Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago

Ensuring Diversity Among Healthcare Professionals

Nearly 25 students training to be nurses, medical assistants and medical coding specialists are receiving hands-on instruction under the supervision of staff from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. This effort to train future healthcare professionals comes through a partnership between the hospital and Malcolm X College, the center for healthcare education for the City Colleges of Chicago.

It’s the latest addition to Lurie Children’s workforce training programs for minority students interested in careers in pediatric healthcare. The pilot mentoring program with Malcom X College offers job shadowing of Lurie Children’s staff, as well as training in résumé writing, job interviewing and leadership skills.

Since 2001, the hospital has offered several programs for Chicago Public Schools high school students under the “Chase Your Dreams” umbrella. Thanks to funding from J.P. Morgan Chase, each year over 700 students participate in training and mentoring programs. Lurie Children’s has hired more than 60 program graduates to date.

“These students represent our future recruitment pool,” says Maria Rivera, Manager of Workforce Development at Lurie Children’s, where 38 percent of patient families are African American or Hispanic. “Since we started the program, our goal has been for our healthcare providers to more closely mirror our patient population.”