New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Yale New Haven Health patient care associates reflect on apprenticeship program
NEW HAVEN — Stanley Baxter realized how much his presence as a Black person means for the health care industry after talking to a patient about the lack of diversity back in the day.
“When I think about the people that came before me who weren’t able to do this good work that they wanted to do, I know that every day that I work, I represent
Yale, but I feel like I represent much more,” said Baxter, a patient care associate at Yale New Haven Hospital’s heart and vascular unit.
Baxter shared his personal encounter with a patient Friday as a part of a roundtable where seven other participants of a registered apprenticeship program at the health system also shared useful skills they acquired for the career path, from conflict resolution to stress management.
Joining them to listen to first-hand experiences were U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh, Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro, D-3, and state Labor Commissioner Danté Bartolomeo, among other health system officials.
The four-year, $10-million apprenticeship was geared toward patient care technicians and funded by the U.S. Department of Labor in hopes of bringing 1,250 technicians to the field.
The program at the health system was the nation’s first recognized registered nurse apprenticeship, according to Judith Hahn, who heads a nursing professional practice.
The monthly seminars focused on skills including patient care, patient safety, skin and wound care, employee safety, documentation and reporting, communication, teamwork, conflict management, diversity and inclusion, and death and dying.
Participants get paid while they learn in a mentor-mentee system.
Dahlia Codner, a PCA in the general medicine unit, said the biggest lesson learned from the program was conflict resolution and communication with people in her care.
“There was this difficult patient who always undermined my skills, making us feel as if we don’t know what we’re doing,” Codner said, noting that she came to an understanding with the patient and the patient acknowledged that she was “one of the best patient cares.”
First coming in the program, Tanya Tlapolzoyoa said she wasn’t sure how far she was going to go in the PCA career, but she became more motivated despite the stress because of a good support system.
“I recently presented a new PCA in our unit, and as I listened to her positive feedback, it made me feel stronger,” Tlapolzoyoa said. “Now, I know I can do this. I will finish my education in nursing and become a mentor.”
DeLauro said everyone’s experiences shared Friday reinforced the need to be engaged in this kind of effort to increase training for patient care associates.
“I was hospitalized many years ago for a long time with ovarian cancer,” she said. “Really, it was the nurses and the assistants who came in every day, who could look at my face and know whether I was having a good day or a bad day.”
That’s why DeLauro, chair of U.S. House Appropriations Committee, said she and her colleagues are going to propose $303 million in appropriation bills in 2023 to fund similar apprenticeship programs.
“It ensures an opportunity for the underserved and underrepresented population — of people of color, of those who are unemployed,”
DeLauro said.
The labor secretary said he was at the roundtable to understand what registered apprenticeship programs are and that nurse shortages actually stemmed from a shortage of nursing training and educators.
“That’s really the problem we have in this country,” Walsh said. “It’s a problem today, but in the next five years it’s going to become a crisis because so many nurses are going to be retiring.”