A study on healthcare staffing in the U.S. has found 60 percent of all healthcare support workers expect to leave their job within the next five years. The study surveyed 1,000 past, present and prospective employees and 320 employers.
The "Study on Allied Health Workforce Retention" was commissioned by Ultimate Medical Academy (UMA), an accredited, nonprofit healthcare educational institution. The study's objective was "to dissect the underlying causes of the healthcare staffing crisis among support employees and identify possible ways for employers to increase retention and employment in the healthcare industry based on employee feedback," UMA stated in a June 21 press release.
The study included two separate online polls, conducted by Acupoll Precision Research, the release reported. The first poll, taken Feb. 3 through Feb. 23, surveyed support staff "who currently work in healthcare, lapsed employees who used to work in healthcare and prospective employees who might consider working in healthcare," the release stated. Acupoll conducted a follow-up poll March 23 through April 7, of 320 employers "responsible for hiring and/or retaining more than 545,000 individual healthcare support workers," the release reported. The study examined how to translate employee feedback into feasible changes that employers could implement to increase hiring and retention of healthcare support staff.
"Better pay" was the top reason 66% current support workers said they were considering leaving their current jobs, with 36% of participants responding that "the job is too stressful/demanding/we are understaffed" as their reason for possibly leaving. A lack of a clear path for career growth and advancement was the third reason given, with 77% of current, 80% of lapsed and 76% of prospective support employees responding that they "want a job where I can see a clear path for advancement," the release reports.
UMA President Tom Rametta said in the release that since many healthcare institutions can't afford to increase employee pay rates, the study examined various efforts employers could undertake to attract and retain staff.
"There are many obvious factors that contribute to low retention, including pay, benefits, hours, etc.," Rametta said in the release, "but the actionable conclusion is that understanding and enabling the path to career advancement – and the training that supports it – are powerful and overlooked avenues to improve retention."
The study also reported that approximately 45% of respondents who indicated they were considering leaving their current job have actively sought new employment in the past six to 12 months, with nearly 20% reporting they were currently looking for new employment. Approximately half of employees said that they are considering a new healthcare job; while 40% reported they are considering leaving the healthcare industry altogether.
Results of the study revealed one in five healthcare support workers have left their jobs in the past six months, causing a significant loss of trained personnel. Employers, estimating the number of employees who have departed, report an average turnover rate of 22% across their organizations and 15% within specific departments. UMA noted in the release a predicted shortage of up to 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026.
Rametta said in the release that healthcare support workers the "backbone of the industry and make significant contributions to productivity, quality and effectiveness in patient service by working in support of and collaboration with their medical and nursing colleagues."
"The healthcare industry is facing an exodus of employees in support roles, which could jeopardize access to routine preventive and emergency care in communities across the U.S.," Rametta said in the release. "Americans already are feeling the impact of the projected national shortage across the health system."
