The Great Resignation has been coined as such in light of the untimely onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which has enforced mass voluntary resignation of employees in various sectors, public and private. According to Workforce Logiq, employment volatility is up significantly in the second quarter at a rate of 69%. The Work Trend Index stated that 41% of the global workforce are considering handing their resignation letters and quitting their jobs. Among the severely affected industries in today’s pandemic-induced struggling job market: the Healthcare Sector.
As presented in NSI Nursing Solutions’ 2021 Report, there has been a 2.8% increase in turnover rate and a 9.9% vacancy rate for Registered Nurses, despite having an average decrease in turnover rate for Advance Practice and Allied Health Professionals. As to Physicians, a staggering 54% opted for an employment change, while 36% elected to early retirement or closing or leaving the practice of medicine undisputedly. Moreover, the inverse relationship between the supply of and demand for healthcare workers has been met with a high degree of volatility primarily driven by the ongoing pandemic’s unpredictability, employee burnouts, lifestyle unsustainability, meager compensation and benefits, and lack of appreciation toward the healthcare professionals.
Notwithstanding the public accessibility and availability of numerous brands of vaccines and the proper dissemination of COVID-19 information, COVID-19 cases continue to surge—mainly due to the unstoppable emergence of different variants and the rise of the anti-vaccination movement. This is yet another way to aggravate the preexisting burnouts experienced by our frontline healthcare providers, particularly nurses, aiming for their mental and emotional health and well-being.
According to the annual report of Trusted Health, a nurse staffing platform, nurses rated their respective healthcare facilities an average of 4.6 in terms of tending to their mental and emotional support, on a scale of 1-10. Despite the growing efforts of healthcare systems across developed and developing nations to mitigate the widespread of the COVID-19 virus, it is only through proper acknowledgment of the needs of our frontline healthcare providers can we truly strengthen our health systems.
According to new estimates made by the Association of American Medical Colleges, “The United States is going to have a massive shortage of physicians in primary and specialty care by 2034. It also projects a between 37,800 and 124,000 physician shortage with the largest disparities being in the area of specialty doctors.” That being said, if the decreasing trend in healthcare employee retention is not immediately acted upon, it could lead to the eventual collapse of the entire healthcare system.
The diverse and highly responsive healthcare workforce has been at the forefront of today’s new normalcy, and sustaining the healthcare workforce should be of utmost priority in this unprecedented and trying time. Our experts at Polaris make it a point to provide quality healthcare staffing solutions exclusively catering to hospitals and healthcare facilities even with this pandemic. To learn more about how we can help your organization, contact us today.