Becker's ASC Review

33 HEALTHCARE NEWS 33 How to tear the 'paper ceiling' By Alexis Kayser Y ou've probably heard of the "glass ceiling": the social barrier that prevents women's advancement to top leadership roles. Now, a similar term has been coined for those without a bachelor's degree: the "paper ceiling." The term was popularized by Opportunity@Work, a nonprofit organization that encourages upward mobility and economic opportunity for workers who did not attend college. More than 60 percent of American adults do not have a university diploma, according to a recent report from Quartz. When degrees are required, 76 percent of Black, 83 percent of Latino, 81 percent of rural and nearly 70 percent of veteran workers are drained from the talent pool. To make job mobility more accessible, major companies — like Kellogg's, General Motors and Bank of America — are dropping degree requirements from some job postings, and certain states — including Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Utah — are removing them from public sector jobs. Nearly 50 organizations mobilized to rip the paper ceiling in fall 2022, acknowledging that many jobs that ask for a bachelor's degree could actually be performed with on-the-job training, community college learning or certificate programs. Healthcare's paper ceiling can be tougher to tear, as many clinician roles require specialized training. But some degree requirements are wants, not needs, and eliminating them can open up a broader talent pool. This could prove especially useful as the industry continues battling staffing shortages. Catherine Codispoti currently serves as executive vice president and chief people officer at Washington, D.C.- based Children's National Hospital and will assume the role at St. Louis-based Mercy in the fall. She works closely with Children's National's chief diversity officer, Denice Cora-Bramble, MD, to eliminate paper ceilings from job descriptions. "We've taken a very critical look at our job descriptions to try and increase the pools," Ms. Codispoti told Becker's. "If we said we want somebody with a master's or a bachelor's degree, do they have to have that? We've actually changed that pretty significantly and have really increased our sourcing pool." n All these educational endeavors may help physicians compete with their non-physician counterparts for top C-suite roles, Dr. Falcone told Becker's. "You've got physicians over the course of the last 10-plus years taking more control over the healthcare environment and their destiny," he said. "inking back to when I trained in the early 1990s, physicians were comfortable coming out and practicing and doing that for the rest of their lives. As you move forward and as healthcare became more complex and as finances became more finite, physicians understood that to be able to be more in charge of their destiny as practitioners and leaders, they needed to get more involved in the day-to-day operations and the management of the healthcare facilities." He also said the evolution of healthcare in recent years contributed to "a perfect storm with regard to physicians understanding they need to garner even more skill sets." At UTMC's Physician Leadership Academy, Dr. Gray strives to be intentional about training for the business of healthcare. He said he wanted to create a program that was accessible and affordable and relevant to the issues UTMC is experiencing. "What has made the program successful and what has made us successful from an organizational standpoint and promoting physicians into leadership positions is relationship[s]," Dr. Gray said. "Building a relationship among physician leaders and then having physician leaders build relationships with administrative leaders." He said the Physician Leadership Academy also "quickly separated the wheat from the chaff, meaning those physicians who were really interested in healthcare administration and those who decided that this was not for them." About 10 percent of academy graduates have gone on to seek an MBA. n 'I never said no to an opportunity': MetroHealth's chief nursing officer on change By Mariah Taylor M elissa Kline, DNP, RN, did not intend to go into leadership when she started as a staff nurse at Cleveland-based MetroHealth. But over the last 20 years, she realized leadership is where she belonged. "I love taking care of our patients and I really liked learning about how the unit functions," she told Becker's. "I started by helping schedule nurses, then became a charge nurse, and I got involved in different councils to develop performance improvement projects. at's when I realized I like doing that sort of thing." Dr. Kline started as an assistant manager in 2003 and made her way up until she became chief nursing officer in 2015. "I never said no to an opportunity," she said. "When our CEO at the time asked me if I was interested in being chief nurse, all of a sudden I knew that's what I wanted to do. I hadn't set out for that position, but I said yes

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