HJBR Jan/Feb 2021

HOSPITAL HEALTH FORCE 12 JAN / FEB 2021 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   proficient in surgical services, and that is a tight market to recruit from in Baton Rouge. Our recruiting strategy has evolved more into employee referrals and networking to promote the work life balance our facility offers versus that of the traditional level 1 hospitals. HALPHEN When it comes to recruiting, nursing positions (especially critical care nurses) continue to be our focus. Nurses are in high demand not just in the Baton Rouge area, but across the country. Because of that national demand, there just aren’t enough available nurses to meet all staffing needs. Editor Do you feel filling positions has become more difficult recently and why? MANINT Shortages notwithstanding, we have embraced using every type of tech- nology available to recruit, however we miss encourage and foster superior performance and patient care by encouraging clinical care teams. SEALS Allied health, nursing support and nursing, specifically RNs, are in high demand. There’s been an ongoing national shortage, particularly of nursing profession- als, but we’ve seen this become much more competitive as COVID-19 hot spots have emerged across the country. In addition to RNs, we have difficulty hiring LPN’s to work in our clinics across the Baton Rouge region. The market is very competitive, and there is high demand for clinical support in Baton Rouge. MOSBROKER Nursing – specifically expe- rienced operating room nurse circula- tors and surgical technologists. We are a small yet busy specialty hospital that really looks for experienced candidates already the joy of seeing groups of students together talking about the beginning stages of their career. Filling positions remains tough, and we want the right person to become part of this team and our mission. Maintaining our high standards to ensure the best fit for the recruit and our mission is paramount. SCHAFFER Filling positions has become increasingly challenging. Supply and demand vary across markets and regions. Nationally, market demand for healthcare workers far outpaces supply. The pan- demic has elevated the healthcare worker to the frontline now equivalent to our civil servants. Unemployment is significantly low within the healthcare industry among all categories of healthcare. Global and national shortages have increased opportu- nity for local healthcare workers to engage in travel and agency staffing, leaving local hospitals competing fiercely for talent. SEALS Ochsner is lucky in that we didn’t furlough teammembers during COVID-19. Many other health systems from across the country experienced layoffs, which opened a talent pool for our organization. The shift to remote work has also allowed our team to work with individuals outside of the Och- sner footprint. Nursing shortages, which were a chal- lenge prior to the pandemic, have remained significant. As hot spots emerge across the country, agency nurses and nursing resources have become much more com- petitive. This has driven our investments in workforce programs and partnerships to help build our pipeline of nursing and allied health workers. In Baton Rouge, we recently partnered with Baton Rouge Com- munity College to train a cohort of Medical Assistants through our Workforce Devel- opment program. We are also partnering with Northshore Technical Community College to provide a Medical Assistant to