Skip to content

Pediatric Home Service Partners with Schools Benefiting Health Care Students

St. Paul, Minn. – Recognizing an opportunity to help educate current students on the home care industry, Pediatric Home Service (PHS) has launched educational partnerships with area colleges and universities to ensure students are prepared after graduation.

PHS is dedicated to proactively strengthening the home care workforce through hands on experience. Home Care nurses provide high-quality care for patients with medical complexities while having the same skills and training as hospital nurses, yet disparity in pay makes it hard to recruit and retain home care nurses. Educating students on home care services in addition to hospital care is vital to the survival of home care in Minnesota.

“Through these opportunities, students can see the benefits and complexity of home care firsthand,” said Judy Giel, Senior Vice President of Clinical Services. “We’re dedicated to expanding student’s knowledge base and their understanding of how these services are provided at home, and we look forward to building strong relationships within our community.”

Programs are specifically designed to help prepare students outside the academic setting. Students from universities and technical colleges in Minnesota and surrounding areas have participated in the following fields of study:

  • Respiratory Therapy (RT): Students spend up to two weeks shadowing and observing day-to-day cares and responsibilities.
  • Infusion Nursing: Nursing students spend up to 120 hours studying case management and in-home care for infusion patients.
  • Home Care Nursing: Students from five institutions come to PHS each semester to complete anywhere from 30 to 100 hours of experience. Students participate in a variety of assignments, from attending classes and job shadowing to patient home visits and hands-on
    care.
  • Nutrition Service: Students gain exposure to a clinical nutrition support system outside a
    facility setting by working with PHS’s nutrition department for either one day or 60 hours, based on their program education needs. Students have the opportunity to make home visits and do in-depth calculations for nutrition needs.
  • Social Work: Each year, social work students have the opportunity to intern at PHS for 400 hours. Interns are immersed in clinical social work duties, including electronic charting, play-therapy observation, resource generation for families, and additional in-depth tasks alongside a clinical social worker.
  • “This hands on home care experience allows students to really understand the high skill level needed to work in the home,” said Giel, “We look forward to growing these relationships and actively educating our community.”

About Pediatric Home Service

Based in St. Paul, Minn., Pediatric Home Service is an independent pediatric home care company that helps children with medical complexities and technology dependencies live safely and successfully where they’re most comfortable, at home with their families, rather than in a hospital. Pediatric Home Service has been partnering with health care professionals and family caregivers for more than two decades to deliver compassionate, specialized, high-quality care to children with special medical needs.

Originally published: August 11, 2014