Focus on Our People
In 2021, as UPMC nurses navigated high acuity COVID-19 patients and increasing patient volume, UPMC initiated strategies to improve our employees’ UPMC Experience. We named this focus “the year of the UPMC employee” in celebration of our staff making many contributions and their focus on each other, our patients, and our communities. Our focus on our employees is driving retention and recruitment efforts for our patient care areas within the Health Services Division (HSD). Below are initiatives that were implemented to support our patient care providers, and drive the continued, collective success in building the UPMC Experience we want for all our employees and our patients.
- RN/LPN Night Program, staff working full-time nights receive an additional night program differential, on top of their hospital’s off-shift differential.
- Weekend Nursing Program, a new program that increased individual base rates by 25% to incentivize nurses to work less preferred weekend shifts.
- Life Happens, acknowledgement that sometimes-unexpected challenges arise in our staff’s personal lives that temporarily make work-life balance difficult. Employees are encouraged to talk to their manager. Managers work with employees to outline a 30-day change in schedule when personal challenges arise.
- Temporary Night Incentive, for staff nurses and LPNs willing to commit to nights for a period or time but not permanently. Incentivizes staff to work hard to fill shifts, even if a permanent change is not possible.
- Float/Resource Differential, to attract and retain external and internal talent to float/resource pools that can assist across the hospitals.
- LifeStages, is offered to nursing staff aged 60 or older with at least 10 years’ experience at the bedside to transition to retirement while leveraging staff’s expertise and skill. Expanded to include respiratory, imaging and lab service lines. Employees work decreased hours, preferred schedules and receive full time benefits.
- Dual Roles, an opportunity for nurses who are interested in expanding their skill set, exploring a new specialty interest, or gaining more bedside care experience to consider a dual role. Examples include graduate nurses who are completing a rotational program, non-clinical nurses who want to return to bedside care in any capacity, or nurses who are interested in expanding their specialty skillset to work in two departments and split their time.
- Personalized and Flexible Scheduling, empowers managers to create employee-centric schedules designed to meet individual staff needs. This may include non-traditional shifts (9 hours, 8 hours, 6 hours), or scheduling staff in functional roles to cover meals, administer medications, or perform discharge education and calls.
Transitioning into 2022, UPMC unveiled our most recent win for our nurses — a new Inpatient/Procedural My Nursing Career pathway.
Career advancement for our nurses is now more attainable than ever. The new Inpatient/Procedural My Nursing Career ladder* offers more opportunities and accelerated growth, plus greater compensation, a significantly simplified promotional process and the introduction of the UPMC Wolff Learning Academy Center for Nursing Excellence.
From day one, UPMC is committed to investing in our nurses — professionally, financially, and personally. From tackling student loans to advancing their careers, we are committed to helping our nurses succeed, thrive, and stay with UPMC for their entire careers.
- UPMC gives staff opportunities to earn even more with the BSN differential, updated shift differentials, float differentials, and our internal UPMC Travel Staffing Program.
- Ongoing enhancements to our already robust benefits program to ensure all employees have affordable and valuable coverage.
- Our comprehensive benefits package also includes tuition assistance and tuition discounts to help you pursue life-long learning and career advancement, including tuition-aligned pricing with Capella and other universities, for no out-of-pocket cost for RN-BSN and RN-MSN programs.
- UPMC has partnered with Savi, a student loan benefit, which provides help with federal student debt. Savi helps borrowers enroll in government repayment and forgiveness programs that can help lower monthly payments and potentially eliminate your debt.
- SoFi can provide employees and their family members with discounts when refinancing student loans. SoFi offers a 0.25% rate discount (up to 0.5% if enrolled in automatic payments) to UPMC employees upon refinancing student or Parent PLUS loans through SoFi.com/UPMC.*This information is not applicable to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement (unless specified in union contract), special pay practice, or a program adopted during integration. If you have any questions, contact your Human Resources representative.
How we support our nurses today affects our tomorrow.
To remain market-competitive when attracting graduate nurses to support our frontline staff, UPMC is excited to introduce a new Monthly Loan Repayment program* for inpatient/procedural, surgical services, and ED RNs who have graduated in calendar year 2022.
Tackle your student loans with UPMC’s brand new Monthly Loan Repayment incentive, exclusively for 2022 nursing graduates. Following six months of full-time employment as an RN with UPMC, Graduate Nurses are eligible¹ to receive $20,000 in loan repayment², paid over three years.
¹ Eligible roles include full-time inpatient/procedural and surgical services RN roles for those who do not otherwise have language in their collective bargaining agreement. ² Required taxes and deductions will apply; this may be prorated depending on your employment status.