Recently, Cape Fear Valley Health officially announced “Education” as a new addition to its internal values, as well as new education incentives for employees. 

“Cape Fear Valley Health has long been a place of learning for multiple allied health professions and other healthcare students, and we intensified that focus with the addition of our residency program,” said CEO Michael Nagowski in a press release. “We’ve seen the value of training healthcare professionals and continuously learning. As we move forward with our goal of building the Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, we wanted to encapsulate and acknowledge all these things with the addition of this new value.”

As stated on the health system’s web page, the full value statement reads, “Education: Promoting lifelong learning and preparing future medical professionals.” 

As part of the new value announcement, the health system kicked off an awareness campaign for employees about several new and existing educational opportunities. The first of two new changes is the creation of a new Continuing Education Fund, which sets aside funds each year for employees, who can individually apply for up to $2,000 once every two years for non-degree-seeking continuing education expenses, such as conferences and training. The second big change was an increase in the maximum tuition assistance payments for degree-seeking employees, which has been raised to a maximum of $5,250 a year.

Other existing education opportunities for employees include:

• Educational loan assistance: Designed for specific in-demand healthcare programs in which current and prospective employees can receive scholarships with a signed employment commitment.
• Nursing Scholarships: Multiple different nursing scholarships are awarded each year from a variety of funding sources.
• Internal Development Opportunities: Cape Fear Valley Health’s Training and Development office oversees several pathways for free training to advance skills and certifications. 

“We are dedicated to fostering excellence by embracing our core values, and now we have extended this commitment to education,” Nagowski said in a press release. “We want to emphasize this is a leader-driven culture, where employees’ supervisors are eager to work with their teams on their individual needs and aspirations on their personal education goals.”

Vice President Hershey Bell, MD, Chief Academic Officer and Founding Dean of Methodist University Cape Fear Valley Health School of Medicine, said the addition of this new value is one of the first ways that the planned medical school will change the community.

“Working with the leaders here and at Methodist University, we are going to create something that is forever going to change Fayetteville, Cumberland County and the entire Southeastern region,” Bell said in a press release. “We still have a ways to go before people will start to see the concrete changes the medical school will bring, but this is a fantastic signal to our employees, students and community that we’re committed to bringing educational excellence to all aspects of this health system.”