Industry voice: Talent recruitment and retention in healthcare

A tight squeeze

Nursing schools are facing a shortage of nursing faculty and training facilities as well as a lack of clinical placement sites

In fact, the nursing pipeline is being squeezed at both ends and throughout the middle. On one end, nursing schools are struggling to expand their capacity to meet the growing need for nursing care globally due to an aging population and an increased prevalence of chronic illnesses. For instance, in the USA, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing annual survey, nursing schools are facing a shortage of nursing faculty and training facilities as well as a lack of clinical placement sites, resulting in a massive 65,766 qualified applications being turned away at nursing schools nationwide in 2023 alone.

On the other end, accelerated retirement rates for nurses are dealing a double blow as the most experienced nurses are leaving the profession. And at all points in between, despite their call to care, nurses are understandably abandoning their bedside roles due to decreased job satisfaction fueled by untenable staffing and workplace conditions, as well as poor management, including lack of support and talent development, and insufficient recognition and compensation. The lack of diversity in nursing school faculty and the underrepresentation of males and minority groups in most nursing school student bodies – paired with a lack of diversity among bedside nurses and nurse leaders – is further dampening the flow of new and more seasoned talent.

From sickness to wellness

In the longer term, shifting away from the current sick care model toward a wellness healthcare model will reduce the need for nursing services across all demographics. Fully recognizing and embracing nursing as STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics, aka STEMM, with the second ‘M’ for medicine) will open significant funding avenues and inspire more young people to explore the profession for generations to come. In the near term, there are steps that healthcare providers, educational institutions, insurers, governments, professional organizations, and even individual healthcare professionals can take and advocate for
right now.

First, getting more nursing students enrolled is crucial. In the USA, individual states are best positioned to hold stakeholder summits to brainstorm creative local solutions to address the backlog of waiting students. For nursing programs attended by underserved populations, incentives to support new student recruitment would keep those programs on their diversification trajectories.