Employee Spotlight: Jacklyn Gentry and Gabe Bailey

Meet Jacklyn and Gabe:

One of the Foundation’s core values is education, found in its mission statement.  Education serves a large role in bettering patient care; the Foundation sponsors professional development for future health care workers and has opportunities for current employees of Liberty Hospital.  Jacklyn Gentry, Ed.D., MSN, RN, the Senior Director of Professional Practice along with Gabe Bailey, MBA, MSN, RN the Director of Clinical Education and Employee Health are two employees that help the Foundation find avenues to support education efforts within the health system.

Q: Tell us more about yourself

A:  For Dr. Jacklyn Gentry, she explains, “half of my job is focused on education working with public schools, colleges and universities while the other half is more Hospital-focused with clinical education, nursing leadership development and professional development.  Professional development could be any kind of education that furthers knowledge of your current role.”  Gabe collaborates with Jacklyn in his role and “focuses mostly on the internal education needs of the Hospital.  Whether that be through knowledge deficits, annual education, tracking of education training standards, and professional development.”  Gabe explains, “think of it like this, an individual starts working with the Hospital as a novice.  From there, it is my job to make sure the individual has all of the tools, supplies, and people to develop them into an expert in their field.”

Q:  How does the education team at Liberty Hospital work on developing careers?

A:  “It’s all about the people,” Gabe says, “we rely on the expertise of others to help grow one another together.”  “As a concrete example, we had a class for individuals already working with the Hospital who might not have started out in a traditional education setting to get into nursing, to get them certifications like their PCT,” explains Jacklyn.  “This is important,” Jacklyn says, “because these individuals are now advancing their career and can continue their education to become nurses or have options to expand their career through additional schooling.”  Gabe explains that nurturing the foundation of growth is an exciting new journey that the Hospital is proud to support and encourage.  “If we’re able to start these conversations internally,” Jacklyn explains, “then they can start being taught Liberty Hospital policies, procedures, and learn equipment right away so their orientation is minimized speeding along a career journey.”

The education team partners with external schools like William Jewell and Park University.  One partnership example is our clinical instructors, who Liberty Hospital employs to teach a cohort of students for one of hte partner schools.  This model helps to recruit and retain talent at the Hospital.  At the beginning of this program, the Foundation funded a grant to pay for a one-year salary for one of these clinical instructors.

Q: How have the education efforts grown at Liberty Hospital throughout the years?

A:  Because of these collaborative programs Jacklyn and Gabe describe, the Hospital is able to hire top talent easier.  “In the past year, the Hospital hired 40 new-grad nurses and fifteen of them came from William Jewell,” Jacklyn specifies, “and that is the highest number we have had since we’ve been tracking this data.”  There is a direct correlation in students learning directly from Liberty Hospital and finding careers immediately upon completing a degree.  “When I started working here,” Jacklyn remembers, “we were taking approximately fifty students a semester, and now we take 150 a semester which is a very significant number for our Hospital’s size.”  This is important to develop relationships that ultimately help with retention and turnover, and the education team can be confident in the schooling and quality of education new hires have received if originally developed internally.  Additionally, the networking that new hires in an internal education program have access to has grown and helps give access to any student who is passionate.  “It is an expectation in our nursing code of ethics that we help train the future, regardless of direct outcomes it is the right thing to do,” Jacklyn remarks.

Q:  What collaborative support does the Foundation assist within the education efforts at Liberty Hospital?

A:  The Foundation cultivates synergy between the education department in many ways.  Through high school nursing scholarships and continuing education Masters or Doctorate-level program scholarships, the Foundation sponsors approximately 10 students each year.  Additionally, the Foundation helps facilitate the Stocksdale scholarship fund to offer up to $5,250 for fulltime employees (up to $2,500 for part-time and PRN employees) per fiscal year toward coursework that leads to a degree or licensure/registration.  “We have partnered with Missouri Western, Northwest, and Grand Canyon to offer employees a tuition discount.  When you combine the Foundation’s scholarships and our partnerships together, our employees can get a degree for very little out of pocket,” said Jacklyn.

Q: What is the future of educational growth at Liberty Hospital?

A:  Jacklyn wants to grow the pipeline to bring more individuals to Liberty Hospital.  “For example, we have a CNA program through Liberty Public Schools and William Jewell for high school seniors who receive education both here and at William Jewell.  Over twenty plan to get their state certification and then continue onto nursing.  They are all from our community, and our hope is that they return after school to work here.  We want to expand these opportunities to grow our network,” she said.  Jacklyn and Gabe are also passionate about expanding a program of education for non-traditional students (individuals who are not going to college directly from high school but are getting a degree as an adult).  “For individuals who are already working with families and want to get a degree for the first time, we are looking to find ways to assist them on getting their nursing degree at the bachelor’s degree level.”  Gabe finds it important to work with existing leaders and emerging leaders on cultivating change through professional development as well.  “This ultimately helps comprehension, growth in departments, and benefits individual’s careers,” said Gabe.

Thank you for all that you do for the Liberty Hospital community, Jacklyn and Gabe!

Published on April 23, 2024

The Liberty Hospital Foundation supports patients, individuals, families, and employees in the Liberty Hospital community by creating, funding, and promoting programs that improve health, education, wellness, and care. Make a Gift to support our mission, today!