How Jonysah Kept Her Cool, & Kept Her Patients Cared For

Jonysah Bouknight was finishing up giving one patient a ​“bed bath” when she heard a loud noise — and quickly learned that another patient was having a stroke.

She took a deep breath, collected herself, and jumped into action, making sure the patients got the care they needed without letting the stress of her job completely overwhelm her.

Bouknight is a patient care associate at Yale New Haven Health’s Smilow Cancer Hospital.

She told the Independent that story about an urgent ​“STAT” order she responded to during a recent hospital shift — and about the way that her training as a registered apprentice at Yale New Haven Hospital helped her succeed in that moment — after a press conference and roundtable conversation held on Friday midday at 55 Park St.

The reason for the press event was to celebrate and check in on a four-year, $10 million federal grant that the state Department of Labor awarded to Yale New Haven Hospital last year to build up its so-called ​“Registered Apprenticeship” program for patient care technicians.

Patient care techs work under nurses and doctors to do everything from checking patients’ vital signs to taking blood draws to making sure patients don’t fall while they’re at the hospital to cleaning wounds and managing pain.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro and U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh joined several dozen YNHH top officials, administrators, and current registered apprenticeship trainees to tout the 12-month classroom-plus-mentorship-plus-on-the-job-training program. They described it a critical route for helping people with high school degrees and certified nursing assistant (CNA) credentials get their foot in the door for future full-time jobs in the healthcare field, and at Yale New Haven Hospital in particular.

“You’re providing access to good, middle-class jobs for workers who need opportunities,” Walsh said in praise of the federal-funded program. Looking out over the group of mostly Black and Hispanic patient care techs currently in the program, he added, ​“The diversity is amazing.”

DeLauro said this four-year federal grant should allow YNHH to train 1,250 patient care associates in total. ​“It ensures an opportunity for underserved and underrepresented populations” to get good-paying jobs in a healthcare field that is currently desperate for trained and qualified workers.

Nearly a dozen different PCAs who are currently in the registered apprenticeship program spoke up during the roundtable discussion about how their classes on topics ranging from conflict resolution to time and stress management to documentation and reporting to patient safety have all helped them thrive.

Sitting at a table next to Walsh, Bouknight spoke about how one of the most challenging parts of her registered apprenticeship on the fifth-floor of Smilow has been the ​“STAT” orders that she and her colleagues regularly get from doctors when a patients suddenly needs urgent care. She described the difficult balance of responding to that urgent order while still managing all of the other patient responsibilities she has to tend to over the course of a shift.

It can be quite ​“unpredictable when taking care of very sick patients,” she told the labor secretary. She said that the classes in the registered apprenticeship program have helped her manage her time and her stress in such situations. ​“I really appreciate this program.”

After the event, the Independent caught up with Bouknight, a New Haven native who lives downtown, to ask about any specific recent ​“STAT” calls she’s had to respond to, and how the class helped her work.

That’s when she described giving a ​“bed bath” to a recent patient when she heard ​“a loud noise. One of my patients had dropped something,” and, she soon found out, that patient was having a stroke.

“I called in the medical team” of nurses and doctors, she said. And then all at once, she got a flurry of orders to make sure the patient having the stroke got the care they needed — all while managing blood draws and EKGs for other patients under her watch.

How did her class help her?

She said one of the key lessons from the class component of the apprenticeship program is to ​“take a second and reflect” on what one’s top priority needs to be at any given moment, and then act on that priority. The classes have taught her how to plan out her work days in advance — while also keeping enough mental and emotional and professional space available to respond to the urgent orders.

And, she said, the program stresses the importance of ​“working as a team.”