Nursing employment in 2024, what we know so far.
The past three years have been pretty tough for the health industry. The burnout our healthcare professionals feel is still looming up until today and the shortage continues to trend in the whole country. This poses a great deal of challenge for the recruitment and forces new innovative ways to fill in open roles and positions. Mental Health needs will continue to be a demand for employees. Applicants will definitely be on the looks for what healthcare organizations offer in this area. Word of mouth from current employees will play a significant impact as well as former employees posting reviews in recruitment sites. Another one that will continue to be a demand is flexibility in work schedule in order to fulfill other duties outside work. Whether one is into work-life balance or work-life integration, employees will continue to consider what options they have in the organization. In 2023, there has been an increase with travel nurses that not only offers flexibility but with a steady high pay rate. Social media will continue to be one of the tools to reach passive candidates. Lastly, specific skills are also being looked at by recruiters, particularly technical skills as more tools are digitized and communication skills as remote patient monitoring or telemedicine is on the rise.
Aside from recruitment some themes will continue to hover around healthcare. Top of the list is the boost on consumer health. Given consumers primarily drive business, solving their problems and addressing their demands will be the main focus on innovation, including AI-based services. In terms of shortages, not only this is applicable to nurses but even to doctors. This creates an opportunity for nurses who are physician assistants and pursuing nurse practitioner fields as demand will go up. Telemedicine will continue to be on trend as this is a very convenient way for consumers to do consultation. Aside from telemedicine, healthcare providers may come directly to patients through mobile clinics which offer a face-to-face service if physical check up is required.
Surely, we are in the era of so much changes and innovations coupled with several challenges. Trends and strategies are constantly being examined to address demands or concerns at hand. Organizations pivot as often as needed in order to catch-up with the changing landscape. Definitely, we will be on the look out on how nursing employment will evolve this year.