Michigan Hospitals Plan Advertising Campaign To Attract Workers

Your Michigan tax dollars at work. Can't imagine why no one is enthusiastic about working for the health care bureaucracy:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2023/06/09/michigan-hospitals-ad-campaign-health-care-workers-nurse-shortage/70303874007/

Michigan hospitals plan ad campaign to entice badly needed workers
By Kristen Jordan Shamus - June 8, 2023

The Michigan Health and Hospital Association is trying a new strategy to recruit nurses and other health care workers to address the severe staffing shortage hitting the 162 hospitals and 18 health systems it represents statewide.

It’s launching a $700,000 social media and digital ad campaign that will begin Monday and run through Sept. 30 with an aim of encouraging young Michiganders to seek health care careers and to draw in adults who may be considering a career change.

The MI Hospital Careers Campaign is funded mostly by unspent money allocated in 2022 from a state Workforce Retention, Recruitment and Training grant.

St. Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital in Pontiac medical and hospital personnel speak to the Detroit Free Press about what it has been like during the Omicron surge Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

Higher education programs key to boosting health care workers

Daniel Hurley, CEO of the Michigan Association of State Universities, said it comes at an ideal time.

“Right now, this probably is the most affordable time to enroll in a program at a Michigan college or university, a credit to our Legislature over the last couple of years and bipartisan efforts to increase state financial aid to the best levels we've seen in decades,” Hurley said.

He lauded the Michigan Reconnect program, which provides free community college up to a two-year degree for residents ages 25 and older, and the Michigan Achievement Scholarship, which offers up to a $5,500 annual scholarship for up to five years for high school graduates who meet income thresholds, as tools that could open the door for many young people to seek an education in health-related fields.

The situation is dire as the state’s population — and its workforce — continues to age, said Brian Peters, CEO of the Michigan Health and Hospital Association. That means health care workers are retiring at a faster pace.

“Over the last couple of years, we have seen a decline of approximately 1,700 inpatient hospital beds here in the state of Michigan,” he said. “Those hospital beds didn't go anywhere in terms of their physical presence. What's happened is we have lost a number of front-line caregivers and our ability to staff those beds.

“We have … 27,000 open positions here in the state of Michigan. About 8,000 of those are for RNs (registered nurses). We are trying desperately to hire them. We cannot, and so … this becomes an access-to-care issue in rapid fashion.”

Hospitals work to improve nurse pay and benefits

Adding to the pressure is churn within the profession. As many as 4 in 10 Michigan nurses say they’re planning to leave the profession in the next year, according to a University of Michigan study published earlier this year. And the situation is worse among newly trained nurses younger than 25. Among them, the study found 59% planned to quit.

Ruthanne Sudderth, vice president of the MHA public affairs division, said that the efforts don’t stop at trying to recruit new nurses and health care workers into college and university training programs.

“Hospitals across Michigan are making significant efforts to retain and attract nurses, including providing nurses and other staff with maximum scheduling flexibility, transportation to and from work, child care support, increased pay and more,” she said.

“We must continue to find innovative ways to support our current but also future generations of nurses and provide them with the work-life balance they need and deserve. The MHA worked in the last year and a half to secure roughly $300 million for hospitals to retain, recruit and train employees, including nurses. Those dollars went directly through hospitals and into the pockets of nurses and other health care workers in the forms of retention or sign-on bonuses, and increased pay, as well as remodeled care and employment opportunities.”

The pay structure in healthcare is strongly biased towards the top, a feature common to all oligopolies which have no genuine internal competition.