In New Hampshire, Investing in English Language Classes Makes Everyone’s Healthcare Better

A Healthcare Success Story

As in much of the country, if you live in New Hampshire and you need medical care, you’re likely to get help from some people who began their lives in other countries. Immigrants and refugees make up about 18% of the U.S. healthcare workforce. In New Hampshire, they make about 7% and are particularly prevalent in patient-facing roles, such as home healthcare aides, drivers, cleaners, and food preparers. They’re the people who help you feel comfortable, safe, and cared for when you’re at your most vulnerable.  

These are roles for which there are dangerous shortages in New Hampshire, a state with a rapidly aging population. It’s an urgent need that creates an opportunity for newcomers seeking entry-level jobs that may not require a local work history and more than basic English skills.  

“Matching newcomers with New Hampshire healthcare employers has been a real success story in general,” says Kayla Rossmeissl, IINE’s Director of Program Design and Evaluation. “Employers are getting fast-learning, resilient, highly motivated workers, who have the benefit of IINE to help support their orientation and development. Our clients often say they’re excited to be helping people in their times of need and giving back to the community that’s welcomed them.” 

A Desire for Investment

In 2019, Kayla helped develop LNA for Success—an IINE skills training program that combines English language instruction, vocational training, higher education partnerships, and apprenticeship, to help prepare immigrants and refugees for the job of Licensed Nursing Assistant. She says that in promoting this program over the next few years, IINE discovered a real desire for greater investment.  

“We had been doing a lot of community presentations and working closely with [LNA for Success partner] Manchester Community College. We started to discover a lot more partners who are looking for ways to help get refugees and immigrants more economically stable—career laddering, higher paying jobs, things like that.” 

She also found healthcare providers looking to invest in their immigrant employees. At one networking event, representatives from two local hospitals sought her out. 

“They were just like, ‘Kayla, I heard you set up these ESOL programs. Can we chat?’ From there, we were all brainstorming to come up with a program to help their workers.” 

Both hospitals were interested in paying their employees to deepen their English language skills during the workday, through on-site, workplace-focused English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) classes. 

“Which is amazing,” Kayla says, “because a lot of families are juggling multiple part-time jobs and childcare, and wouldn’t otherwise have time to take classes.” 

Kayla wasted no time in developing a curriculum for a pilot “ESOL 4 Healthcare” program, conducting interviews with partners to learn about their goals and challenges.  

“They wanted to see people become more confident in speaking English, because even though they are in environmental services [maintenance], they do greet the patients in their rooms, and they interact with other staff in the hospital, like their supervisors. So, having more confidence in communication, being able to read and write emails, improving digital literacy skills, and navigating internal systems like clocking in and out—these were all things we could help with that could improve everyone’s experience.” 

Gaining Confidence

“I would say for me personally, what I see in the students, cohort after cohort, is confidence,” says Becky Marden, Director of Workforce Development at Elliot Hospital in Manchester.  
 
“In their evaluations, they’ll say things like, ‘I’ve gained the confidence to say hello to my manager in the morning, whereas before I might just have avoided eye contact,’ and things like that. And that’s what inspires me to keep pushing for this class and making it better every cohort.” 

Having helped develop the concept, Elliot Hospital is now in its third year of ESOL 4 Healthcare. Becky says that she’s frequently blown away by the improvement that Elliot’s English language learners make in listening, reading, and writing skills over the course of a cohort—which spans two hours/day, six days/week for sixteen weeks, an impressive investment of staff time. In addition to the improvement in workplace communication and staff-patient relationships, she says that Elliot is gratified to be able to provide some meaningful support to some truly impressive people, which, in the most recent cohort, were six students from six different countries. 

“For me it’s also about the social contacts outside of work—they can use email or finally set up a bank account for the first time. These are some of the most resilient and hardworking employees we have. I could never go to another country and work someplace and not speak the language. I would just be so frustrated. And yet they’ve done it and they’re working in our community.” 

Becky says her CEO shares this feeling. After attending an ESOL 4 Healthcare graduation, he invited several of the recent graduates to a Board Meeting so that the hospital’s leadership could meet them, and they could showcase their new English skills. For Becky, the next step is developing apprenticeship programs within the hospital to help English language learners on staff to advance in their careers there.  

“Some of them have healthcare experience from their previous country. We had a nurse practitioner in one program. We had a labor and delivery nurse in another, and they just want to work in the healthcare field. Their credentials don’t come over, their education doesn’t come over, but here they are, sometimes cleaning toilets just so they can be in healthcare. How do we get them back to the bedside? ‘Cause that’s where we need them.” 

This is the Future

Elliot Hospital is currently one of nine IINE ESOL 4 Healthcare partners, and the number is growing quickly. They include providers offering mental health care, senior assisted living, and more. One new partner, Dartmouth Hitchcock Hospital, offers English classes remotely to reach student in more rural areas, and has developed apprenticeships in Phlebotomy and Lab Tech.  

“I’ve got five more in the queue!” says Kayla. “I really think this is the future. There’s a lot of interest in bridging the gap. There’s tremendous need here, from people who can really benefit from these kinds of jobs, and from employers who are always interested in a stable source of new staff members who come to them recommended and supported.” 

Investing in job training opportunities for refugees and immigrants creates a stronger workforce for us all. Help newcomers grow their careers and our economy by donating to IINE today.