Staffing issues in healthcare are compounded not only by the pandemic but also by the increase in early retirement among clinical, allied, and nursing staff, diminishing the number of highly experienced nurses.
The Institute of Medicine’s Future of Nursing report predicted that by 2030, we’ll have one of the largest shortages for RNs the industry has seen, potentially needing 1.2 million new nurses to address the growing demand and projected shortage. The Bureau of Health Workforce (HRSA) has projected an equally substantial shortage in various allied health professions by 2037.
The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting may seem like buzzwords, but these are real challenges employers have faced since the onset of the pandemic, and healthcare is perhaps the hardest hit industry. Read on as we uncover more about these problems and how to address them through recruitment and retention strategies.
Addressing the Staffing Issues in Healthcare: Challenges and Solutions
Leadership must understand these challenges to address staffing issues in the healthcare industry. The healthcare workforce today faces significant staffing challenges, particularly in nursing. Due to these issues, nurses aren’t practicing to the top of their license. While most of their time should be spent on patient care planning, nurses are finding that their time is spent on extraneous tasks such as serving patients meals or drawing blood for tests. This leads to long hours and overloaded clinicians–issues such as this are leading to staff burnout and clinicians leaving the profession altogether.
Existing employees play a crucial role in managing workload and preventing burnout, making their well-being a priority for healthcare organizations.
“Nurses today are undoubtedly overwhelmed. Burnout is prevalent, particularly among newer nurses, but it doesn’t define the entirety of our profession. Many nurses are engaged, innovative, and deeply resilient despite the challenges they face.” – Patti Artley, Chief Clinical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer at Medical Solutions.
It’s also vital to understand the healthcare staffing challenges created through generational differences, with Traditionalists and Baby Boomers beginning to leave the workforce and Gen Z entering it. These staffing issues in healthcare create a pipeline issue, exacerbated by the lack of infrastructure at the academic level to support the demand needed within healthcare systems and healthcare services—this includes a lack of clinical site availability, graduates desiring to go back to school for advanced degrees, and students not being well equipped for the shifts and workloads available to them.
“These challenges are complex and require multiple changes. The way we led before must change and adapt. We want to make sure the investments we make are the best ones to be making.” – Artley
To properly address staffing issues in nursing and allied roles, healthcare leaders must:
- Understand that “one size fits all” does not apply. It doesn’t touch today’s healthcare staffing challenges.
- Invest in front-line leadership differently.
- Understand that pipeline development and investment are necessary.
- Develop both short and long-term strategies for appropriate staffing and registered nurses.
- Invest in technology to improve efficiency.
The Broader Impact of Staffing Shortages
Staffing shortages strain day-to-day operations and can have a ripple effect that compromises preventive care, patient safety, and long-term health outcomes. When facilities are understaffed, critical services like screenings, follow-up care, and early interventions are more likely to be delayed or missed entirely.
To maintain high standards of care, nurse leaders must prioritize optimizing staffing levels and strategically managing labor. This ensures gaps are filled efficiently without overburdening permanent staff.
Healthcare organizations nationwide face these challenges head-on, especially in rural areas and facilities serving aging populations. These settings often have limited resources, which makes innovative staffing solutions and efficient resource allocation even more critical.
Recruitment Strategies for Healthcare Workforce
Your facility can implement both short-term and long-term strategies to address the problems we outlined above. For instance, one short-term strategy is to be quick in assessing, interviewing, and offering jobs. The hiring process needs to be fast and efficient while also, of course, being carefully targeted and managed, this is just one of the things Medical Solutions helps you achieve.
An example of a long-term strategy involves understanding the mindset of incoming nurses and answering a common question: “Will I have opportunities to progress here?”
Short-Term Strategies for Staffing Shortages
- Create a dashboard to review the progress of hiring practices.
- A 90-day follow-up with new hires is essential to learn their experience with orientation, onboarding, and company culture.
- Frequently reevaluate your pay practices against your local and state competition.
- Are your pay rates competitive?
- Do you offer a sign-on bonus? If not, should you?
Long-Term Strategies: Academia for Healthcare Professionals
This includes clinical experiences, academic partnerships, and internal programs. Healthcare leaders should meet with students during their clinical rotations to develop relationships, offer support through scholarship opportunities, and consider how they can start early in the high school and middle school environments, especially in STEM programs.
This may include:
- Offering Apprentice Programs
- Attending Career Fairs
- Providing Simulation Opportunities
Academic development internally is essential as well. This can look like guiding clinicians from:
- Acute Care to Intermediate or ICU Units
- Med-Surg to Post-Anesthesia Care Units or Diagnostics Units
- Transplant to Dialysis
- Gastrointestinal to Endoscopy
- Telemetry to the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
Retention Strategies and Workforce Planning
Retention plays a considerable role. Ensuring clinicians feel supported, heard, and professionally fulfilled is essential for keeping them engaged in their work. Supportive work environments that value flexibility, mental health, and career development go a long way in boosting job satisfaction.
At the same time, leaders must address pipeline issues and ensure a diverse skill mix within their teams. This allows healthcare systems to meet complex care demands, adapt to changing patient populations, and remain competitive in a high-demand labor market.
The two newest generations in healthcare, Millennials and Gen Z, are looking for relationships with their managers. Healthcare leaders must cultivate these relationships to improve internal recruitment and minimize clinicians hopping from one unit to another, hoping their situation will improve.
“Overall turnover is decreasing, but vacancies remain the same. Healthcare leaders must invest in their talent and focus on internal turnover. This starts by leading with heart and a servant mindset. Make decisions with compassion while holding people accountable.” – Artley
Front-line leaders don’t often understand how relationships impact retention, which is where turnover happens, and how that leads to staffing issues in healthcare. Here are some tips on how that can change:
- By Rewarding Positive Behavior vs. Coaching Negative Behavior
- Succession Planning
- By Creating Mentorship Opportunities
- Developing Internal Interest Groups
- Addressing Generational Differences
- Providing Growth Opportunities:
- Offering scholarships for non-professional team members to go back to school
- Creating free or reduced cost continuing education programs
- Providing job simulation, like new challenges or team-building activities
- Offering professional development opportunities to retain top talent
- Offering career pathways
Ultimately, solving staffing challenges means looking holistically at the workforce—from recruitment and retention to training, leadership, and system-wide support. It’s about creating a sustainable, people-first approach that meets both immediate and long-term patient needs.
Improving Work Environment and Conditions
One final way to address the challenges nursing faces, and start improving both recruitment and retention, is by improving the overall work environment and conditions of your facility, including:
- Streamlining the Charting Process
- Encouraging All Employees to Practice at the Top of Their License
- Challenging the “Status Quo” and Promoting Positive Change
- Addressing Support Deficiencies and Frustrations Among Staff
- Ensuring Your Teams Have the Tools to Do Their Jobs
- Offering EAP and Debriefs to Support Mental Health
Have you partnered with a comprehensive workforce solutions provider yet to address your strategic staffing needs and combat these staffing issues in healthcare? Now is the time to begin the conversation. Start working with Medical Solutions today!
