In this section:

We invest in learning and development so our people can reach their career potential and contribute meaningfully to the communities we serve.

Priorities

Texas Health is dedicated to:

  • Preparing new workers and transitioning existing teams by sharing essential information for their success.
  • Offering employees opportunities to grow their careers academically, in pipeline programs and through lifelong career pathways.
  • Supporting leaders in managing performance.
  • Developing strategic workforce capabilities that are aligned to systemwide priorities.

Programs and Resources

We tailor development initiatives to employees' roles, skills and career aspirations, ensuring that learning is meaningful and applicable. By mapping their interests and expertise to internal opportunities, we identify potential transitions and provide targeted development plans. We also use an advanced training solution that enhances learning and memory using 23 cognitive and emotional cues. It adapts to each learner's needs, targeting their knowledge gaps to help them improve.

Additional resources we use to support professional growth include:

  • Texas Health Resources University: THRU provides over 4,500 online learning opportunities, instructor-led classes and workshops, self-serve resources and tools, plus videos on achieving and maintaining work/life balance.
  • New Employee Orientation: We introduce all new hires to Texas Health’s Mission, Vision, strategic goals, and priorities; our performance management process; how we demonstrate our culture and values; and how to use our internal systems.
  • MyTalent: The platform’s learning functions deliver and record training that deepens clinical and professional knowledge, sharpens business skills and certifies regulatory compliance. It also enables leaders to manage team member performance and provide continuous feedback.
  • My Career Journey: This portal empowers employees to manage their professional growth and competency development. The platform’s feedback, goal-setting and career-planning features engage leaders and employees in career conversations. It also provides them with resources to be proficient in crucial capabilities and behaviors to meet healthcare’s changing demands.
  • Leadership Development: We center leadership on key behaviors we hardwire into our culture, such as accountability, visionary thinking and sound decision-making. We provide various opportunities, programs and tools to maximize leadership potential, build our leadership pipeline and help us achieve business goals.
  • Medical Library: The library provides full-text articles, literature searches and training on our point-of-care databases and resources.
  • Continuing Education: Accredited by The Joint Commission, our continuing education programs support physicians, nurses, pharmacists and allied health professionals throughout their careers.
  • Career Transformation Center: We collaborate with academic institutions to recruit, educate and train students from the diverse communities we serve. We help them reach a level of safe, proficient practice while fulfilling their school program requirements.
2023 Highlights

Texas Health:

  • Developed a Leadership Essentials curriculum, which offers concepts, methods and tools to enhance capability-building activities. Over six months, leaders complete challenge-based exercises that fortify leadership principles, refine communication skills, foster inclusive and situational leadership, enhance change management abilities and cultivate High Reliability leadership skills.
  • Introduced a Mentor Connect tool that facilitates quarterly engagement with mentors. Nearly 300 employees are taking advantage of professional coaching.
  • Enabled seven physicians to graduate from medical education programs, including the first in general surgery.
  • Onboarded more than 8,700 students for clinical and non-clinical education experiences, up from 7,000 in 2022. Through our Career Transformation Center, we also supported students from seven nursing school programs at 31 flu clinics held at faith-based communities. Dallas College recognized Texas Health as an Apprenticeship Champion of Excellence for “stellar dedication to continuous improvement” for its pipeline programs. It also awarded us a $148,750 grant from the Department of Labor.
  • Enabled 1,757 nurses to participate in the Nursing Career Advancement Program, which recognizes and financially rewards nurses’ dedication to their hospital, profession and education.
  • Trained and certified 54 patient care technicians, 58 certified medical assistants and 15 pharmacy technicians and transitioned three licensed vocational nurses to surgical technicians.
  • Developed a team nursing model that allows a nursing leader to assign a group of nursing staff to a shared patient population. This model leverages each team member's expertise to provide care activities aligned with their education and training.