Maria Cotty
Kaiser Permanente Roseville Medical Center
Roseville
When Kaiser Permanente began redeploying licensed vocational nurses (LVNs) from its acute care hospitals in Northern California, Maria Cotty had several options: a) work as an LVN or an OB LVN at a Kaiser Medical Office Building (clinic), b)take a severance package or c) increase her skill set through an array of training opportunities offered by the Education Fund.

Cotty, who had already been working on her own to become a registered nurse, chose the training. "I'm just so grateful to Kaiser, to the union and to the Education Fund," says Cotty, a 10-year employee at Kaiser’s Roseville Medical Center. "I have always wanted to better myself. Because of Kaiser, my union and the Education Fund, I was able to do just that, and now instead of being out of work, Now I’m a registered nurse and I make more money."

Cotty is one of 50 LVNs who are moving up the career ladder through the "LVN to RN Project created to train LVNs to become RNs, Radiologic Technologists, Respiratory Care Practitioners or Surgical Technologists. It was co-created by Kaiser and the Education Fund in the wake of Kaiser's decision to move LVNs out of inpatient settings and as part of the collective bargaining agreement between Kaiser and SEIU United Healthcare Workers-West. Participants also received from the Education Fund career counseling, tuition and book reimbursement, and paid time off to attend school and to study.

Education Fund Career Counselor Lisa Ramos was Cotty’s career counselor. "She was always there when I needed her and always showed she cared," Cotty recalls. "She helped me fill out my paperwork. She explained the program and made sure my checks arrived on time. She was very nice and very approachable."

"The Education Fund is an important investment given the nursing shortage." says Barbara Norrish, Director of Education and Research for Kaiser Permanente Northern California Regional Patient Care Services. Explaining Kaiser's shift in educational requirements for nurses, Norrish added, "Patient care requirements and the scope of practice have grown tremendously. There are more requirements and more technical needs that our nurses have to meet every day."

The Education Fund offers similar education and training opportunities to members of SEIU UHW-West and five other local unions who work for 26 acute and long term care employers throughout California and parts of Colorado, Nevada and Oregon. Funding is provided by union-negotiated contributions from each employer. Kaiser and SEIU UHW-West are founding participants.

After being accepted into the nursing program at Sierra College in the fall of 2007, Cotty received an Education Fund Forgivable Loan that enabled her to reduce her hours from 32 to 24 for two semesters. Cotty graduated for the nursing program with honors in May 2008 and was hired as a telemetry nurse in the same unit where she started as a certified nursing assistant 10 years ago. She won't have to repay the loan if she remains employed as an RN at Kaiser for a specified length of time.

"I love being a nurse. "It’s awesome," says Cotty. "I love helping people and Kaiser is the best place to work. They have great opportunities for their employees to move up. "

Cotty first dreamed of becoming a nurse right out of high school but she put that dream on hold to become a mother instead. "I wanted to follow in my mother’s footsteps," she recalls."She was a nurse too. But I also wanted to get married and have a family." Cotty entered the health care field as a certified nurse many years later after moving to Roseville from her native Puerto Rico with her husband and two sons, and getting a divorce. "I didn’t have to work but I wanted to become independent," Cotty explains. "I wanted to show my sons that you can do whatever you put your mind to. I didn’t want to just settle."

Although was only one year short of a Bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Inter American University of Puerto Rico years earlier, Cotty had to start her education over from scratch. "My English wasn't that good at the time. I never worked before and I wasn't sure if I could do it. I wanted to take it slow."

Cotty started as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) in the Telemetry Unit at the Roseville Medical Center in 1998. Three years later she applied for the Vocational Nursing Program at Sierra College in Rocklin. "They accepted most of my old science prerequisites but I had to take nutrition, human development and more English. It was an 18-month program. I was taking classes, doing clinical's, working weekends and raising my sons. During the week I would pick them up, go home, make dinner and do my homework. It was hard."

Cotty was hired as an LVN in the same telemetry unit shortly after completing the program at Sierra College and obtaining a certificate. She took a few years off from school, then went back to Sierra to take the science and other classes required to get into Sierra's RN program. "Even though I had all of my science class from Puerto Rico, I had to repeat them all, and take speech and English composition. It took about two years." About the same time that Cotty finished her prerequisite classes, she learned that her position was being eliminated."They took me off the floor on Oct. 1, 2007 and I went to a transitional assignment. Thank God I was ready for nursing school." The three years Cotty worked as a CNA and the seven she worked as an LVN helped make her the RN she is today. "I do everything," she says. "I provide the bedside care, get to know my patients and get to know their families. It can be overwhelming depending on the acuity of the patient, but it can also be very rewarding. I feel like I really am making a difference."