The Health Collaborative’s most recent workforce survey of our region’s hospital systems, from 12/31/2020 – 12/31/2021, showed 21 of the job titles we survey are experiencing a greater than 10% vacancy rate.
This includes an alarming 81% increase in the vacancy rate for RNs (now 13.9 percent), the highest it has been since 2003.
Over the last year, this growing workforce shortage has created an environment where hospitals throughout the region have closed needed beds due to a lack of nursing staff.
In 2021, THC’s Workforce Advisory Council (WAC) set out to create systemic and sustainable change and advance the impact of workforce innovation in our region.
The Health Collaborative’s WAC is an employer-led collaborative, dedicated to increasing the size, diversity, and preparedness of our regional healthcare talent pool. The WAC connects youth, incumbent workers, and unemployed and underemployed individuals to healthcare training and education pathways to begin and advance their healthcare careers by promoting data-informed strategies to create systemic and sustainable change and advance the impact of workforce innovation in our region.
Throughout 2021, the WAC created talent pipeline, diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI), employer-led, and communications-based goals. From these goals stems an abundance of accomplishments that helped guide them towards their mission of increasing the size, diversity, and preparedness of the regional healthcare talent pool.
Some of these accomplishments include:
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- Launching a brand-new Workforce Innovation Website, workforce.healthcollab.org, that features multiple resources to better support students, educators, employers, and job seekers
- Creating two new talent pipeline initiatives; a Medical Assistant Partnership with employers and Cincinnati State, and “Early HC/Early RN” pathway work with University of Cincinnati (UC), UC Blue Ash, UC Clermont, Cincinnati State, and secondary school partners
- Holding three peer-to-peer learning events throughout 2021, featuring subject matter experts presenting on important topics relevant to community DEI work
Areah high school student attends TAP Health Summer Academy Kickoff in June 2022
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- Conducting the 2021 TAP Health Initiative, which provided 116 students from over forty regional high schools with unique events and opportunities to experience healthcare career opportunities
- Awarded the Greater Cincinnati Foundation Educational Success Grant to reduce racial disparities in earning college credit prior to high school graduation
- Holding a virtual healthcare career showcase event, HealthFORCE 2021, that included participation from five hundred students across the region
The workforce issues in healthcare are severe, and this isn’t going to change anytime soon. The Health Collaborative not only provides and analyzes regional workforce data, but we convene our members to get after the short and long-term solutions. To learn more about the work that our Workforce Innovation team is doing, be sure to visit workforce.healthcollab.org.
