SSM Health Wisconsin continued to encourage the next generation to join the health care workforce in 2023 through several new partnership programs. SSM Health inaugurated a 12-month Ophthalmic Assistant Apprenticeship Program in concert with Madison College and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to train students in direct patient care tasks, processes, and procedures to assist in a broad range of eye and vision care services. Students incurred no out-of-pocket costs to participate and will enjoy paid positions within SSM Health upon graduation from the program.
 
In Madison, SSM Health partnered with the Boys & Girls Club of Dane County on a paid internship program to teach young people about the skilled trades—electrical work, plumbing and carpentry. Over the summer months at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital-Madison, the intern received hands-on experience working on various projects, including servicing a pneumatic tube system and several refrigeration units in the laboratory and cafeteria. The program was so successful, the plant operations director has contacted another Boys & Girls Club in the Fond du Lac area to encourage the launch of an internship program with SSM Health’s medical facilities there.
 
In Monroe, SSM Health sparked an interest in health care careers with middle school students through the in-person resumption of Club Scrub, a 10-week hands-on program that gives students from area schools a chance to meet and work with providers across various SSM Health Monroe Hospital departments, including: the Cath Lab, Emergency Services, Family Medicine, Orthopedics, Pharmacy, Rehabilitation Services and Surgical Services.