Marisa Peryer, Staff Photographer

Federal officials, including U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, are looking to a Yale New Haven Health apprentice program as the blueprint for a potential $303 million federal grant initiative. 

On Friday, Walsh and House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro attended a roundtable at YNHH to hear from students and educators in the first class of YNHH’s Registered Apprentice program. The one-year program enhances the skills of Certified Nursing Assistants like patient care technicians, or PCTs, and patient care associates, or PCAs. Funding for the program comes from a $10 million dollar grant provided to the Connecticut Department of Labor as part of a federal $130 million pilot grant program. 

“Our program was the first in the state, and we’re excited about all of its success already,” Program Manager Christine Vanvliet told the News. “Amidst shortages in healthcare staff, skilling up PCTs and PCAs and keeping them in our system will help improve patient care.”

The federal grant program stems from a nationwide nursing shortage, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics estimating that an additional 200,000 nurses are necessary to fill the current gap. Vanvliet told the News that increasing training of PCTs and PCAs who work under nurses can also help fill the gap. 

YNHH won the four-year grant in August of 2021 and launched the program in February.

According to Vanvliet, the program is a 12-month long course with approximately 350 current students. Throughout the course, students attend a monthly four-hour seminar on various skills ranging from communications, team building and the usage of medical technology. As the course is an apprenticeship, the program is “earn and learn:” students are full-time YNHH employees receiving salary.

Students pick up a monthly shift with a registered nurse who mentors and provides guidance and teaching to students. Vanvliet said that mentors have helped students register for courses at Gateway Community College as well as provide career advice.

Vanvliet told the News that YNHH is currently working with schools across the state to recruit students for the program. The program aims to retain graduating students as future workers for YNHH upon graduation

Students who complete the program will receive a certificate from the Federal Labor Department that is transferable and can be used to get a job at another healthcare facility. Students who attended the panel spoke of the benefits they have already seen 10 months into the program. 

“This apprenticeship program provided me with techniques to deal with time management and stress reduction,” student Jemisa Volkmay said at the event. “During this time, we use critical thinking to reflect on our issues and problem solve together using these organizational techniques … So I really appreciate this program.”

Another student, Stanley Baxter, emphasized the importance of representation within the program and in the healthcare industry overall. He spoke of a recent patient who told him that an increase in diversity in the nursing and certified nursing assistant staff of YNHH had made it easier for him to trust the care he received. 

The federal grant won by YNHH is supposed to fill nursing gaps but is also specifically tailored to improving representation and providing training to marginalized communities. 

According to Vanvliet, YNHH hopes to expand the program to 400 students in the next cycle and educate close to 1400 students during the four year grant period. 

“The Yale New Haven Hospital’s program to train patient care technicians is a proven example of how public-private partnerships and strengthening our workforce development system are critical tools for rebuilding our health care workforce,” Walsh wrote to the News. 

At the event, DeLauro spoke on the importance of the training program and told attendees that the federal grant that YNHH had received would be codified into the next federal appropriations and increased to a $303 million grant. 

Walsh served as the Mayor of Boston before he became Labor Secretary.