Hawaii Health Care Employers Call for Reduced Use of Travel Nurses, Hire More “Clinical Educators,” and Undertake High School Staffing Efforts to Respond to Persistent Workforce Shortages – State of the Fix

Healthcare workforce professionals in Hawaii discussed initiatives designed to attract much-needed workers to the field during the… State of Repair Hawaii 2023 Health Policy Conference.

Get the latest state-specific policy intelligence for the healthcare sector delivered to your inbox.

Jana Hoscheid, director of healthcare workforce development for the Hawaii Health Care Association (HAH), noted Healthcare Workforce Initiative 2022 Report HAH was released two months ago. The report showed that Hawaii’s need for healthcare professionals has grown 76% since 2019, when HAH released its inaugural report.

“In 2019, we reported a shortfall of 2,200 jobs,” Hoshidi said. “In 2022, we are reporting close to 4,000 vacant positions.”

While recruiting new workers is a challenge, employers must remain vigilant in their retention efforts as well. Hawaii Nursing Center director Laura Richardt said the center conducted a survey in 2021, which showed that 25% of the nursing workforce said they were too stressed to consider leaving the profession. Increased workloads and financial compensation both contribute to retention challenges.

“Our CNOs say that nurses do a lot of work, that they need and deserve care,” Reichhardt said. “Everyone is looking at compensation, but you can see a lot of other things going on beyond compensation. We still have a lot of travelers. Travelers don’t. [know] Society culture and they cost a lot. So if we can move away from that and move to person-centered recruitment and retention, that does a lot.”

Ohana Pacific Health CEO Wesley Law said the organization has attempted to recruit nurses through several different initiatives. Ohana started a CNA education program, as well as an apprenticeship program, which led to many participants being placed in professional positions. But the retention rates were nil.

“We started a school and there was no one left,” Lu said. But we learned a lesson. We were not identifying the real problem. The problem was that there were no LPN schools. So we started a file LPN software Because we were unable to rent LPNs. We cannot rely solely on our educational partners. We are hiring clinical educators.”

Carl Henson, director of workforce development for Hawaii Pacific Health, said the company is focused on educating prospective workers through high school programs.

“We’re working on getting into high schools, making sure that these kids have an opportunity to learn how to be a medical assistant or some other program,” Henson said. “It’s also a partnership with our Department of Education. We have many programs in high schools.”

Hawaii Pacific Health has it programs For paramedics, acute care nursing, phlebotomy, and patient service representatives, Henson said.

“We have a program where senior nursing students now go through the equivalent of a nurse’s residency and specialist training,” he said. “When they are done we immediately hire them as graduate nurses. They are able to work alongside the rest of our nursing staff.”

Henson said the company has graduated a total of 368 students through programs from 16 participating high schools. Going forward, the company is looking to expand into high school programs for community health work, emergency medical technicians, surgical technologists, sonography, billing, and co-pays.

Kelly Withey, director of the Hawaii Basin/Pacific Region Health Education Center, said the organization has begun a new mentoring program.

“We have started cultural guidance,” Weiwei said. “We’re partnering with recruiters and doing everything we can to get more providers here, keep them here, and keep them happy. We’ve had Loan repayment program for 10 years. Half of it is federally funded, and half of it is local, whether from the legislature or charitable.”

The center is focused on policy, said Rainey Gerets-Goh, senior policy and data analyst at the University of Hawaii’s new Center for Rural Health Research and Policy.

“We were founded in November, so we’re still very new,” Gerrits-Goh said. “We’re trying to make politics happen to serve society.”

Grits Goh said the center plans to distribute surveys to identify the most important health needs of rural communities.