Patient education managers in position to impact different areas of health care
Bar raised on level of expertise and leadership skills needed to do jobHaving expertise in patient education management is no longer enough to do well in the field. Having well-developed management and health care leadership skills has become increasingly important.
"Patient education managers need to be savvy in finance, systems operations, etc. This has always been true to some extent, but I think the bar has been raised on the level of management expertise required," says Annette Mercurio, MPH, CHES, manager of patient, family, and community education at City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA.
Patient education managers are in an extraordinary position to contribute to institutional priorities such as patient safety, disease management, patient satisfaction/quality improvement, and patient-centered care. To make the most of this, opportunity patient education managers need outstanding health care leadership/management skills, she says.
Organizational and patient and family needs for better partnership in the care experience is shaping the job duties of the patient education manager, says Cezanne Garcia, MPH, CHES, manager of patient and family education services at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle.
Also impacting the role of patient education manager is the need for education early in the continuum of care such as in the outpatient area rather than during hospitalization. "There is increasing evidence in the literature and in experience to support education early in the continuum of care," she reports.
While patient education has the potential to impact many areas, those in charge of creating the systems, resources and tools don’t always have the power to ensure that they are being used.
"The nursing shortage is shifting priorities to areas other than education which impacts what is done," says Mary Paeth, MBA, RD, patient/community education coordinator at Southwest Washington Medical Center in Vancouver.
However, efforts on behalf of patient education can bring lucrative rewards. A good percentage of those responding to this year’s Patient Education Management salary survey earned between $60,000 and $69,999.
There are many issues that impact salary, according to patient education managers. The classification of the position plays a role, with a position in clinical management compensated at a higher level than health educator classifications generally earn, says Mercurio.
Geography also effects salary. Paychecks will be higher in competitive salary markets and where cost of living is higher.
Someone who has been in a position for many years would probably be in a higher salary range as well, says Mercurio. "There are usually step increases in salary range for positions," she says. With each annual performance evaluation salary goes up in the range until the maximum step is reached or the organization extends range maximums for all positions in that group.
The degree a person possesses could matter. Sometimes someone with a nursing background can command more than someone with a degree in health education, says Louise Villejo, MPH, CHES, the executive director of the patient education office at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The type of organization would also impact salary, says Yvonne Brookes, patient education liaison/performance consultant at Baptist Health South Florida in Miami. State institutions often offer lower salaries than private institutions.
It is not surprising that most of the readers who answered the salary survey worked for a nonprofit organization. "This type of organization would be more inclined to support patient/family education in a formal, organized way and also community programs, as their mission is to give back to the community," she explains.
Salaries inch up
Salary increases in the past year were within the 1% to 3% range or 4% to 6% range, according to the survey responses.
For nonprofit organizations, 3% is typical, says Magdalyn Patyk, MS, RN, BC, patient education consultant at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
If a person works at a state hospital, raises are usually based on state raises, says Garcia.
"The increases granted in the salary survey fall right into the ranges I’ve seen for increases," says Mercurio. At the beginning of the year, organizations usually announce what the salary increase will be and then performance dictates what increase within the range an employee receives. The range set by an organization depends on a number of factors, she adds. In very tight years, there are no salary increases and a range up to 6% is an excellent year.
A 41- to 45-hour workweek was about average; however, an even numbered group on either side of this category answered the survey with one group working 31-40 hours and the other spending between 46-50 hours on the job.
The number of hours worked probably depends on how effective patient education managers are at setting boundaries between work and private lives, says Mercurio. "Truly, I suspect that most full-time patient education managers could work an 80-plus-hour week and still feel like they could tackle additional needs," she says.
Garcia agrees. The scope of responsibilities and commitment to the importance of the work discourages letting too much go without completion, she says.
"As you develop your leadership role in an organization, you become sought out for your institutional knowledge and experience to help with items that perhaps don’t directly benefit patient/family education but do benefit overall organizational development," says Garcia.
There is absolutely too much to do in too little time, says Villejo. In addition, those in the field of patient education often are altruistic and dedicated to what they are doing.
It is a young field, but it has been growing in the last 20 years, that is why there are a good number of experienced people and more coming into the field regularly, says Villejo.
The data from the survey supports this point of view. The time that people had worked in the field of patient education varied. Some only one to three years, others four to six years, and some a lot longer working in the field 10-12 years, 13-15 years and beyond.
The growth in patient education is driven by consumer demand for information, which led to the explosion of learning centers and health/patient educators, says Villejo. The education standards implemented by the Oakbrook Terrace, IL-based Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations helped to bring the importance of patient teaching to the forefront, she says.
Even though people have worked in the field a varying number of years, most patient education managers are in their 50s. This is the average age of nurses and the field of patient education still is dominated by nurses although it is much more multidisciplinary now, says Villejo.
The fact that most patient education managers are RNs probably is the reason that most answering the survey had been in health care for 25-plus years. "To be selected for a patient education coordinator role, a RN would need to have project coordination skills and a breadth of skills and experience typically gained through supervisory and special project roles over a number of years," says Mercurio.
It is hard to be a leader in a field without having actually done the work you are teaching others to do, says Paeth. As a result, many patient education coordinators have been in several jobs and have extensive experience teaching and working with patients and staff, she adds.
Many patient education managers got into the field because they wanted a break from bedside care and when the Joint Commission patient education standards were implemented, they had the experience to develop the patient education processes, says Brookes.
Sources
For more information about the comments made in regard to the 2003 salary survey, contact:
- Yvonne Brookes, RN, Patient Education Liaison/ Performance Consultant, Baptist Health South Florida, 6200 S.W. 73rd St., Miami, FL 33143-4989. Telephone: (786) 662-8139, ext. 4528. E-mail: [email protected].
- Cezanne Garcia, MPH, CHES, Manager, Patient & Family Education Services, University of Washington Medical Center, 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Box 356052, Seattle, WA 98195-6052. Telephone: (206) 598-8424. E-mail: [email protected].
- Annette Mercurio, MPH, CHES, Manager, Patient, Family and Community Education, City of Hope National Medical Center, 1500 E. Duarte Road, Duarte, CA 91010-0269. Telephone: (626) 301-8926. E-mail: [email protected].
- Mary Paeth, MBA, RD, Patient/Community Education Coordinator, Education Department, Southwest Washington Medical Center, P.O. Box 1600, 400 N.E. Mother Joseph Place, Vancouver, WA 98668. Telephone: (360) 514-6788. E-mail: [email protected].
- Magdalyn Patyk, MS, RN, BC, Patient Education Consultant, Patient Education, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, 251 E. Huron, Suite 4-708, Chicago, IL 60611-2908. Telephone: (312) 926-2173. E-mail: [email protected].
- Louise Villejo, MPH, CHES, Director Patient Education, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe-Box 21, Houston, TX 77030. Telephone: (713) 792-7128. E-mail: [email protected].
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