Jan 12, 2022
There’s a lot to be learned from the COVID-19 pandemic. These are the top lessons we learned to help healthcare recruiters improve their hospitals.
1. Flexibility Is Crucial
The physician shortage became painfully obvious as the pandemic continued. As hospital beds filled, it was simply a doctor’s medical knowledge that mattered instead of specialty and work experience. Ethically, crossing specialties outside of a public health crisis shouldn’t happen as it did during the pandemic. However, it does provide insight for in-house recruiters struggling with the healthcare provider shortage.
In 2019, AAPPR reported physician searches are taking longer than ever recorded in the ten years they’ve been conducting the Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report. This can be explained by two factors: lack of supply and strict job requirements. As a recruiter, you have little impact on how many physicians exist. But you have a lot of control over the requirements for the physicians you interview. Understanding which job requirements are “must-haves” vs. “nice-to-haves” and opening up your search accordingly will decrease your time-to-hire and decrease lost revenue caused by the opening.
2. Burnout Cannot Be Ignored
64% of physicians report that the pandemic intensified their sense of burnout. It has never been more necessary to create a flexible, supportive work environment. In-person/work-from-home hybrid options will likely become more common as a solution to overwhelming administrative duties. Where possible, allowing and encouraging physicians to simply work less could have a positive impact. Sabbatical programs and shorter shifts are trends we could expect to see.
3. Leadership Is Not Easy
Effective leadership is hard to achieve under normal circumstances, let alone during a pandemic. While it’s easy to assign blame during stressful times, it’s important to consider the relationship between hospital leadership and healthcare providers. How can these groups come together to improve the hospital as a work environment? For leadership, creating an open line of communication for providers to express their needs and concerns. According to one survey:
Physicians who like their current leadership feel twice as capable, and are more than six times as likely to feel engaged, than those who aren't satisfied. They're also twice as likely to be satisfied with their jobs, and 45% less likely to show signs of burnout.
From the physician’s side, it’s important to actually speak up. Leadership can only fix what they know is broken. Once a line of communication opens, it’s up to the physician to speak up about their needs in the workplace. Only when leadership and physicians come together to improve the workplace will true change occur.
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