This summer, HASC, in partnership with HealthImpact and the Southeast Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board (SELACO WDB), saw the first cohort of 15 nurses graduate from HealthImpact’s California Registered Nurse Ambulatory Specialty Apprenticeship Program.
The 12-month transition-to practice program supports nurses, new either to practice or to the specialty, through their first year working in ambulatory clinics. Transition-to-practice programs have been proven to increase workforce retention, job satisfaction and patient outcomes.
HealthImpact, California’s nursing workforce and policy center, developed a 260-hour curriculum. Informed by the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing, the curriculum includes 116 unique competency statements interwoven into the program. The curriculum complements 1,740 hours of on-the-job training that nurses receive in full-time positions. HealthImpact received program accreditation through the Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS), a governing body under the Department of Industrial Relations, and is listed as an eligible training provider through California’s Employment Development Department.
The ambulatory apprenticeship program focuses on recruiting nurses serving underserved and underresourced populations throughout California. For the pilot cohort, HealthImpact partnered with Los Angeles County General Medical Center, which graduated 12 nurses, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which graduated three. Of the graduates, 15% identified as Asian, 5% identified as Black/African American, 25% identified as Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander, 35% identified as Latino/Latina/Latinx and 20% identified as White/Caucasian.
HealthImpact is grateful for the success of the pilot cohort and for strengthened partnerships with HASC, SELACO WDB, the South Bay Workforce Investment Board, DAS, Dignity Health Global Education, LA County General Medical Center, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Leveraging these partnerships, HealthImpact looks forward to launching additional ambulatory apprenticeship cohorts in 2024, both within and beyond LA County.
Likewise, HASC looks forward to continuing these partnerships and to helping launch additional cohorts next year. For more information, please contact Soyinka Allen, program director for workforce development at HASC, [email protected], or Owen Metzger, program manager at HealthImpact, [email protected].