A new program at Northwestern Medicine – the Basic Nursing Assistant Training Program – is seeking to help fill patient care technician (PCT) job openings and bridge training gaps for employees interested in careers in healthcare.
PCTs “assist and support registered nurses in all aspects of patient care activities such as personal hygiene, transporting, taking vital signs, answering call buttons,” and more. At Northwestern Medicine, PCTs “are required to have a certified nursing assistant (CNA) certification upon hire,” which, combined with high levels of burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic, led to a large number of PCT job openings. The Basic Nursing Assistant Training Program was launched in 2022 by Northwestern Medicine to try to combat the high level of job openings.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has shown that “demand for nursing assistants and registered nurses will continue to increase as baby boomers age and the need for healthcare grows. From 2022-2032, employment of nursing assistants is projected to grow 4% with 209,400 openings each year, and employment of registered nurses is projected to grow 6% with 193,100 openings each year.”
The new program at Northwestern Medicine will “serve as an introduction to a variety of careers in healthcare to help address the nursing shortage,” according to Tacora Love, a Northwestern Medicine program director and nurse educator who helped create the curriculum.
The training program will take 16 weeks and includes “instruction in classroom, lab, and clinical settings.” Once students complete the program, they are eligible to take the Illinois Nurse Aide Competency Certification Exam, and “once they pass the exam, they can get hired as a patient care technician and even go on to nursing school.”
