An Academic-Practice Partnership: A Patient Care Technician Program Advancing Careers in Health Care
Abstract
Purpose: The Patient Care Technician (PCT) pipeline program was developed to address a shortage in unlicensed personnel and provide a pathway for incumbent staff to complete an entry-level clinical training program in an academic and healthcare setting. Optimizing a clinical academic affiliation, the college created a tailor-made program to address the unique requirements of the acute care setting. Eight of the eleven students were multi lingual learners, and all had tenure at the hospital as valued and reliable employees. Students completed six days in lecture, skills lab, and simulation and five days orienting to hospital-specific education. Clinical instructors, known to the college and the hospital, provided a further two weeks of hands-on, intensive clinical exposure across three acute care units.
Students’ Evaluations of the Program: Student evaluations unanimously indicated that they would recommend this course to others, using emphatic expressions such as absolutely, 100 percent, without doubt, and definitely. When asked which aspects of the program were most beneficial, the consensus was that the hands-on practice in the skills lab. Students recommended extending the program duration to better accommodate the volume of material covered. Additionally, ninety-one percent of students successfully completed the program. Students reported feeling proud that they had studied in a college and expressed gratitude and loyalty to the hospital for the opportunity the pipeline program provided them. All graduates of the program remain employed in their PCT role.
Implications: The Patient Care Technician program not only provided a direct pathway into healthcare roles, but also enhanced participants' economic opportunities. Additionally, the program inspired four participants to pursue further education, with some now considering enrollment in nursing programs, thereby creating long-term career advancement potential within the healthcare field.
Notes
References:
Bishop, P. J., & Negron, S. L. (2023). Enhancing safety with a hospital nursing assistant training program. Nursing Management, 54(11), 46-54.
Coroneos-Shannon, D. L., & Lancaster, R. (2024). Improving the Recruitment and Retention of Unlicensed Assistive Personnel: A Quality Improvement Initiative. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 40(4), 208-213.
Elliott, B., Beck, J. A., & Buffenbarger, J. (2020, April). Learning transfer and transition of certified nursing assistants to baccalaureate nursing programs. In Nursing Forum (Vol. 55, No. 2, pp. 197-204).
Scales, K. (2022). Transforming direct care jobs, reimagining long-term services and supports. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 23(2), 207-213.
Scott, M. P., Bautista, M. G. F., Mann, S., DeVaughn-Bradley, S., & McFarland, N. (2020). SOARING: A residency program for unlicensed assistive personnel: Meeting the demands while retaining highly skilled, engaged clinical technicians. Journal for Nurses in Professional Development, 36(6), 321-327.
Sigma Membership
Pi Epsilon at-Large
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Academic-clinical Partnership, Workforce, Teaching and Learning Strategies, Nursing Education, Advances in Education, Patient Care Technicians
Recommended Citation
Shea, Diane; O'Carroll, Dympna; White, Rebecca; and Yotts, Karina, "An Academic-Practice Partnership: A Patient Care Technician Program Advancing Careers in Health Care" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 28.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/posters_2025/28
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-11-26
An Academic-Practice Partnership: A Patient Care Technician Program Advancing Careers in Health Care
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Purpose: The Patient Care Technician (PCT) pipeline program was developed to address a shortage in unlicensed personnel and provide a pathway for incumbent staff to complete an entry-level clinical training program in an academic and healthcare setting. Optimizing a clinical academic affiliation, the college created a tailor-made program to address the unique requirements of the acute care setting. Eight of the eleven students were multi lingual learners, and all had tenure at the hospital as valued and reliable employees. Students completed six days in lecture, skills lab, and simulation and five days orienting to hospital-specific education. Clinical instructors, known to the college and the hospital, provided a further two weeks of hands-on, intensive clinical exposure across three acute care units.
Students’ Evaluations of the Program: Student evaluations unanimously indicated that they would recommend this course to others, using emphatic expressions such as absolutely, 100 percent, without doubt, and definitely. When asked which aspects of the program were most beneficial, the consensus was that the hands-on practice in the skills lab. Students recommended extending the program duration to better accommodate the volume of material covered. Additionally, ninety-one percent of students successfully completed the program. Students reported feeling proud that they had studied in a college and expressed gratitude and loyalty to the hospital for the opportunity the pipeline program provided them. All graduates of the program remain employed in their PCT role.
Implications: The Patient Care Technician program not only provided a direct pathway into healthcare roles, but also enhanced participants' economic opportunities. Additionally, the program inspired four participants to pursue further education, with some now considering enrollment in nursing programs, thereby creating long-term career advancement potential within the healthcare field.
Description
The Academic Practice Partnership developed the Patient Care Technician Pipeline Program to address unlicensed personnel shortages and provide staff with a pathway to entry-level healthcare training. Seventy-three percent of trainees were multilingual learners. The program had a 91% completion rate, with all participants recommending it. It enhanced economic opportunities and inspired four graduates to pursue further education, including nursing, supporting long-term career growth in healthcare.