Clinical Care Extenders (CCE) are volunteers that work in hospital settings as interns. Volunteers enter the program to complete 280 hours of service which is done in a few rotations in different areas of the hospital to get a behind-the-scenes experience of a health care provider, providing direct patient care. The period of work can vary from 6 months to over one year, at a rate of a few hours per week. Volunteers can be undergraduate or graduate students or professionals, or in the case of the "Red Shirt Program", high school students.[1]
The CCE program was devised by, and is administered by, the COPE Health Solutions corporation[2] to "help hospitals and other health care organizations grow their workforce"; the program provides volunteer workers to augment "patient support" hours at lower cost than hiring staff.[3] CCEs are selected from applicants who have a "serious interest" in pursuing a healthcare career.[2] After completion of the program, CCEs are "available for immediate hire."[3]
The program is implemented in the Southern California area; three locations are UCLA[4], Riverside Community Hospital.[5], and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian.
According to COPE, eligibility requirements for Clinical Care Extenders include: interns must be 18 years or older and accepted, currently enrolled in, or graduated from an accredited college or university; they must complete pre-rraining paperwork as well as attend an "Immunization Open House" and submit required immunization/test records; finally, individuals must attend mandatory 3-day training and pass a post-training exam.
COPE's CCE scheduling requirements include serving a minimum of one four-hour shift each week (most departments are open 7am-11pm), attending all bi-monthly CCE meetings, and accumulating a total of 280 hours of internship hours.