rural hospitals

How nursing leaders are tackling recruiting and retention amid burnout and shortages

Survey of nursing managers shows many are leaning on contingency staffing talent to bridge the staffing gap near-term while improving processes and adding tech over the long-term by Intelliworx® Nurses are the backbone of the U.S. healthcare system. Hospitals and clinics around the nation simply could not run without them. This means the role of managing a team of nurses is an important job – and one that seems to be getting harder all the time. A recent survey of nursing leaders by the staffing firm AMN Healthcare illustrates this notion in detail. It’s among the most challenging jobs in healthcare, wrote one nursing leader in response to an open-ended question: “It is one of the most difficult jobs in the entire hospital! You have to be a liaison between nursing, medical services, housekeeping, engineering, grounds, nutrition, social work, physical therapy, finance, supply chain, patients, their families all while keeping […]

Survey: 45% of healthcare providers will refuse a job offer if the recruiting experience is poor

Providers say the most attractive qualities of working in a rural healthcare facility are lower cost of living, more time with patients and better work-life balance by Intelliworx When it comes to recruiting providers, healthcare facilities don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression. That’s one high-level finding of a 5-question snap survey of 107 U.S. healthcare providers we just fielded. This matters because healthcare is already facing a talent shortage. The matter is even more acute in rural facilities because the available talent pool is smaller and shrinking as the Baby Boomer Generation retires. Rural facilities will have to work harder to attract talent. There is room for optimism too though. Providers also shared what they see as the benefits of working for a rural facility. The fact is many providers are attracted to the medical community out of a sense of compassion for humanity. It’s […]

A Porter’s Five Forces Analysis for Provider Talent in Rural Healthcare

Direct competition from urban hospitals is just one factor among many that make up the competitive landscape for provider talent by Intelliworx The renowned economist Michael E. Porter first published his “Five Forces” framework for analyzing competitive markets in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) in 1979. Porter’s Five Forces, provides a sound way to analyze the competitive landscape necessary to develop a winning strategy. The fact that Porter refers to a landscape is telling. Competitors are just one factor in a competitive landscape. Porter realized that competition stems from more than just rival products – but also the actions of customers, partners and even new technology. Perhaps to emphasize this point, Dr. Porter updated the framework in 2008 and republished it in HBR. He also offered this explanation to go along with it: “In essence, the job of the strategist is to understand and cope with competition. Often, however, managers […]

The top recruiting challenges facing rural hospitals [and ideas for overcoming them]

Survey research finds the lower cost of living, greater autonomy and a higher sense of fulfillment are attractive characteristics rural healthcare facilities should pitch to prospective provider candidates by Intelliworx Rural healthcare facilities are under financial pressure. At the end of 2022, the American Hospital Association (AHA) reported 136 rural hospitals closed between 2010 and 2021. The trend hasn’t slowed down either. As we turned the corner on the New Year, another 88 hospitals, many of which are rural, shuttered or cut back on the healthcare services offered. There are many reasons why this is happening. One significant factor is that rural facilities struggle to attract talent, such as physicians, physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs). A periodic survey – Rural Physician Recruitment and Staffing Survey Results – by Jackson Physician Search does well to quantify some of the challenges and propose some ideas for overcoming them. Below are […]