Ferguson said a partnership between CareerSource and the Baptist Hospital System and Memorial Hospital along with Florida State College at Jacksonville aims to fill the gap by training existing healthcare workers for higher-level positions in the industry .
“ What we are seeing is the hospitals are opening up their own internal development programs ,” he said . “ Helping them with employee retention , the hospitals are investing in their employees and investing in their careers .” Ferguson said these efforts aren ’ t new . “ Healthcare has always been one of our targeted industries because there [ are ] always ripe opportunities for growth ,” he said .
Ferguson said the shortage of healthcare workers is not confined to Florida ; it is a national issue . “ I don ’ t think we ’ re unique in having these challenges ,” he said . But the situation today offers new challenges for the healthcare industry and agencies like CareerSource . “ It is certainly one of the most interesting challenges we ’ ve ever faced ,” Ferguson said . “ I ’ ve been in the workforce development arena for over 25 years and it is by far the most interesting labor market , where we have more available jobs than by definition unemployed individuals . It is certainly the most challenging labor market I have seen in the last 25 years .”
Ferguson said only those people who are jobless and are actively looking for work are counted as unemployed .
“ If you haven ’ t looked for a job in the last 30 days , you are not in the statistics ,” he said . “ We have a low labor force participation rate .” Some help may be on the way from Tallahassee as lawmakers look for ways to address the worker shortage through education .
At a hearing late last year of the Florida Senate Committee on Health Policy , Mary Mayhew , president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association told lawmakers the strain on healthcare workers from the pandemic , exacerbated by the emergence of the Delta variant over the summer , contributed to a turnover rate of 25 % among nurses in Florida .
She said a recent study released by the Association calculated a shortage of nearly 60,000 nurses in the state by 2035 .
Mayhew said the place to start in addressing the shortage is to look at Florida ’ s nursing education programs .
“ What is the capacity in our education system ?” she said . “ How many nursing grads do we typically hire and how many do they need ?”
Mayhew said lawmakers and healthcare industry officials need to work together to find solutions .
“ We all need to look creatively at ways to support those nursing programs ,” she said .
Aaron London is managing editor of Evolve Digital . He is also an adjunct professor of journalism at Daytona State College .
JANUARY 2022 | 19 |