Miami Jewish Home Introduces New Workforce Development Program for Nurses

As all healthcare organizations are acutely aware of these days, good nurses are hard to find. At the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged at Douglas Gardens (MJHHA), a new workforce development program has been instituted with the purpose of making these coveted good nurses and certified nursing assistants even better. Called LEAP – which stands for Learn, Empower, Achieve, Produce – this program stresses the importance of developing highly qualified, dedicated and effective leaders and staff to enhance quality of life for long-term care residents. All who participate in the program receive extensive training in leadership, building effective work teams, problem solving, decision making and activity planning skills.

Victoria Wiley, Director of Nursing (r), and Joyce Kutcher, Assistant Executive Director (l), congratulate LEAP graduate Sonia Bishop, R.N.

The program consists of six weeks of training in areas such as the Nurse as a Care Role Model; the Nurse as a Gerontological Clinical Expert; the Nurse as Leader and the Nurse as Care Team Builder. The first class of nurses recently completed the program and graduated from LEAP. Under the tutelage of LEAP Trainers Victoria Wiley, Director of Nursing; Joy Maye, Clinical Educator; Sylvia Gibson, Clinical Manager; and Ingrid Alexis-Goodman, Human Resources Manager; graduates Tina Bain, Karen Baptiste, Sonia Bishop, Therese Boulay, Anna Maria Douglas, Katherine Horton, Lynette Lee, Ruth Laleau, Shelly Lindo, Yolette Louisdon, Josian Perard, John Philord, Raquel Pryor, Beverly Robinson, Angela Sands, Celane St. Hilaire-Wesh, Carmen St. Juste and Anide Telfort have upgraded their skills by “LEAP”s and bounds.