In services of the wider community - bold change is needed in healthcare
In services of the wider community - bold change is needed in healthcare
Worldwide, healthcare organisations are grappling with a number of areas across a wide range of jurisdictions. From an ageing population to rising healthcare costs and issues related to increased mental health the challenges remain quite similar.
One challenge and perhaps the biggest, relates to the healthcare workforce. Alongside recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic, the global fight for talent remains the most challenging issue internationally for healthcare leaders. What needs to change and how can the global fight for talent in healthcare be addressed?
Global workforce shortage
The WHO is currently estimating a global shortage of healthcare workers of up to 18 million by 2030. And given the scale of this gap, not even the wealthiest countries like Canada can buy their way out of the problem. The numbers are staggering, with countries such as India and China needing millions of additional staff as they expand and reform their healthcare systems. One of the most mind-boggling numbers is that China needs upwards of 180,000 obstetricians alone as a result of ending the ‘one child’ policy. Meanwhile the United States needs over a million nurses and around 120,000 doctors, while in the UK almost one in 10 NHS posts are vacant. Even Japan, which managed the astonishing feat of tripling its nursing workforce in 13 years, still needs another quarter of a million nurses.
A call for bold and long-term solutions
Instead of stripping clinical talent out of developing countries, wealthy nations need to turn the training taps on. Australia has already made substantial progress in producing more nurses and therapists. Following a review restrictive admissions policies were scrapped and the number of students admitted to nursing schools more than doubled in 10 years from 8,000 to 19,000. In the UK, opening up physiotherapy places led to a 15% increase in applications in one year. Even with politicians promising to increase the number of medical school places it will take a decades for these policies to see a meaningful and material impact. What is needed are solutions here and now and for politicians to step-up and create bipartisan solutions working for the long-term. We need to see bold solutions and understand that expanding the healthcare workforce is investing in the health of whole nations. Covid has taught the world a valuable lesson – there cannot be national wealth without national health.
The road ahead for all major academic health centres, is going to be fundamentally different from the path that has followed. Population health and wellbeing considerations are not just for policy planners and public health agencies, they need to be at the heart of decision making and planning for hospital providers too. Some of the most successful hospitals recognise that their duty of care extends beyond the borders of their own walls out into the community itself.
War for talent
Organisations need to tackle the workforce challenge up front and centre. How can you address issues like recruitment? Are you best in class amongst your peers and competitors? What can, and are, you able to do as a leader about retention, across all grades and professional boundaries? It is seven times easier to retain someone than replace them. Consider the cost involved in unnecessary turnover?
Culture plays a fundamental role, but forging best in class culture as a healthcare organisation is not a science – it is more of an art. It turns on a range of factors that all play a fundamental part - trust, decency, consistency, equity, courage. Culture is also not static. It’s something that needs to be developed, owned, nurtured and constantly watered.
“There is overwhelming research providing evidence that links excellence in clinical outcomes and patient satisfaction to a highly motivated and engaged workforce that thrive because of organisational culture. ”
Healthcare leaders have a critical role to play and can positively influence the culture in their organisations. Consider how you role model, how you live and breathe the organisational values, how you mould and fashion the fabric of what makes up your organisation and what it will represent for the next generation of employees as well as for the wider community you have the privilege to serve.
Millennials
Employee expectations are changing fast. The Boomer generation and Gen X are retiring, and millennials have clear and different expectations of work. Meeting these growing aspirations is key to attracting talent and improve employee retention.
Millennials tend to set greater store in the values of potential employers around issues such as equity and sustainability and they have far greater expectations of flexible employment conditions such as hybrid working. In many ways these generational changes are good news for healthcare. Healthcare organisations have a great purpose that will appeal to candidates. Flexibility in the workplace can help us match capacity to need while empowering staff to have greater control over their working lives. Designing more creative and flexible working patterns is going to be essential for all organisations if they are serious about creating a sustainable future workforce.
Focus on training and development
There needs to be ever greater emphasis on multidisciplinary teams working to solve complex problems, and employees need to be equipped with the skills to work effectively and confidently with the latest technology. Leaders will need to be able to instil the same sense of collaboration and cohesion in a distributed, hybrid workforce as they have been when everyone was more traditionally on site. Technological advancements are closely linked to healthcare workforce of the future. For instance, AI can be an amazingly powerful tool in delivering a step change in productivity, a better patient experience and a more rewarding, less frustrating, working environment for healthcare employees. AI is often pitched in the media as the rise of the impersonal machine, but in the context of healthcare, it should liberate employees to spend more time with patients, on the interactions that really matter and where a personal touch is essential.
It is simply not possible for employees to run any faster - so a big part of the solution has to be technological, but embracing technology means working differently, so training and developing must be core to support our healthcare workforce.
Delivering change
To combat the global fight for talent in healthcare we need to address the massive organisational development needed – things need to change. Powerful professions and institutions, complex governance and conflicting policies and priorities mean that even the most willing clinician or manager finds it tough to deliver on this change.
Global Managing Director, Healthcare & Higher Education
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“The senior healthcare leadership community, with the support of their boards and partners such as the foundations, need to understand what is required to make transformation happen and create an overarching strategy that is shaped to predict, prepare and plan for how to achieve flight, despite of strong headwinds we are experiencing at present.”
When my colleagues and I are looking for top talent to fill leadership roles in places such as Canada, Australia, Middle East and the UK, we are looking for far more than people who can manage the current pressures. We often end up discussing the leadership needed to deliver change and the skills, capacity, culture, incentives, data and systems needed in the client organisations to make it happen. The senior healthcare leadership community, with the support of their boards and partners such as the foundations, need to understand what is required to make transformation happen and create an overarching strategy that is shaped to predict, prepare and plan for how to achieve flight despite of strong headwinds we are experiencing at present, and that can be expected to continue.
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Alumni Global is dedicated to using our expertise to supporting clients as they strategically review their business models to become more digitally enabled and people centric. Our mission is simple, bringing forward leaders that can leverage people, culture, and technology to achieve safer outcomes, increase organisational effectiveness and build more diverse teams that drive culture and performance committed to patient excellence. Our expertise and networks cover public, private, and academic healthcare providers, payers, and regulators on a global basis, from Stockholm to Sydney, to Dublin and Doha. Wherever you are based, we can support your search for talent through one of our highly experienced teams.
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