Facility hopes to add 100 employees over next few years
by Traci Chapman, Staff Writer
As its physical facilities have grown, so too has The Children’s Center Rehabilitation Hospital’s needs – most importantly, its need for more staff.
That need will be highlighted Feb. 20, as The Children’s Center holds a job fair aimed at adding new staff – administrators hope to add about 100 new employees looking for a work home over the next 18 months to two years, said Dayla Morris, human resources director.
“We are seeing so much growth, and that leads us to so much opportunity – our milestone can be someone’s professional milestone, as well,” Morris said.
That milestone was the opening of a four-story, 100,000-square-foot addition on its Bethany campus. The new wing features 40 additional patient beds, as well as the center’s newly consolidated outpatient services, which not only made going to appointments easier for patients and their families, but also added significant space in which to treat them.
“We are so excited about all the possibilities this expansion provides us – one example is how many children we can treat,” said Lori Boyd, center chief operations officer. “Where before we treated between 2,500 and 3,000 children annually, we believe with the addition we’ll be able to push that number to about 3,500 each year.”
Those numbers mean The Children’s Center’s current 650-member staff must be supplemented by new hires – many of them nurses, but also support personnel in every area of the hospital, Morris said.
“Something we find surprises a lot of people is everything we do with our kids,” she said. “All of them participate in education – the staff makes sure that a plan is customized individually to each child.”
The center’s children come from all walks of life and deal with a myriad of challenges, Boyd said. While some deal with developmental disabilities, still more spend a more limited amount of time in treatment and rehabilitation for traumatic injuries due to an accident or illness.
Dealing with their young patients is only part of the job, Boyd said. Many family members spend significant time at the facility, not only spending time with their child, but in many cases also learning how to care for his or her medical needs once they go home.
While pediatric experience can be useful to anyone looking for a professional home at the center, most crucial is finding someone who believes in its mission of providing care that maximizes the potential of every child, Morris said. That’s something she said she’s found very easy to embrace – in a place where love, dedication and miracles seemed to find a home.
“I think this is the most fabulous place to work – finding a job with so much satisfaction, it’ s priceless,” Morris said. “You hear about people saying they’re a family at work, but that truly is the case here – you couldn’t find a group more caring or dedicated, not just to the kids, but also to each other.”
“We place a high emphasis on education, on making sure not only our new nurses are prepared, but that all of our nursing staff has the education and training they need to do the job they need and want to do,” center nursing educator Callie Rinehart said. “There’s a lot of investment in each and every employee and making sure they are happy and fulfilled in what they’re doing here.”
The Feb. 20 job fair is set for 9 a.m. through 3 p.m. and will feature tours and information for anyone interested in the facility. More information about The Children’s Center and its programs is available on its website, located at https://www.miracleshappenhere.org/.
