Addressing the healthcare workforce shortage requires a multi-faceted approach that spans various strategies and policies, especially in the wake of challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s explore some of these strategies in detail:
- Recruitment and Retention Efforts: It’s essential to adopt a comprehensive and iterative approach to recruitment and retention, involving multiple stakeholders including human resources, clinical, operational, and technology teams. This approach should align with diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. Regularly assessing data can inform diversity strategies and help understand workforce dynamics. Employing surveys, evaluating current benefits, and considering remote work and cross-training are essential steps in this direction.
- Supporting Behavioral Health and Well-being: Recognizing the toll that stress, trauma, and burnout take on healthcare workers, it’s important to focus on their well-being. Initiatives might include developing formal recognition programs and exploring resources for better prediction and deployment of teams. Creative strategies like providing childcare and eldercare support, or even partnering in housing for the workforce in challenging real estate markets, could be vital.
- Tailoring Benefits and Work Schedules: Consulting with employee committees to identify desirable benefits and using a cafeteria-style approach to offer a variety can be effective. Engaging with front-line leaders to structure workflows and team compositions for better balance and engagement is crucial. Flexibility in work schedules, especially in shift-based roles, is another aspect that can significantly impact retention.
- International Recruitment and Local Strategies: In areas facing unique challenges, such as rural Ohio, recruiting international nurses has proved effective in maintaining a robust healthcare system. Each location may require tailored recruitment and retention strategies based on specific local needs and challenges.
- Long-term Planning and Policy Development: Addressing these issues is not just about immediate solutions but also involves long-term planning and policy development. Hospitals and health systems need to work towards supporting their workforce today, preparing them for tomorrow, and building a pathway for the future. This involves not only immediate strategies but also a continual evolution of resources and considerations.
The healthcare workforce shortage is a complex issue requiring a blend of immediate actions and long-term strategic planning. Each strategy should be tailored to the unique needs of the workforce, and continual evaluation and adaptation are key to effective implementation.
- American Hospital Association. (n.d.). Workforce solutions: Recruitment and retention strategies in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Retrieved from https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2022/06/workforce-solutions-recruitment-retention-strategies-wake-covid-19-pandemic-report.pdf
- American Hospital Association. (n.d.). Strengthening the health care workforce: Strategies for now, near and far. Retrieved from https://www.aha.org/system/files/media/file/2022/06/strengthening-health-care-workforce-strategies-now-near-far-report.pdf