Hiring Solution: Health Care IT Internships for Veterans

Five Secrets to Impress a Job Interviewer

For at least a couple of years, the lack of qualified, experienced IT professionals ready to step in and get to work in health care organizations has been bad enough that management has reported delayed IT projects as a result. Many are focusing on in-house staff training strategies, even for non-IT folks, but those are time-consuming and expensive.

A new program aims to take another tack toward prepping motivated individuals for these in-demand and well-paid tech jobs by offering health care IT internship opportunities to veterans. Health Care IT News briefly profiles the program, started by veteran, VP of IT Operations and Associate CIO at Rush University Medical Center, Jaime Parent.

The Chicago facility’s EN-Abled Veteran program addresses both the needs and the concerns of health care IT organizations looking to hire professionals who will ramp up quickly and have familiarity with the particular demands of the health care industry.

The lack of experience that Parent found was stopping some veterans from getting job offers, even after they had completed IT-related degrees, is addressed by the on-the-job internship experience, including help desk and hardware deployments.

Part of the internship is also devoted to creating resumes that effectively communicate skills gained in the military in civilian-friendly terms. Interns also participate in mock interviews. Parent says job candidates who are military veterans should be highly sought after for their skills and work ethic, but poorly written resumes are keeping them from completing successful applications.

Parent will share his work and what he has learned in his session, “Building a Veteran Healthcare IT Internship,” at the HIMSS15 conference in April.

“Any hospital can do it,” he told Health Care IT News, “and when you come to HIMSS, I’ll show you how.”

Kachina Shaw is managing editor for IT Business Edge and has been writing and editing about IT and the business for 15 years. She writes about IT careers, management, technology trends and managing risk. Follow Kachina on Twitter @Kachina and on Google+