, the major fundraiser for the IHERF Health Care Careers Scholarship Fund. This year the fund awarded $72,000 in scholarships to 24 college students from all parts of Iowa.

Out of the 24 students receiving awards, four of them were able to attend the event to be presented with their “big” checks and to talk about what the scholarship meant to them.

In the video below we spoke to Pam Delagardelle, the IHERF Board Chair, as well as the four recipients:

• Sara Fleecs, St. Anthony Regional Hospital
• Peggy Black, Iowa Health – Des Moines
• Deanna Robey, Blank Children’s Hospital
• Beth Van Maanen, Pella Regional Health Center

(Video link for RSS subscribers).

If you missed the submission deadline this year, head over to the IHERF section of our website so you can start working on your application for 2010.

Neither a stormy economy nor soggy fairways could keep last week’s Swinging for Scholars golf fundraiser from being another huge success.  Unseasonably cool temperatures greeted participants as they arrived at The Harvester and light rainfall passed through the area as golfing got underway, but spirits remained high as participants enjoyed one of Iowa’s premiere golf courses.

By mid-afternoon, the skies cleared, the temperature rose and at the end of the day more than $130,000 was raised to support students seeking health care careers in Iowa hospitals.

Participants (more than 190 people registered for this year’s event) also enjoyed an outstanding morning program, featuring keynote speaker Brian Brown, a former world-class high jumper who now directs the Drake Relays.

While the focus of Brown’s presentation was leadership, his first order of business was to recognize recipients of the Iowa Hospital Education and Research Foundation Health Care Careers Scholarship who were in the audience and recall how scholarships made a difference in his life.

“If it wasn’t for someone else seeing something in me and making a scholarship available to me, there is no way I would be standing before you right now.”

Brown added that his mother, despite her seventh-grade education, pressed him to keep on learning, all the way to the doctorate degree he received in 2005.

Brown talked at length about his keys to leadership, including vision, sacrifice and character.  Another critical element, he said, is service and the ability to relate to people at a level that transcends a leader’s rank in the organization

“You’ve got to love people more than your position. They don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.  People will listen once they know you have their heart and you care for them as individuals.”

He noted that at the Drake Relays he still rakes out long jump landing pits and helps gather litter, but one of his most important jobs is to let the best people do their jobs.

“My job is stay out of the way.  I still set expectations, I still challenge them, but I don’t pretend to know how to do something someone else has been doing for 45 years.”

Watch the blog this week as we work to edit our videos with each of the scholarship winners.

IHA’s Iowa Hospital Education and Research Foundation (IHERF) has awarded $72,000 in scholarships to 24 college students from all parts of Iowa. The students, who are all studying in health care fields, will each receive $3,000 for the upcoming academic year and each is eligible for up to $6,000 in assistance from IHERF over two years.

IHERF Health Care Careers Scholarship Program

IHA established the IHERF Health Care Careers Scholarship Program in 2004 to help address the ongoing shortage of health care professionals and encourage young Iowans to remain in the state as they establish their careers. The first scholarships were awarded in 2005, and now more than 100 students have benefited from the program. In exchange for financial support, scholarship-receiving students agree to work one year in an Iowa hospital for each year they receive an award.

280 Student Submissions for 2009

The IHERF Board, hospital leaders and IHA Auxilian/Volunteer Board members from throughout the state evaluated scholarship applications from more than 280 students, who were judged on grade-point average, a written personal statement, letters of reference, and extracurricular, community and health care-related activities. Those evaluating the applications noted that this year’s group, which includes both graduate and undergraduate students, was especially competitive and highly qualified.

The next scholarship application period will begin in January 2010.

If you would like to receive an application packet at that time, send IHERF an e-mail.

A Creston baby, Ayden Claybaker, was awarded a $1,000 College Savings Iowa account by State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald in a special ceremony held at Greater Regional Medical Center last week. Ayden is the ninth recipient of the award, which is given out monthly. The parents of the baby, Misty and Christopher Claybaker, received information about the college savings giveaway program before leaving the hospital after their son’s birth.

The College Savings Iowa BABY 529 Giveaway awards one college savings account each month to a randomly selected baby. All babies born in participating Iowa hospitals are eligible to win if they are registered for the monthly drawing. Sixty-three hospitals currently participate in the program. Read more