Onvida Health’s internal scholarship program helps employee reach her goals
Manoah Tuiasosopo
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) – As we celebrate Nurse Week, we share the story of a Yuma woman closer to achieving her career dreams after some much needed help from Onvida Health.
“At Onvida Health, we want to help develop our employees and develop their career,” says Laura Wisniewski, the Administrative Director of Human Resources at Onvida Health.
That’s exactly what their doing with Carolina Martinez who says it’s her dream to one day become a registered nurse.
That dream is well on its way to becoming a reality after she was chosen for the first Internal Nurse Sponsorship program at Onvida Health.
“Now I’m closer to my goal of becoming an RN,” says Martinez.
The program covers tuition and allows employees to study while maintaining full-time pay and benefits.
“As our organization grows, we know our workforce needs to grow. Sometimes we need to be creative on how do we train high-potential, high-performing employees to get to that next step in their career,” says Wisniewski.
Martinez says as a mother, military spouse, and full-time nursing assistant, stopping work to further her education would be a stretch.
But after graduating from the 9-month program, on top of her 15 plus years of experience, Martinez is now a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN).
Martinez says, “Nursing programs are pretty intense. Sometimes people have to work part-time, PRN (“Pro re nata” which translates to “As needed”), or not work at all. With this opportunity we didn’t have to. We were paid to go to class and clinicals. I thought it was a great opportunity.”
She says she’s in it for the long run.
“To be a nurse, you have to have big heart and a lot of patience,” says Martinez.
Martinez was one of five employees selected for the program.
Onvida Health says they would like to expand the group to 20 employees starting this summer.