After two decades of service as a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, Jaime Parent knows something about the skills of U.S. service members.

As vice president of IT operations and associate CIO at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center, Parent is also well aware of the growing career opportunities in healthcare.

Seeking to put that knowledge to good use, Parent launched the EN-Abled Veteran Program at Rush, an internship that trains returning members of the military for careers in health information technology.

At HIMSS15, Parent will show how health organizations can do the same. His session, "Building a Veteran Healthcare IT Internship," will lay out the steps hospitals can take to harness the considerable talents of veterans.

This isn't the first program at Rush aimed at military members. Several years back it launched the Road Home Program, a clinic focused on treating traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and generally helping veterans "cope with and heal from the invisible wounds of war."

When it came time for those veterans to enter the workforce, however, there wasn't always that level of concern and understanding.

"I found a lot of service members were using their GI bill for two-year degrees, four-year degrees, even specialized training," says Parent. "And they were still getting the same answer from job recruiters: 'No, because you don't have any experience.'"

It was time to "figure out a way to give these veterans on-the-job training experience," says Parent – who realized he was in the perfect place to help.

"Healthcare is hot. IT is hot. Put them together, it's super hot," he said. At Rush, he set about putting together a fast-track program to get veterans up to speed on the basics of health IT work, so "when they go to a recruiter, they're ready for the civilian world."

For four days a week, over 13 weeks, participants in the EN-Abled Veterans Program get a crash course in the basic ins and outs of a hospital IT department.
The first week, they sit in with the help desk, getting a basic "lay of the land," says Parent.

Next up is three weeks assisting with Rush's ongoing virtual desktop deployment.

"We're swapping out leased PCs for these thin clients," he explains. "Before a veteran even picks up a screwdriver, they're part of a $4.8 million cost savings program, deploying the latest technology in healthcare today. That looks good on a resume."

In fact, resumes are the focus of week five.

"We bring in consultants who scrub that military resume from top to bottom," says Parent. Oftentimes, after all, the CVs of returning service members can be baffling to civilians.

"They just don't make sense: AFPAK, MEDCOM, USAF – people in the civilian world don't understand that. It might be impressive, but you need a resume that communicates," says Parent.

A lot of military members "don't know how to write a resume, or don't know how to interview for jobs," he says. So interns are given the chance to do a mock job interview for an hour or so. "They've never had to go through that social exercise, so professional recruiters help them out."

After week six, there are a few paths these veterans can take.

"We point them in the direction of where they have a passion for computers," says Parent. "Some gravitate toward network operations, some want to do desktop, some are PC techs."

Having seen success so far with the EN-Abled initiative, the hope now is to take the program and transfer it to other hospitals.

"Any hospital can do it, and when you come to HIMSS, I'll show you how," he says. "We pay $12.50 an hour for 13 weeks, four days a week. That comes out to a whopping $5,000 per veteran. Which is peanuts."

Returning veterans have a lot to bring to the table, says Parent. "They bring the values that have been instilled in them from military service: loyalty, sense of service, honor, dignity. Stay until the job is done. Take pride in your work. All of these things.

"And quite honestly in our workforce today, some of that is lacking, especially in the higher skill levels," he adds. "This is the type of person you want as an employee because they have those strong moral values, that strong moral fabric. They'd be ideal candidates for these types of jobs and these types of careers."

Parent's session "Building a Veteran Healthcare IT Internship" will be presented on Thursday, April 16 at 10:30-11:30 a.m. in room W196A.