Univ. of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics program helps students gain experience in health care

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) - Sachin Fong didn’t quite expect card games to be a part of his first experience working for UIHC. But as a then-college freshman working with the ‘unit partner’ program, he says that social aspect was his favorite part.

“You can go on a walk with a patient and just walk beside them, and you’ll hear some funny stories while talking with patients in the hospital,” Fong told TV9.

Now, as a sophomore and current patient care technician with UIHC, he can look back and say all aspects helped give him confidence in this position.

The program was designed to give students both that social experience as well as some technical experience working in health care early on in their education.

“They can do a lot of tasks with direct supervision,” said UIHC Nursing Practice Leader, Julie Boothby. “We allow them to check blood sugars, we allow them to do meal set-ups for patients, sometimes patients just need companionship or haven’t had a visitor so it’s a nice way for unit partners to get comfortable having those conversations with patients and for patients to have somebody there.”

What started as a pilot program in the spring of 2022, has seen over 200 interested students since.

Not only does it offer more students experience, but it also helps lend many hands to current staff both now and, as UIHC hopes, in the future.

“Being able to advance as a patient care tech knowing my responsibilities, knowing how to enter a room, and knowing my way around the unit as well is really helpful,” said Fong.

“A lot of them are nursing students so we would love to keep them on board when they graduate as nurses and have them work at UIHC as nurses as well,” said Boothby.

Since the launch of the program, more than 90% of unit partners remain employed at the hospital in the 6 months after hire.

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