The Latest Healthcare Staffing Trends

Like many other industries, the healthcare job market has significantly changed in recent years. With the introduction of AI, recruiters have a much easier time selecting top-tier talent and sifting through thousands of resumes. We’re also seeing a much bigger emphasis on international recruitment, as domestic employees can’t fulfil citizens’ ever-growing medical needs.

In this article, we’ll examine some of the most significant trends and their impact on the profession. By going through this post, you should have a better understanding of how you can increase your value on the job market.

International Recruitment

By far, international recruitment has to be the most impactful trend in the healthcare industry. As the local population gets older, the need for medical staff increases. Hospitals and clinics are now turning to countries such as the Philippines, India, and Mexico to fulfill their staffing needs.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• Aging Population: The US can’t school enough nurses and doctors to fulfill domestic needs.
• COVID’s Impact: The market lost many professionals during the COVID crisis.
• Lower Costs: In many cases, hospitals and clinics are even able to save money through outsourcing.

Almost every bigger hospital in America has a working relationship with at least one international nursing recruitment agency. By streamlining the process, healthcare providers can introduce new workers into the system at minimal cost.

Flexible Work

Although medical workers were under duress during the pandemic, working numerous shifts back-to-back, they felt the changes in scheduling. Following COVID-19, they were given much more autonomy in creating their shifts. Organizations also benefited from this approach, as flexible work hours significantly improved their retention and employee satisfaction.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• Generational Shift: Younger workers are drawn to schedules that offer them more personal freedom.
• Preventing Burnout: Reducing the number of work hours can be a great measure for preventing burnout.
• Organizational Benefits: Hospitals also benefit from implementing this model through higher employee retention.

Large healthcare organizations are now adopting a freelancer-style model, where employees can program their scheduling. While this approach can be tricky to implement, it results in much higher employee productivity and satisfaction.

Upskilling and Development

Similar to professionals in other industries, medical experts are required to adapt to various changes quickly. Besides adopting new medical knowledge, they also have to learn how to work with different software. Young professionals are also interested in upskilling and getting new degrees and certificates while they work.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• Need for Specialization: New medical services are constantly being developed, offering great profit potential.
• Tech Fluency: Employees have to adapt to various types of software in their daily work.
• Incentivizing Top Talent: Hospitals and clinics offer growth opportunities in an attempt to lure the best professionals to their organizations.

The best thing about upskilling and development is that it works for both sides. Organizations can improve the quality of their services, while medical professionals can receive a salary bump and gain new knowledge.

AI and ML

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are crucial for industries like healthcare, which handle vast amounts of data. AI has become essential for predicting and optimizing the best treatments. With the help of advanced software, we can streamline our daily processes, optimize scheduling, and effectively allocate our workforce.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• Less Administrative Work: HR and financial departments benefit the most from the software, but it can be implemented on every level of healthcare organization.
• Improved Patient Outcomes: Predictive analytics works wonders for improving patients’ outcomes.
• Better Decision-Making: By analyzing vast quantities of data, programs can make real-time suggestions for managers and doctors.

Although hospitals and clinics have to allocate lots of resources for this software, the benefits are more than obvious. We can automate just about any process in our clinic, especially repetitive tasks that require extensive data analysis.

Financial Pressure

The US healthcare organizations are fighting for a small number of available medical professionals. Although clinics and hospitals can always outsource from abroad, that doesn’t help when a doctor or a nurse abruptly leaves your organization. The lack of skilled staff leads to bigger paychecks and more costs.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• High Labor Costs: Whether we’re talking about the regular staff or temporary fill-ins, the cost of hiring medical staff has ballooned in recent years.
• Efficiency Requirements: Medical organizations are driven by their stakeholders to improve internal processes.
• Budget Issues: It is becoming increasingly harder to balance financial stability with quality patient care.

Many organizations are looking to software, remote work, and outsourcing as methods for reducing their costs. For example, hospitals are using budgeting programs to discover gaps and minimize their expenses. Some are even seeking outside funding from their organizations.

Mental Support

Although medical professionals are accustomed to working in extreme conditions, nothing could have prepared them for the COVID-19 pandemic. With so much pain and suffering, coupled with long work hours, many of them have permanently left the industry. As a result, the US healthcare organizations have made strides to improve their working conditions.

Factors Impacting the Change:

• COVID Pandemic: Some professionals are still feeling the consequences of the long pandemic, either through burnout or personal losses.
• Improved Productivity: Hospitals are incentivized to help their staff, as it would increase their productivity.
• Financial Results: The benefits of investing in health and wellness programs vastly outweigh the financial cost.

US hospitals and clinics that have adopted health and wellness programs have seen sharp increases in productivity. Additionally, many of them have experienced a significant increase in productivity, as workers now recognize the importance of maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle.

The Future of Healthcare

Truth be told, there are other changes to the current healthcare procedures and workflows. For example, clinics are trying their best to implement telemedicine and improve their diversity policies. While many of these trends are hard to implement and often come with a hefty investment, they usually boost productivity and increase employee retention.