The demands of the COVID-19 pandemic have accelerated workforce challenges at a time when the healthcare industry is already facing a labor crunch.
The need for nurses has reached a fever pitch across hospitals and health systems, forcing many organizations to up their compensation, bonuses and incentives to recruit and retain nursing staff. That’s according to the 2022 Trends in Nurse Staffing Study from Avant Healthcare Professionals, which found registered nurses (RNs) are one of the fastest growing subsets in healthcare.
High demand
Due to higher needs throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and healthcare systems have had a huge need for travel nurses––and have been paying upwards of $150 per hour for COVID-specific travel nurses. The high rate of pay has forced healthcare organizations to look for alternatives to retain staff after losing them to travel positions.
Overall, hospitals and health systems have increased staff pay and provided bonuses to retain employees. Many healthcare organizations are facing high turnover rates and a big need to fill vacancies. More than 25% of respondents said they had more than 100 RN openings currently at their facility. Among specialties, the biggest need is medical-surgical (78%) and ER (69%). To recruit for these open positions, hospitals and health systems are offering COVID hazard pay, onboarding and sign-on bonuses for new hires.
The demand isn’t likely to slow down anytime soon. According to the survey, 58% of respondents expect to have more than 25 RN openings this year, in addition to the 25% who claim they will have more than 100 RN openings. That’s a big increase from last year, when 11% said they will have 100 RN openings.
More than half––57%––of respondents said they have improved their pay packages, compared to 28% who said the same in 2019.
Recruiting pipeline
With huge demand for RNs, healthcare organizations are actively recruiting recent graduates. A whopping 87% of respondents said they count on new graduates, while 69% rely on staffing agencies to fill open vacancies. The use of outside agencies this year exceeds 2021 rates.
Unfortunately, nursing schools are lacking resources to cover the open positions. U.S. nursing schools turned away more than 80,00- qualified applications from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2019 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors and budget constraints, according to one 2019-2020 study from AACN.
"This is a bigger workforce shortage than we have ever dealt with," Gay Landstrom, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of Trinity Health, a nonprofit system with 88 hospitals nationwide, said in the report.
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."