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Apprenticeship Meets a Growing Need
Hospitals and healthcare organizations nationwide are struggling to fill critical roles. From nurses to medical assistants, staffing shortages are reaching crisis levels. One emerging solution—Registered Apprenticeship Programs in healthcare—is helping hospitals build sustainable pipelines of trained talent while reducing turnover and cost.
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Hospitals and healthcare organizations nationwide are struggling to fill critical roles. From nurses to medical assistants, staffing shortages are reaching crisis levels.
Along with other “expansion industries” like advanced manufacturing and information technology, the healthcare sector has seen a steady rise in Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs) over the past decade. According to data from the US Department of Labor, nearly 40,000 apprentices were working in the healthcare industry in 2024, over a 100% increase over the past 5 years. Looking back even farther to 2016, when there were fewer than 2,000 healthcare apprentices, we see that the sector has experienced more growth in Registered Apprenticeship Programs than almost any other in the same timeframe.
This apprenticeship expansion tracks with the healthcare industry’s emergent staffing needs. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020, the sector has consistently struggled to fill workforce gaps, support employees, and reduce turnover. Countless studies demonstrate the immense strain clinicians have faced since the start of the pandemic. In February 2022, 55% of health care workers reported their mental health was worse than before the pandemic. This tension caused many to leave the profession, with more than 30% of acute care providers independently using the word “burnout” to describe why they resigned. Many more medical staff are planning to exit the profession ahead of time, with 29% of Registered Nurses reporting that they plan to retire within the next five years — a 6.6% increase since a 2020 survey. All of these factors have together resulted in a consistent rise in staff turnover since 2020.
Both hospitals and the patients they serve have suffered as a consequence. Hospitals across the nation have closed at an unprecedented rate, with health systems losses numbering in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Already managing tight margins, reduced reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid payers, and rising costs of supplies and technology, some hospitals have folded under the added weight of pandemic-related staffing pressure. With healthcare centers either shuttered or otherwise overwhelmed with COVID-19-related care needs, patient satisfaction dropped significantly, especially in rural or developing areas of the country.
Workforce “Solutions” Failing Where Apprenticeship Can Succeed
One of the sector’s primary workforce responses has done little to help — in fact, it has only heaped more fiscal burdens onto the faltering healthcare system. Traveling nurses have seen a sharp rise in both their number and wages commanded since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. While they have existed in some form since at least the 1970s, this previously marginal practice has since morphed into a core labor strategy. The rise of this expensive and quick-fix workforce tactic has resulted in enormous additional costs, as Dr. LaTonya Trotter and colleagues note in their paper “The Role of Travel Nursing in Shifting Nursing Practice and Careers”:
“At the pandemic’s peak, some travel nurses earned up to three times the wages of their staff counterparts. Hospitals faced additional expenses associated with travel nurses, including sign-on bonuses, agency fees, and payroll taxes….[a 2024 report from the US Government Accountability Office] found that between 2019 and 2022, the cost of employing travel nurses increased by 53% to 266% across the six hospitals sampled.”
More than ever, hospitals and healthcare organizations are in desperate need of a reliable workforce development strategy that increases retention, improves patient outcomes, and saves money. Many are now turning to healthcare apprenticeship programs in order to address these issues with a proven workforce development model. Whereas options like traveling nurses are a temporary fix, Registered Apprenticeship has emerged as a long-term solution that can enhance financial sustainability while simultaneously improving patient care outcomes.
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More than ever, hospitals and healthcare organizations are in desperate need of a reliable workforce development strategy that increases retention, improves patient outcomes, and saves money.
Examples of Successful Healthcare Apprenticeship Programs
Leading the way are industry-affiliated organizations who have developed various supports and on-ramps for employers to quickly adopt apprenticeship. These groups serve to reduce administrative and logistical burdens for employers looking to hire apprentices, and provide subject matter expertise to ensure high-quality clinical and didactic training. For example, in Washington state, the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium brings together multiple unions and employers to operate and oversee a Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee. Welcoming all regional healthcare employers, the Consortium leverages this broad coalition to build powerful educational pathways and sustainable employment opportunities through the power of apprenticeship. Similarly, the Healthcare Career Advancement Program (H-CAP) offers a myriad of services to help new and expanding Registered Apprentice Programs. They also manage The National Center for Healthcare Apprenticeships, and produce a wide array of digital resources for employers and job seekers alike.
Consequently, healthcare organizations have launched a bevy of apprenticeship programs. In 2019, Kaiser Permanente and SEIU Healthcare 1199NW collaborated to create the Medical Assistant (MA) Apprenticeship, a program hailed by the company’s Vice President of HR as having “a tremendous impact on our staff, members, patients, and community at large.” In the intervening years, Kaiser operated similar initiatives in Colorado, California, Hawaii, and Washington. Elsewhere, UWHealth has added new apprenticeship pathways at an unprecedented rate. The company has worked hand in hand with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development to build new apprenticeship pathways for occupations such as registered nursing, respiratory therapist, ophthalmic assistant and pharmacy technician. They have also created a first-of-its-kind apprenticeship degree program for surgical technologists which combines academic credit with hands-on apprenticeship training, offering all the coursework leading to an associate degree and credential eligibility to take a board examination. Critically, these programs have demonstrated remarkable outcomes. As noted by ForHealth Consulting in their paper, “The Apprenticeship Advantage: Building a Sustainable Future Nursing Workforce”:
“A three-year study at UW Health across five registered apprenticeship programs found 95% program retention, 96% post-graduate employee rate, and a 99% first-time credential pass rate (i.e., NCLEX). Additionally, participants felt increased employee loyalty and engagement. The apprenticeship programs also produced diverse representations reflecting the populations served.”
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A three-year study at UW Health across five registered apprenticeship programs found 95% program retention, 96% post-graduate employee rate, and a 99% first-time credential pass rate.
Apprenticeship is the Future of Allied Health Talent Strategy
In an industry where nearly 20% of the most critical employees leave their jobs within the first year, these outcomes are unparalleled. Registered Apprenticeship Programs in healthcare have proven to be one of the most effective workforce development models. They drastically reduce turnover, improve retention, and build stronger career pathways across multiple allied health occupations, and integrate well within existing labor unions & other regulatory frameworks. With partners like the Health Care Apprenticeship Consortium and H-CAP providing resources and guidance, hospitals and healthcare organizations can now implement healthcare apprenticeship programs quickly and efficiently. For these reasons and more, Registered Apprenticeships are poised to become a cornerstone of the healthcare workforce strategy for years to come.
