Tufts Medical Center recruits college grads as nurses’ aides

Tufts recently launched a program aimed at college graduates to bolster its staff of approximately 250 nursing aides, called clinical care technicians — a job that involves taking vital signs and moving patients and typically requires a certificate that can be earned in four to eight weeks. Filling these jobs with college graduates gives young people exposure to the health care field and helps the hospital fill a chronic shortage of nursing assistants with high-quality workers, said Terry Hudson-Jinks, chief nursing officer at Tufts. The program has been so successful that Tufts now only hires aides with college degrees.