What do you do if your healthcare organization is facing a shortage of professionals in the future?

Staffing shortage is a longstanding challenge facing the healthcare industry. COVID pandemic accelerated the exit from the industry due to the increasing demand and toll on the staff and further exacerbated the shortage. Assess the needs of an organization requires both understanding industry trends to meet future demands and current employees' concerns to improve workforce resilience. When both sides of the coin are appropriately addressed, an organization can achieve a stable workforce that is satisfied.

1. Workforce Planning: Conduct a thorough analysis of current and future staffing needs to identify potential shortages and develop a strategic plan to address them. 2. Recruitment and Retention: Implement targeted recruitment efforts to attract new professionals to your organization & focus on retaining existing staff. 3. Training & Development: Invest in training & development programs to upskill existing staff and prepare them for expanded roles. 4. Collaboration and Partnerships: Explore collaboration with educational institutions & other healthcare organizations to create pipelines for new talent. 5. Tech & Process Improvement: Leverage technology & process improvement initiatives to streamline workflows.

The pandemic has truly exposed the staffing challenges for specialized healthcare professionals. This is not going to get any better any time soon, so we must prepare for the worst. It's critical to source the best possible person for each position, but focus on not only recruitment, but also on retaining top-talent staff.

in the evolving healthcare market, the cornerstone of success and sustainability is staff. As CEO, I always keep a keen eye on our heroes, who are delivering unique service, especially in the oncology hematology domain. They are the most precious thing we have. we always assess the needs of staff through multiple aspects: 1. expanding services and growth ratio. 2. new investments and projects. 3. peak seasons " seasonality". 4. add hock projects " temporary" 5. pandemics and disasters. we almost went through all of them, but never forget the safety margin of supply. :-)

Training is important, but we should truly dedicate our time and energies towards increasing competency. They are different. When you build competency, your ROI is at a higher and more sustainable level.

In our organization, we have a success story to show. we have top specialized units and a highly skilled team, we make our center a hub for healthcare practitioners who are willing to learn. this initiative not only provides the organization with a revenue stream from its academic source but also contributes to learning our staff from the external instructors.

In the hiring process, we think strategically. we divide the new hires as follows: 1. expert seniors. "subject matter experts" 2. Juniors. 3, entry levels. this enriches the environment through mixed expertise. also, relieves the financial burden as not all are seniors.

Hiring the best person for the job cannot be understated. Often in healthcare, especially for nursing, we are quick to just hire an individual with an active license because we are desperate to fill the open position. While I can appreciate this, hiring strategically and filing the role with the right candidate pays much more strategic dividends over time.

Technology has the potential to automate, and improve the efficiency, of routine tasks in health care provision. For example, allowing patients to book and manage their own appointments increases convenience and allows staff to be deployed to higher level functions. The use of Telehealth can allow a GP to provide differential diagnosis remotely while local nursing and allied health staff provide treatments. However, it adopting technology the first port of call must be the consumer. Health technology can improve access in the context of constrained supply, but we must remain focussed on the 5A’s of Access - accessibility, acceptability, appropriateness, affordability and availability.

Technology can be our greatest partner or a barrier to our success. When used correctly, technology can aid us in improving productivity, increasing patient and provider satisfaction, and also provide for a better patient clinical experience.

Retaining talent doesn't come easy you have to realise that employees has aspirations which changes with different stages in their careers and a fresher would have a different drive than a mid management professional

Reaching the point where my organization faces a shortage in professionals suggests a flawed strategy in how we treat our current workforce. If we've cultivated a strong people culture, our organization should naturally attract talent through referrals. To enhance this, invest in education, prioritize work-life balance, and offer competitive compensation. Embrace technology and collaborate with educational institutions to shape future talent. Implement retention strategies like mentorship programs to foster loyalty. A robust approach ensures not just recruitment but also the retention of skilled professionals, sustaining quality care delivery.

Crafting a workplace culture that is attractive is central to retaining health staff, and attracting new staff from elsewhere. There is ample evidence that our health system is overly hierarchical and rigid, often preventing health staff from fulfilling vocational goals in their day to day work. Creating an environment where everyone is valued because of their contribution and capacity (rather than their title), empowering staff to make decisions that are best for patients (rather than religiously following rules that are contrary to the patient’s needs), encouraging staff to contribute to organisational improvement - these are the things the system does not offer, and how clever health providers can become an employer of choice.