Kelly Schmier: Child care is one solution for Idaho’s health care workforce shortages

By Kelly Schmier

Child care is a constant juggling act for working parents. If you’re fortunate enough to find child care that fits your schedule, there’s still the challenge of cost. For many parents, it’s a decision between paying for child care and paying for other necessities. For health care workers in particular, this balancing act is often even more difficult.

For many health care workers, child care costs are eating up their paychecks. Scheduling restrictions could mean they are faced with the difficult choice of staying home with their child or missing work, which might mean not providing life-saving care to someone who needs it. This oftentimes daily reality is where burnout begins, followed by turnover, and ultimately workforce shortage and lack of access to care. This problem should demand our attention, especially in Idaho where we’re already facing drastic shortages of health care workers.

Kaniksu Community Health provides patient-centered care in rural communities in North Idaho. Sometimes it’s the only provider available for miles. Like many in Idaho, however, it was facing a critical shortage of health care workers. Our leadership team conducted an employee survey and learned that child care was one of the biggest barriers to attracting and keeping quality staff members. So, they decided to do something about it.

I was brought in to open and operate Kaniksu Kids Club, an on-site child care center that we knew could make a difference for our health care workers and the entire community. We made sure that our child care facility was more than just a place to keep children safe, but a place where children could thrive, learn, grow and receive high-quality early childhood education while their parents worked hard to care for others. This is all offered at an extremely low price compared to local market rates for child care.

A grant from the Idaho Workforce Development Council helped us get started nearly three years ago when we opened our doors to 20 children. We began providing a safe, nurturing and educational environment for the children of our organization’s employees. Today, we serve 50 children, with priority given to our health care workers.

Thankfully, our CEO is focused on providing this benefit, not profits, which completely changes the game. We’ve been able to provide affordable care, hire people who have a passion for children, and operate at a break-even level. The addition of onsite child care to our bundle of employee benefits has become a valuable recruitment tool and has increased staff retention and satisfaction so much that our turnover rates have decreased from 38% to just 19%.

Child care is just one reason health care workers are leaving the field. While we found a solution at Kaniksu, our health care system is facing a crisis statewide. It’s going to take leaders in child care, education, housing, health care, government and lawmakers coming together to tackle the shortcomings in our current system.

Creative solutions for just one of those challenges – like child care – could help solve multiple problems at once. The health and well-being of Idaho’s children, families and workers depend on it. Ultimately, the health of all Idahoans does, too. Let’s come together to find these solutions, not just for today, but for the future of our communities.

Kelly Schmier, of Sandpoint, is the preschool and day care director at Kaniksu Kids Club.