Rural Colorado tries to fill health worker gaps with apprenticeships

by Kate Ruder, Kaiser Health News

Grand Junction — Briana Shelton helps a BeeHive Homes Assisted Living resident to the bathroom during her 12-hour night shift. Many of them have dementia and some are unable to get out of bed on their own. Only a few people remember her name, but it doesn’t matter to her.

“They’re somebody’s mom, somebody’s grandma, somebody’s great-grandmother,” Shelton said. “I want to take care of them like I would take care of my own family.”

Shelton trained to become a personal care aide through an apprenticeship program designed to meet the needs of the growing number of health care workers in rural western Colorado. Far from Denver’s busy urban corridors. Remotely here, labor shortages are exacerbating as baby boomers retire, young people leave these older communities, and demand for home and institutional care increases.

Common in rural areas High proportion of residents aged 65 and over than urban areas. Also, a recent study in the journal found that most rural areas have relatively few direct care workers, such as personal care assistants, who assist people with disabilities, according to a recent study in the journal. health problems.

Colorado’s apprenticeship program will not only increase the number of direct care workers, but also help those living below the poverty line, those who have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who are unemployed or underemployed. We offer opportunities to improve profitability. They train to become personal care aides, who assist patients with routine tasks such as bathing and household chores, or certified nursing assistants who can provide direct health care, such as checking blood pressure.

Apprentices take training classes at the Western Colorado Area Health Education Center in Grand Junction. The center pays for students living in more rural areas to attend classes at Delta County’s Technical College of the Rockies. An apprentice receives on-the-job training at her one of 58 local employers. For example, in a welfare institution, where she has to work for a year. Each apprentice has a mentor from their employer. Western Colorado AHEC staff members also provide mentorship, and the center is staffed by life coaches.

Georgia Hoagland, executive director of Western Colorado AHEC, which has 210 active apprentices and a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, said: 2021 years.

Some apprentices are recent high school graduates. Others are single mothers and veterans. They often face educational or financial barriers to employment. Hoaglund and her 10 staff can purchase apprentice scrubs and start new jobs in proper uniforms. Otherwise they may not be able to afford them. If the trainee cannot afford a full tank of gas to go to work, the staff will cover the fuel costs of the trainee. They talk to apprentices on the phone every month, sometimes even every week.

Apprenticeship programs give these workers a solid start, but jobs can be stressful, and burnout and low wages are the norm. Up is another stumbling block. His Hoaglund, who calls some of the staff’s families and apprentices his children, dreams of using the scholarship to provide more advanced training (like nursing).

Apprenticeships are a well-known workforce training tool among electricians, plumbers, carpenters, and other craftsmen. But according to Robyn Stone, senior vice-president of research at LeadingAge, a non-profit organization of geriatric services, these services will help build a pipeline of needed direct care his health workers. is also considered.

“Traditionally, health care employers hire people who have completed a training program,” said Susan Chapman, a registered nurse and professor of nursing at the University of California, San Francisco. “Now we are asking employers to attend that training and pay those who are in training.”

Chapman and Stone said the pandemic has exacerbated the shortage of direct care workers, which could prompt employers to invest in apprenticeship programs. Federal investments could also help, and the Biden administration’s initiatives to improve the quality of nursing homes include a $35 million grant to address rural labor shortages.

Shelton had never worked in healthcare until he moved to Fruita, a small town surrounded by red sandstone towers about 12 miles northwest of Grand Junction. She left Fresno, California a year before her to care for her uncle with multiple sclerosis. She and her 16-year-old daughter live in a mobile home on her uncle’s property, where she rescues her Labrador and her retriever, Blackie, roams with chickens and cats.

Blackie also sometimes goes with Shelton to the Beehive to visit its residents. Shelton said it was more than her job for her and that she was grateful for her apprenticeship program for helping her get there.”It opened doors for me.” ” said Shelton.

In addition to caring for her uncle and daughter, Shelton works three 12-hour shifts a week. Still, she struggles to secure enough money for her gas bills, bills and food, and takes out small loans to meet her ends, she said.

she is not alone. Fellow caregivers are often underpaid and underrepresented, and poverty rates among these workers are found to be significantly higher than in the general population, Chapman said.

The average hourly wage for direct care workers nationwide is $13.56. According to a study by the non-profit policy group PHIand these low wages make it difficult to recruit and retain workers, leading to further shortages and instability.

In an effort to keep workers in the state, Colorado raises minimum wage This year, Personal Care Aids and Certified Nursing Assistants have increased their hourly rate to $15. Also, her 2023-24 budget request for the Colorado Department of Health Policy and Finance includes an increase to $15.75. Similar efforts to raise wages are underway in 18 other states, including New York, Florida and Texas, according to recent reports. National Governors Association paper.

Another way to keep apprenticeships on the job and facilitate career and salary increases is to provide professional training opportunities in dementia care, medication administration, or behavioral health. “What apprenticeships offer is career fluidity and progression,” Stone said.