Archive for month: April, 2018
Inspiring minds, igniting innovation
Celebrating the 4th Annual Spark! Challenge
“The Spark! Challenge is a wonderful way to excite students about the vast scope of clinical and non-clinical careers in health care.”
–Cheryl Davidson, Sr. Director of Workforce Readiness
It only takes a spark to light imaginations. For the past four years, that’s exactly what Northwell Health’s Spark! Challenge has done. This unique program teams local high school students with Northwell Health employees in order to:
- Grow student interest in STEM health care related careers.
- Build a pipeline of students to energize the future workforce.
- Creates career awareness through exploration and experiential learning.
- Provide an introduction to Northwell Health’s culture, values and mission.
- Give teachers/school counselors insight into the scope of health care careers.
This year, 600 junior and senior high school students from 32 local schools participated in the Spark! Challenge. They were supported by 50 Northwell Health teams, representing careers in areas such as:
- Bioelectronic medicine
- Emergency Services
- Operating Room
- Rehabilitation
- Laboratory Science
- Industrial Engineering
- Culinary
- Pharmacy
- Human Resources
- Revenue Cycle
- And MUCH more….
You can view the complete list of participating departments and careers here.
Engaging future healthcare leaders.
Through the Spark! Challenge, students were given the opportunity to preview clinical and/or non-clinical career paths through practical and engaging encounters with professionals in the field. After their visit to a Northwell facility they had two assignments:
- Create an advertisement spotlighting one of the careers highlighted during their visit,, successfully connecting the job to one of Northwell Health’s values.
- Share the career they explored through a two-minute presentation at the Spark! Challenge award celebration (with their student team).
“It was a privilege to participate. I was energized by the experience!”
–Deborah Schiff SVP and Executive Director, Ambulatory Strategy and Business Development
The envelope please…
The Spark! Challenge Award Ceremonies were held on April 12, 2018 at The Cradle of Aviation Musuem. Northwell Health’s EVP and Chief Operating Officer Mark Solazzo and Joseph Moscola, SVP and Chief People Officer awarded the prizes. In true Northwell Health fashion, Mark doubled the originally planned prize money and ended up awarding a total of $26,000 to the winning school teams. Congratulations to the winners:
Presentation Winners – $2,000 awarded to each school team
- Plainview-Old Bethpage John F. Kennedy High School
- Valley Stream Central High School
- Tottenville High School
- Sacred Heart Academy
Presentation Honorable Mentions – $1,000 awarded to each school team
- William Floyd High School
- Baldwin High School
- Tottenville High School
- John F. Kennedy High School, Bellmore-Merrick School District
- Amityville High School
- Smithtown High School
Poster Competition
First Place Winner: Glen Cove High School, $5,000 award
Second Place Winner: Lindenhurst Senior High School, $3,000 award
Third Place Winner John F. Kennedy High School, Bellmore-Merrick School District $2,000 award
Northwell Health is grateful to all of the student participants as well as the Northwell Health employees who donated their time to make this year’s Spark! Challenge such a success. Next year promises to be even better!
“Kudos, to the Spark! Challenge winners and every participant. You each brought your whole self to the Challenge – not only your knowledge and expertise but also your enthusiasm and appreciation for our values. Stay true to who you are, keep your convictions, be courageous and you will become an authentic leader!”
— Tom Thornton – SVP, Northwell Ventures
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.
Veterans: Make the transition from Barracks to Business
At Northwell Health, we’re committed to empowering veterans to succeed in their professional careers. That’s why, since 2013, we’ve been growing our Barracks to Business program, which addresses the need for practical tools to prepare veterans for the civilian workforce.
The Barracks to Business program started as a guidebook to help veterans prepare other veterans for civilian life. But we knew we could do more. We’ve since created in-person seminars that eventually led to Webinars so we could reach veterans no matter their location or situation. Now, veterans don’thave to wait to move to New York to get started on the next step in their civilian careers.
As we expanded the program’s offerings, we extended our reach by partnering with the Department of Labor and various N.Y. organizations and universities. Then the program expanded even further, adding valuable education to Northwell Health employees by creating an internal Barrack to Business program for our recruiters, which armed them with the knowledge and tools necessary to understand the value of hiring veterans.
After five years, Barracks to Business continues to grow and set the precedent for veteran outreach. The network has expanded to over 200 veteran-focused points of contact in the N.Y. region including colleges, organizations and nonprofits. Barracks to Business is offered at college sites and when students are about to graduate, we invite them to our annual student graduation event for veterans. The program and our outreach has grown across the state of New York and, most astounding of all, the number of overall hires since the beginning of the program has grown by 110%!
“Northwelll Health has shown support for my career by holding special events and recruitment sessions for veterans. (Because of one of those programs), I am now in a year-long Operating Room Fellowship which trains nurses new to the OR.” – Anthony Holdorf, RN
We’re constantly developing our own internal programs to better support veterans once they join Northwell Health, focusing on mentorship and networking from within. In the words of Veteran Inclusion Specialist and U.S. Air Force Veteran Lyndon Chichester, “It is an honor and a privilege to work with our Veterans. My goal is to help all of our Veteran applicants gain successful employment with Northwell Health. Veterans bring an unmatched array of strengths and experiences to the workforce including leadership training, integrity, teamwork, working with diversified groups in high-pressure environments and more.”
Here’s how Northwell Health can take you from Barracks to Business.
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.
Give new life to your nursing career: 10 reasons to join our Labor and Delivery and Postpartum units at LIJMC
We spoke with nurse leaders at Katz Women’s Hospital at Long Island Jewish Medical Center (LIJMC) to find out what makes our Labor and Delivery and Postpartum units such special places for nurses to grow their careers. Here are the top 10 reasons!
1. Magnet® Recognition
LIJMC is proud to have the exceptional practices, facilities, resources, staff and leadership to be honored with Magnet recognition — the highest recognition for nursing excellence — and our commitment to excellence runs through everything we do.
2. Amazing Facilities
The new tower at Katz Women’s Hospital is supporting one of the busiest labor and delivery centers in the area and features 60 single-patient postpartum rooms with 30 rooms per unit.
“It’s not just that the facility has the latest technology, it’s the entire structure of unit. Every detail, from the decor to the single-patient rooms, is designed to elevate the experience for patients and caregivers.”
-Jennifer Santoro Shickler, MSN, RN, NE-BC
3. The Beautiful Moments of Bonding
Speaking of our postpartum rooms, we facilitate bonding by providing single patient rooms for mother and child, allowing the new, growing families to enjoy as many precious moments as possible.
4. Opportunities for Career Advancement
As part of Northwell Health, New York’s largest health network and private employer, we set RNs up with a wealth of opportunities to advance their careers. Whether they want to advance to a management position or make a lateral move, the opportunities and resources are at your disposal.
“Nurses here have so many opportunities. They can progress to a director or do a lateral move to another unit, really there’s unlimited potential inside Northwell Health.”
-Angela Gomm, RN MSN CNRN, Nurse Manager
5. Professional Resources
With some of the best training programs in the nation, Northwell Health is committed to empowering nurses to develop professionally. We bring classes and testing onsite for the convenience of our staff.
“Northwell has excellent management courses at the CLR. There are classes that go over discipline, decision control, budgeting, and so much more. Really there’s everything you need to make the transition into whatever career path you see yourself moving toward.”
-Angela Gomm
6. Making Baby-Friendly a Priority
We’re working toward the prestigious Baby-Friendly designation — that means we’re constantly looking at new standards and new practice guidelines that enable optimal infant feeding and mother/baby bonding.
7. Supportive Leadership:
One of the most important parts of a job is knowing that your leaders have your back and are ready to help you with anything you need.
“It starts with leadership that fosters an open and transparent environment, one which leaves you room to implement changes to benefit the patients. Once you start working among colleagues who are empowered in this way, you quickly begin to see how easy it is to grow and learn the skills necessary to advance your career. There’s really no hospital system like it.”
– Deborah Zaleskie, MS, RN, NE-BC, Director, Patient Care Services
8. We Can Rely on Each Other
We deliver 9,000 babies a year. With that kind of volume, it’s so important to be in a culture of open communication, where everyone is willing to step in and help you provide the best possible patient experience. Providing a safe environment where nurses feel comfortable asking for help, means we’re fostering teamwork.
“It is so busy that there’s a great culture of teamwork and communication. Our RNs work well with physicians and safety officers, and they’re not afraid to say when they need help!”
– Angela Gomm
9. Flexible Hours
Nurses work a difficult job that requires 24/7 responsibility. That’s why it’s so great that at Katz Women’s Hospital, scheduling is done with nurses as a top priority—with flexible hours offered for the afternoon and evening shifts.
10. The First to Try Something New
Nothing beats working alongside individuals who are passionate and innovative.
“There’s just something about the culture here. We’re always the first ones to raise our hands to try something new.”
– Deborah Zaleskie
Take on one of our nursing roles as the next step in your career. Register for our system-wide Women’s Health Interview Day!
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.
How to start your career in health care before you’ve earned a college degree
You don’t need a college or advanced degree to begin a rewarding healthcare career that can really take you places. Whether you’re not sure if a traditional four-year degree is for you, or you would like to enter the workforce sooner, you can begin your career journey in a middle skills position at Northwell Health. There are huge benefits to starting your career in one of these high-demand jobs, and that’s why we’re spreading the word about these opportunities.
“Middle skills” is defined as anything above a high school diploma but lower than a baccalaureate degree including certifications, trade schools, associate degrees and certain licensing. Opportunities include specialty technicians such as EEG, EKG, surgical techs, sterile processing techs, radiology techs and careers as medical assistants and phlebotomists, nursing assistants and more.
A middle skills position offers you opportunities to create a robust career. From initial hire, there are multiple career pathways available– complete with competitive pay and benefits packages. Imagine this…
You begin your career as a central sterile technician, ensuring surgical equipment and instrumentation is sterile, and begin to gain essential work experience in the healthcare industry. You decide that you want to work directly in the operating room, and pursue education as a surgical technician (did you know Northwell offers tuition reimbursement for qualified employees?!). After that, you decide to go back to school to study nursing, and eventually, you could put all this experience and education into becoming an OR nurse. Perhaps you decide that’s not the direction for you and continue to management in your particular role. We’ve seen it happen!
The real attraction of working in middle skills is the demand. There is a shortage of people working in these essential jobs across the country and these positions are critical to the healthcare workforce. Starting in a middle skills job can give you the experience, the network, the demand, the education and the opportunity to succeed in the health care field without a college degree.
About Workforce Readiness
We’re spreading the word about middle skills opportunities through Northwell Health’s Department of Workforce Readiness, which partners with educational institutions and creates initiatives to support the workforce of tomorrow. We work collaboratively on local, state and national levels to increase awareness and address the STEM workforce gap. We provide a collaborative voice between industry and education.
Students: Start your healthcare career journey at Northwell Health. Visit NorthwellCareers.com/Students. The opportunities are endless.
Subscribe to our blogs
Stay up to date with stories you want to know more about right to your email inbox.
Contact us
If you are an individual with a disability requesting an accommodation for the application process, please click the contact us link above to request assistance.
Learn more about our hiring experience.
Read answers to common questions about the application process.
© 2021 - Northwell Health
Click here to view the “EEO is the law” poster.
If you are an individual with a disability requesting an accommodation for the application process, please click the contact us link above to request assistance.
Learn more about our hiring experience.
Read answers to common questions about the application process.
© 2021 - Northwell Health
Click here to view the “EEO is the law” poster.
It is Northwell Health’s policy to provide equal employment opportunity and treat all applicants and employees equally regardless of their age, race, creed/religion, color, national origin, immigration status or citizenship status, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, sex/gender, gender identity, gender expression, disability, pregnancy, genetic information or genetic predisposition or carrier status, marital or familial status, partnership status, victim of domestic violence, sexual or other reproductive health decisions, or other characteristics protected by applicable law.
Northwell Health reserves the right to amend all terms of employment.
