Nursing the dream

Tracy Cherry has always had the caregiver gene. Her first job, at age 18, was working in a nursing home. Later, she joined Cape Cod Hospital, where she spent five years as a nursing assistant. But two things always stood between Cherry and her dream of becoming a registered nurse: She lacked the time and the money to go back to school.

All that changed last summer when Cherry became one of six Cape Cod Community College graduates to receive an associate's degree in nursing. She earned that degree thanks to a program co-sponsored by the college and her employer, Cape Cod Healthcare, which owns both Cape Cod Hospital and Falmouth Hospital. With dollars from the state's Workforce Training Fund, the program identifies hospital workers who want to advance into nursing and helps them with grants and time off for study.

"There is no way I could have gotten my degree if Cape Cod Healthcare hadn't supported me," says Cherry, who was born on Cape Cod and is the first in her family to graduate from college. "Cape Cod Healthcare allowed me to work a 24-hour week while paying me a 40-houra-week salary, and that's what made the difference. Paid time is key."

Time and money
Diana Kennedy, the administrative director of human resource development at Cape Cod Healthcare, is delighted with her company's aggressive approach to the current nursing shortage. "There is a nursing shortage all over the country," says Kennedy, "but here in Cape Cod, where the proportion of the population over 65 is significantly higher, we really have a problem." To tackle this shortage, Cape Cod Healthcare has offered incentives to its employees to study for a degree in nursing. With the help of a Workforce Training Grant, Cape Cod Healthcare is paying tuition and book expenses for more than 40 employees who are in the Cape Cod Community College nursing program. They are also paying their employees while they attend school.

As a full-time student and a part-time employee, Cherry was able to complete her two-year nursing degree and step into a full-time nursing job on the orthopedic floor of Cape Cod Hospital. In return for its support, Cape Cod Healthcare asks participants like Cherry for a two-year employment commitment after graduation. With 25 graduates already, 17 more slotted to graduate, and 16 others prepared to enter the nursing school at Cape Cod Community College, the two-year-old program has already paid off for the company.

Any employee who has worked at one of Cape Cod Healthcare's facilities for six months or more, and has completed his or her prerequisite courses, is eligible to sign up for the RN grant program. With two hospitals, and a number of other treatment facilities, including nursing homes, laboratories, physician's practices, rehabilitation centers, and assisted living centers, Cape Cod Healthcare is helping to solve its own and the country's ever increasing need for people like Tracy Cherry…people with the all important caregiver gene.