Jordan Center and EKCEP Partner to Help Recovery Clients Succeed in CNA PRO Pilot Training Program

Like nearly every other medical facility throughout the nation, The Jordan Center in Louisa, Ky., wasn’t spared from staffing issues during the COVID-19 pandemic. But a pilot training program implemented at the nursing home in early 2023 that combines training and workforce support could help fill gaps in staffing while providing opportunities to an otherwise untapped workforce in the medical field—individuals in recovery.  

The Jordan Center is a skilled nursing facility and has maintained high marks in statewide surveys, but for Jordan Center Administrator David McKenzie the pandemic presented new challenges for the company beyond their critical work of providing care for the facility’s residents. 

“We had a crisis point during the height of COVID,” McKenzie said. “Our staffing just disappeared. People were leaving the industry in droves because of COVID. They were afraid to work in nursing facilities or in hospitals.” 

What McKenzie was seeing locally in Lawrence County was also a phenomenon across the healthcare industry. According to one U.S. government survey, staffing shortages were reported across federal healthcare facilities, including 94% of the nursing homes that took part in the survey. 

While The Jordan Center was able to maintain adequate care for its residents during the peak of the pandemic and after, McKenzie said the situation caused them to re-think their traditional model of staffing, and in particular how widely the company recruits new employees.  

“We started looking for non-traditional source labor pipelines,” he said. “It seems to make a lot of sense to use persons in recovery.” 

In terms of workforce, the recovery community has largely remained an untapped source of labor in his industry, McKenzie noted, since addiction recovery clients have largely been prevented from entering healthcare careers because many may have past criminal charges that prevent them from passing background checks during employment screenings.  

“But we started scratching our heads and we said, you know, let's challenge that a little bit,” he said. “Let's look at that. Let's look at that background check of a person in recovery and say, does that make sense? Are they really not the kind of person we need?” 

Employing people in recovery from within a healthcare setting is a novel concept, and implementing McKenzie’s pilot program required a waiver from the state government. But once that happened, he and his team developed a brand for the program, calling it Certified Nurse Aides Providing Recovery Opportunities (CNA PRO), and began the process of recruiting of a small cohort of two people to begin to prove the concept that not everyone’s background on paper dictates their future. 

“We interview all of the applicants, and we try to put their criminal background in context,” he said. “What we have found is that 99.9% of those convictions had to do with seeking drugs, using drugs. It’s a health crisis, not a crisis of character.” 

McKenzie also began a partnership with Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP) and its Strategic Initiative for Transformational Employment (SITE), which provides assistance to individuals in recovery to help them overcome barriers that may prevent them from entering the workforce. Working with Barbara Gay, SITE’s special populations project assistant manager, the participants could access services that can include assistance with transportation and housing or other barriers that might prevent them from completing training and succeeding in their employment.

“SITE is there to provide help with just the things it takes to get started,” McKenzie said. “They not only provide funding themselves, but they also point us in the direction of other partners who can provide services as well.” 

By early 2023, McKenzie’s team at The Jordan Center began training two applicants for the program who were completing their recovery treatment at a nearby Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) facility in Lawrence County. One of those applicants, Louisville native Ingrid Jackson, had previous experience as a CNA, but noted that a car accident in 2010 resulted in injuries and a prescription for pain medication, which led to an addiction to opioids and eventually the loss of her license. Not long after she arrived in Louisa in early 2023 for treatment through ARC, she learned about the opportunity through The Jordan Center’s CNA PRO pilot.  

“I’m like, ‘Yes! That’s my chance I’ve been praying for the whole way through the program,’” Jackson said, adding that she immediately applied. After a few weeks she got the call that she was accepted.  

“My whole life, the only thing I wanted to be was a nurse, starting in CNA,” she added. “That’s my life. To go through my addiction and not be able to use it, I didn’t feel a sense of purpose.” 

And to be able to utilize additional services from SITE to help her cover costs associated with the training was a significant benefit, Jackson added.  

“SITE helped get all of our materials, the nursing bag that you need,” she said. “You need your stethoscope, you need scrubs, you need shoes, your books with your medical terminology—this stuff is expensive.” 

Applying for the CNA PRO training and beginning to work on the floor at The Jordan Center was a dream come true for Elliott County native Latasha Kidd. The program was also just what she was looking for as she noted that a career in healthcare has been her goal since childhood. 

“I had a lot of self-doubt, so when I met David and his team and trainers, they built me up, they gave me hope and strength, and every day I just pushed on and I knew that I was better than what I used to be,” she said. “So, this is something very big for me.” 

While the CNA PRO curriculum prepared them for the job, SITE played a crucial role in not only facilitating the training for both Jackson and Kidd, but also addressing fundamental aspects of their lives. The program provided assistance with housing and later began actively working on addressing transportation needs. 

“The housing was really great and it’s really close to work,” Kidd said. “And they helped with getting resources, like just getting on our feet, basically.” 

While the first CNA PRO cohort has been a success, McKenzie said he’s looking forward to another training class and hopes this concept of contextualizing an applicant’s background can fill gaps in staffing not only for his company but for other healthcare facilities while also providing greater employment for people in recovery.

“So far it looks very good,” he said.

Partnering with SITE on what could prove to be a transformational program across the healthcare industry was a real benefit, McKenzie added, and not just because of the assistance to the trainees but because of how easy it was as an employer to access available services. And for a state like Kentucky that currently has 5,000 open positions in nursing homes across the commonwealth, it make sense to tap into a population of Kentuckians who not only want a career, but need work as they begin to re-enter the workforce after treatment. 

“What good is it to recover from your addiction,” he said, “and then realize that you can't have a meaningful career when you get done?” 

To learn more about the services available through SITE, and how the initiative might be able to assist you or someone you know, visit www.ekcep.org/site.   

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.