How Essentia’s tuition-reimbursement program helped a mother and son advance their careers

Long before she started as a registered nurse at St. Mary's Medical Center in 1998, Laura Prouty had been intrigued by a career in health care. She was "fascinated by how the human body worked."

That fascination has fueled a desire to keep learning. Prouty describes herself as “very much an advocate for education,” an admission that prompted a quick reply from her son, Sean Prouty, a nurse on the neurotrauma ICU floor at St. Mary’s.

“She’s been in school my whole life,” Sean joked.

“I like school,” Laura responded.

Indeed.

Laura earned degrees in biology and nursing from the College of St. Scholastica in the early 1990s. In 2005, she entered the nurse anesthesia graduate program at St. Mary’s University in Minneapolis, where she graduated with a master’s degree, before obtaining her doctorate in advanced nursing practice from St. Scholastica in 2012.

One of the enticements for Laura to continue furthering her education has been Essentia’s tuition-reimbursement program. For example, when she returned to school for her doctorate, nearly 50% of the $28,000 bill was covered by tuition reimbursement as well as St. Scholastica’s tuition-discount programs available for Essentia employees.

At a time when competition to recruit and retain health care workers — especially nurses — is fierce, Laura says the importance of benefits like generous tuition reimbursement can’t be overstated.

“That probably kept me working for Essentia,” the certified registered nurse anesthetist said. “That was one of those benefits that was a great retainer.”

Her son agrees. Sean also has benefited from Essentia’s tuition-reimbursement program. Employed at St. Mary’s for 10 years, he didn’t begin as a nurse until 2021. Prior to that, he held several roles while simultaneously serving as an Air Force medic. Because Sean also is an EMT, there were multiple occasions in which he thought of leaving Essentia to work on an ambulance. But he was enrolled at St. Scholastica and “that extra money for going to school kind of kept me around.”

Essentia’s tuition reimbursement paid for more than $10,000 of Sean’s schooling. Combined with assistance from the Air Force, he was able to graduate from St. Scholastica debt-free with a nursing degree.

Sean has been in the Air Force for 12 years; he spends two days each month training at Duluth’s Air National Guard Base. The 31-year-old has done three deployments, including one to Kuwait in 2018. Yet, his future as a nurse may have been determined before he even exited the womb.

“I was carrying Sean when I went through my pinning ceremony for nursing, and when I took my boards I was pregnant with him,” Laura recalled. “So I tease him that he sat for his boards twice because he sat for them with me the first time.”

Sean admits that his decision to pursue nursing was influenced by his mother.

“I’ve always been interested in the human body and what it can do, just all the pieces that need to work 100% of the time correctly to sustain a life,” Sean said. “It’s always interested me, but my mom being in nursing certainly helped push me toward that.”

At Essentia, the tuition benefit reimburses up to $2,500 of eligible expenses per fiscal year for those who have a “regular” employment status, work at least a 50% full-time equivalent and have been with Essentia for three months. This pertains to about 10,000 Essentia employees.

There are additional benefits for those seeking a degree that would allow them to work in a “critical profession,” including advance payment, to support recruitment and retention of high-demand positions.

With more than 5,000 open nursing positions in Minnesota alone, it is another way for Essentia to remain competitive and attract nurses who have an abundance of employment options upon earning their degrees. Other initiatives that make Essentia an attractive destination for nurses include our nurse residency program; the academic practice partnerships we’ve developed with numerous nursing schools; education-to-employment programs; and our journey toward Magnet Nursing Designation.

“Programs that impact the cost of education, or help mitigate the costs already incurred, are incredibly important to our employees,” said Shawn Herhusky, workforce strategy manager for Essentia. “These resources can help our colleagues reach their full potential while reducing the financial burden. A number of individuals who have reached out to us had no idea that many employees at Essentia qualify for public service loan forgiveness, or that so many additional resources exist for them.”

Being able to advance her education and, subsequently, her professional development has been a blessing for Laura. She relishes the challenge and is grateful for Essentia’s tuition-reimbursement program, which has eased the financial burden of continuing education.

“I think that’s the beauty of nursing as a career, when you are feeling a little burnt out or you feel like you’re plateauing, you can add that education and change your field and go a different direction,” Laura said. “You work the floors, you move to an ICU, you learn some new things, you go back and get your master’s or your doctorate, you can switch your career. I think that’s why I pursued further education just because I needed that challenge.”

So what’s next for Laura? Possibly another degree — this time, it would be a master’s in business administration.

“Knowing that tuition reimbursement is available to me, it might make me more apt to follow through with that, knowing that I have that help,” Laura said.