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Precious Ekezie has always wanted to be a nurse—and she didn't have to look far for inspiration.
“I wanted to be like my mom when I was younger,” she said, smiling. “She works at Montefiore,” a highly-regarded nonprofit health care provider in the Bronx.
Ekezie took a step closer to reaching her goal by enrolling in the Health Care track of our Education Workforce and Training program. “This program helped open my eyes to see that there’s different directions to go in,” she said. “So I’m figuring out whether I want to work my way up or directly become a nurse— work and go to school, or go to school full time.”
She and her cohort recently finished the first portion of their training: two weeks of classes covering a daunting range of material.
“We start the class with a history of healthcare disparities because of where we’re teaching and the population we’re teaching,” said Lorean Valentin, who runs the program. “It’s important for them to understand the inequities.” They get six mental health training sessions from the city health department, including psychological first aid, adversity and resilience, and grief and loss. They get certified in CPR, First Aid, defibrillation, blood-borne pathogens, infectious control, COVID prevention and health privacy. They learn customer service from a food and beverage consultant and get instruction about employers’ expectations of interns. They also get training in financial literacy, do resumes and cover letters and work on elevator speeches.
The program is designed for young people who are out of school and out of work. It aims to give them training, boost their self-assurance and connect them to careers.
"I see their confidence change" over the course of those two weeks, says Valentin. "People from different socioeconomic backgrounds and cultures start networking. You start seeing the emerging leaders within the class.”
Now the students have moved on to paid internships—250 hours over 12 weeks. At the end of that time, some will likely be offered jobs where they are. Others will get help with job placements through the program.
Most of these eight students will go into administrative jobs. The next cohort of 29, in June, will follow a Certified Nursing Assistant track. Either way, Valentin said, they will fill key roles.
“Each and every position that someone is going to play is valuable to the health system,” she said. “I think it’s really brave that people decided to become health care workers. It’s admirable. If we get 37 new health care workers out of this program, they are going to make a difference.”
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