ASSIGNMENT: Healthcare Workforce Recruitment and Retention Plan (Group Assignment)

Background

We hear so much about healthcare workforce shortages but it’s easy to become numb to the actual root cause. Certainly, adding more nurses and physicians to the workforce will improve our shortages but what made them leave in the first place? Every significant problem needs a multifaceted plan many states are working to increase the awareness around healthcare jobs and opportunities for people to complete degrees for training in healthcare areas. But I’d like to suggest that no matter how many additional bodies we add to the pool if we don’t retain them we’re right back where we started.

I’d like to challenge you this week to think with an open mind about how we improve the environment of healthcare. What can we do to the culture that would encourage people to stay in their healthcare positions? What’s not working and what can we borrow from other industries to improve our own situation? 

Your Task:

Your group will work to research recruitment and retention in healthcare and develop a set of recommendations for an organization. Get creative. Get innovative. Don’t submit the same old plans we are already trying to implement because they’re not working. Innovation is taking something that’s already happening and putting a new twist on it to get a better outcome. That’s what I’m asking you to do here. Most people choose a healthcare profession because they have a strong connection to the industry. There are other jobs that are easier but most of us choose it because we feel a calling. That makes it even scarier that so many of us are leaving. 

Instructions

1. Choose an employee category (nurse, techs, management, docs, PA, NPs, lab techs, etc.) and type of organization (academic medical center, rural access hospital, federally qualified, small community, mid-sized system, etc.) to focus your plan.
2. The group will research best practices in recruiting and retaining the employee category/type of organization
3. Develop an action plan that provides your organization with 6-8 recommendations – specific and targeted (can go higher but not lower).
4. Keep your plan to 5 pages or less
5. Format – 4 main sections – add sub-sections as needed to keep it organized
   1. Introduction outlining the issue and what you will propose to solve recruitment and retention
      1. Provide data that supports this role and organization type is having issues with recruitment and retention
      2. Use APA in-text citations for each item you pull from another source (hint – no quotes, summarize, there should be quite a few data points as there is LOTS of data out there).
   2. Recommendations – Number them and provide the action items and rationale in bullet point format (use APA citations)
   3. Conclusion and Summary – Re-cap the issue and how your set of recruitment and retention recommendations will improve workforce shortages
      1. Tell us again in a targeted, concise way what the issues are and how you will address them
      2. Should have some in-text citations here too as you will be using sources to support your ideas/recommendations. 
   4. Reference page with APA formatting – Utilize in-text citations within the document or the document will not be accepted. 

Resources

• See module
• Research best practices – go OUTSIDE the healthcare industry – use other industries and benchmark what works

Evaluation

• The ideas supported with citations
• The recommendations/solutions reasonable and feasible: Could an organization implement your recommendations
• The solutions targeted to the healthcare workforce (if taken from other industries apply to healthcare)
• Action items are specific, measurable, and have specific timing
• Creative, innovative, leading-edge ideas