MHT Academy launches, improving onboarding, safety, and employee retention
09/19/24 12:30:pm
A new training program for incoming Mental Health Technicians (MHTs) has launched, aiming to improve safety, teamwork, and new employee retention.
Called MHT Academy, the training improves the onboarding experience for new residential and inpatient MHTs. Retaining new team members is decreasing our overall employee turnover rate, as well as increasing our 90-day retention rate, which is a key Success Share Metric.
As Stacy Babl, chief human resources officer says, a stable workforce benefits team members and patients.
“Retaining our staff is fundamental in the care of our patients, and retaining new team members is a key indicator for our work environment. With focused efforts by leaders doing prescribed check-ins with new employees and other training by our Orientation and Onboarding team, we are moving the overall turnover rate in the right direction, as you can see in the chart below,” Stacy says.
“Specifically, a new preceptor training for more than 50 MHTs has resulted in expert preceptors who deliver a better onboarding experience, which leads to improved retention,” Stacy adds. “More important than achieving a metric, however, is that all of this work influences the culture of Rogers and ultimately our patient care.”
The training in MHT Academy addresses challenges such as effectively handling a patient’s personal belongings. It’s also an example of Rogers’ commitment to providing professional development opportunities for team members.
MHT Academy resulted from a collaboration between Nursing, Operations, Regulatory Affairs, and Learning and Culture Advancement. The solution was developed by the people closest to the work.
“Historically, orientation for MHTs at Rogers Behavioral Health was separated between inpatient and residential services,” says Sandro Vagnini, MBA, MSN, PMH-BC, vice president of Patient Care Services. “With our new and improved MHT Academy, we have expanded it to be inclusive to both, providing a more comprehensive educational experience. We have dedicated staff focusing on the MHT onboarding and training experience so that we can continue to look at ways to grow and improve the MHT Academy experience. The onboarding and orientation process is such a pivotal part of the employee experience, and we are investing in that.”
The Orientation and Onboarding team continues to look for efficient and innovative ways to onboard new employees. They will be partnering with key leaders to bring advanced physical skills and nonviolent crisis intervention training to all residential and inpatient psychiatrists, ensuring every member on the floor will have their Crisis Prevention Institute Blue Card after completing training.
