HR Pulse - Summer 2008 - (Page 22)

Special Report: Building a Thriving Workforce The Solutions Are Still In Our Hands By Jim Bentley and Debra Stock shifting demographics with fewer potential workers; changes in career expectations and attitudes about work; and increased health care worker dissatisfaction. With the demand for hospital services increasing because of a growing and aging population, the workforce shortages facing hospitals present our nation with a potential health care crisis. The AHA Workforce Commission believed that strong leadership and aggressive action are needed to address the current and future personnel shortages, build a thriving workforce, and avoid a crisis in care. Further, the Commission stated that hospital leaders must take responsibility for initiating and implementing these bold, innovative changes to overcome the shortages. In Our Hands thus laid out a series of strategic and tactical recommendations for dealing with the workforce challenges, as illustrated in the Workforce Strategy Map (on the opposite page). Essentially, these recommendations were grouped into ﬁve chapters, each reﬂecting a key to solving the workforce crisis in hospitals and health systems: 1. Foster meaningful work by transforming hospitals into modern-day organizations in which all aspects of the work are designed around patients and the needs of staff to care for and support them. Workers must ﬁnd meaning in their work and be supported in their efforts to provide high-quality patient care. 2. Improve the workplace partnership by creating a culture in which hospital staff— including clinical, support, and managerial staff—are valued, have a sustained voice in shaping institutional policies, and receive appropriate rewards and recognition for their efforts. 3. Broaden the base of health care workers by designing strategies that attract and retain a diverse workforce of men and women, racial and ethnic minorities and immigrants, and older workers. 22 HR Pulse Summer 2008 Strong leadership and aggressive action are needed to address the current and future personnel shortages, build a thriving workforce, and avoid a crisis in care. n April 2002, the American Hospital Association’s (AHA) Commission on Workforce for Hospitals and Health Systems issued its report to help hospitals deal with the shortage of health care workers now and in the future. Titled In Our Hands: How Hospitals Can Build a Thriving Workforce, the report described a blueprint of actions that are still relevant and equally as urgent today. It is available at www.healthcareworkforce.org. Hospitals today, as in 2002, face an immediate need for caregivers and support staff. They also are about to encounter an even more threatening long-term shortage of qualiﬁed workers that results from four signiﬁcant demographic and societal trends: an aging U.S. labor force; I >> http://www.healthcareworkforce.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Summer 2008

HR Pulse - Summer 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director's Letter President's Message HR Leader Profile: Carol Bank, SPHR Special Report: Building a Thriving Workforce Creating A Best Place to Work Employee Morale Don't Set Up Your Managers to Fail From Tedious Task to Strategic Process Employer-Assisted Housing Changing the Paradigm of Nurse Recruitment Workforce Recognition: Simple Gestures Go a Long way Advertisers' Index

HR Pulse - Summer 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.