Smith Business to Watch For

Spotlight: Military to Medicine

Daniel Nichols, MBA ’06, has brought together his passion for serving the nation’s troops with a passion for addressing the nation’s healthcare talent needs, through his nonprofit organization Military to Medicine. Military to Medicine trains military spouses, reservists and “wounded warriors,” those who returned disabled from combat, for entry-level positions in the healthcare industry, and helps nurses and other clinical staff find new jobs when they return from active duty or when their active-duty spouse is reassigned.

The idea was born when Nichols worked as director of recruitment for Inova Health System, responsible for 3,500 to 5,000 hires each year. “One of the largest reasons for transitions in our critical clinical staff, especially nurses, was from military moves,” says Nichols. “That told me that if some were leaving, others were probably coming back into the region.”

Nichols wanted to locate those folks, so he began contacting other employers across the country to begin exchanging military talent. The strategy was very successful, reducing Inova’s nursing vacancy from 15 percent to 2 percent.

Nichols saw an untapped talent pool within the military community. He served as a Navy reserve officer for 14 years, starting in 1996; he was deployed to Iraq in 2003 with a Marine Corps unit and spent four months as their chaplain. So he was familiar with the needs and constraints on military families.

Nichols founded Military to Medicine (M2M) to match healthcare employers across the country with workers in the military community. The organization launched earlier this year with Nichols as executive director. All its services are offered at little to no cost to anyone in the military community.

The organization assesses potential hires to see what kinds of jobs they are suited for, and then helps train them for entry-level jobs in healthcare IT and medical records, front and back office medical assistance, and basic clinical support. M2M also helps place nurses and other clinical staff, and helps them acquire proper certification and credentials as they move from one state to another.

“Healthcare is a popular career choice for military spouses, because it is so portable,” says Nichols. “They can begin their career in one place and find a new job in another place when they move with their active-duty spouse. Sometimes military spouses are under-employed; their resumes don’t look good because they move so often. We help connect them and translate those skills into each new market.” In some cases M2M has even created new positions—for example, bringing nurses into a clinical setting to work as IT trainers for doctors or hospital staff while they update their licenses in their new location.

M2M signed an agreement in 2008 with the Army Reserve to do joint recruitment; the Army would train recruits in healthcare positions, and after their active duty was completed M2M would help the recruits find work in the civilian world. M2M is also actively working with the Department of Defense.

M2M was started with grants and initial seed funding, largely from Inova Health System, and the organization is pursuing partnerships and funding to increase their capacity. When possible, they tap the military’s training benefit as well.

It’s a big undertaking, but Nichols learned what he needed to get a large national nonprofit off the ground here at the Smith School. “I would not be here without the education I received at Smith,” he says. “The infant state of this whole effort was built in my EMBA Action learning project. There was an “aha moment” when I realized this is do-able, you really can do this. The professors personally interact with you in a way that helps you learn. You have experts and partners that walk alongside you to help you maximize the learning experience and implement in the real world.”

“You can do good and do good business at the same time. This was a key learning point from the Smith School. Before I came to the Smith School, I viewed service as a charitable activity,” says Nichols. “Military to Medicine is not about a charity hire for someone in the military; it’s about matching known skills to known needs. When you do that, it makes good business sense and it works for everybody.”

Daniel Nichols lives in Rockville, Md., with wife Rachael and their two daughters and two sons. Get in touch with Nichols through SmithConnector. Learn more about Military to Medicine on their Web site, www.militarytomedicine.org.