Healthcare industry leaders face unique challenges when attracting talent during a worker shortage. Attracting and retaining skilled professionals in this rapidly evolving field requires innovative solutions and a deep understanding of the industry's specific needs.
Fueled by critical factors like employee burnout, the aging of the RN population, and a lack of training, the demand for nurses is outpacing the supply. The gap in demand and supply is one of the significant challenges faced by the healthcare sector. In fact, the global shortage of nurses could reach 13 million by 2030.
The issue is further compounded by the fact that RNs are leaving the profession. Between May 2020 and May 2021, nurses aged between 25 to 34 decreased by 5.2%, and nurses between ages 35 to 44 decreased by 7.4%. Those two age groups accounted for the highest share of nurses. There's also an aging nurse population representing one-third of the current RN workforce, potentially reaching retirement age in the next 10 to 15 years. Nurse faculty are facing a shortage of their own, leading to limited resources and a decline in the quality of nursing programs and classes.
This presents significant challenges when looking through the lenses of current healthcare hiring trends, and HR leaders are left with their hands empty as they consider workforce and succession planning.
Impact of the Nursing Shortage on the Healthcare Industry and Patient Care
Nurses interact with patients one-on-one more than any other healthcare professional, which makes their performance crucial for delivering safe care. Patient safety suffers when a nurse's time and resources are cut back. In fact, a patient's risk of infection goes up to 15% in an understaffed unit.
Healthcare facilities with insufficient nurses may require excessive overtime or routine double shifts, leaving them overworked, exhausted, and impairing their ability to make fast and sound medical assessments. When employees are overwhelmed and burnt out, they are bound to leave. As more nurses leave, the remainder will become more overwhelmed.
This can further lead to emergency room overcrowding and increased patient mortality. On top of a higher in-hospital mortality rate, understaffed facilities also have a higher risk of infection, a rise in post-operative complications, and cross-transmission of diseases and contamination when patients are crowded in an emergency room and not attended to immediately.
Another factor to consider is the financial cost of a nurse shortage and unmet demand. In an attempt to attract healthcare talent, hospitals have increased overtime pay, offered more sign-on bonuses, better benefits packages, and doubled hourly wages for many. Hospitals have also turned to relying on travel nurses. In the long term, these solutions can lead to a profound financial toll exacerbated by the uncertainty of federal support in the healthcare industry.
How Can Healthcare Leaders Attract Talent During a Worker Shortage
Leaders must seek innovative solutions that address their specific needs beyond offering better pay and benefits. Partnering with an RPO provider that offers a range of services and skills can help healthcare facilities overcome their hiring challenges. Let's take a look at a few ways Personify, as an RPO provider, can make a difference:
1. Our digital outreach
Personify leverages the power of technology and a nationwide network to reach a larger pool of qualified candidates, making it easier for healthcare facilities to fill open positions.
2. Our EVP design or redesign
Personify can help healthcare facilities create an attractive and compelling employment brand that appeals to today's top talent. This includes designing an employee value proposition that highlights the unique benefits of working at the organization and what sets it apart from competitors.
3. Our direct sourcing approach
Personify's direct sourcing approach ensures that healthcare facilities can access suitable candidates at the right time. By leveraging market research and analytics, we can identify the most effective channels for reaching potential candidates and design targeted outreach campaigns that drive results.
The healthcare industry faces significant challenges in attracting talent during a worker shortage and retaining top talent — burnout, an aging nurse population, and a lack of training, to name just a few. To overcome these obstacles, healthcare facilities need strategic solutions that understand the industry's specific needs. Personify, a provider of staffing solutions, offers a range of services and skills that can help healthcare facilities overcome their hiring challenges.
Contact us to overcome the hiring challenges faced by the healthcare industry and ensure your patients receive the highest quality care.
For over two decades, Ryan Carfley has been the president and CEO of Personify, an award-winning, globally recognized recruitment process outsourcing firm. In January of this year, Personify was acquired by WilsonHCG, a leading global provider in talent acquisition. Ryan brings over a decade of cross-functional leadership expertise in enterprise-class recruitment strategy (RPO) and traditional contingent workforce solutions. Ryan has led Personify's exponential growth over the last decade, capped off with Personify being recognized as one of the fastest-growing privately held executive search firms in the U.S. by Inc 5000 in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Over the last eleven years, the Triangle Business Journal has ranked Personify as the No. 1 search firm in the Raleigh area on its annual Book of Lists.