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Recruitment and Workforce Tools and Resources

Recruitment and Retention
Workforce
Tools
Documents

Recruitment and Retention

National Rural Recruitment and Retention Network(3RNet)
The National Rural Recruitment & Retention Network (3RNet) is a nonprofit organization made up of state organizations helping health professionals find practice opportunities in rural areas throughout the country. Some of the health professions they serve include: Physicians, dentists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and mental health providers.

Indian Health Service Loan Repayment Program
The purpose of the IHS Loan Repayment Program (LRP) is to obtain health professionals to meet the staffing needs of the IHS in Indian health programs.

National Health Service Corps
The National Health Service Corps is committed to improving the health of the Nation's underserved. We unite communities in need with caring health professionals and support their efforts to build better systems of care. NHSC focuses on recruiting and retaining the right health professionals to deliver health care in underserved communities often involves developing and preparing sites and communitiesand looking for innovative solutions.

NIH Loan Repayment Programs
NIH Loan Repayment Programs are a vital component of our nation's efforts to attract health professionals to careers in clinical, pediatric, health disparities, or contraception and infertility research.

Nursing Education Loan Repayment Programs
NELRP is a competitive program that repays 60 percent of the qualifying loan balance of registered nurses selected for funding in exchange for 2 years of service at a critical shortage facility. Participants may be eligible to work a third year and receive an additional 25 percent of the qualifying loan balance. Authorized by Section 846 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended, the purpose of the NELRP is to assist in the recruitment and retention of professional nurses dedicated to providing health care to underserved populations.

Recruitment and Retention of a Quality Health Workforce in Rural Areas, Number 10: Health Care Administration
An issue paper from NRHA. The recruitment and retention of qualified HAs is extremely complex relative to some other rural professions, e.g., technologists or other licensed or registered health care professionals. Nonetheless, the importance of training and retaining leaders of health care organizations is of paramount importance with increasing demand for services and diminishing resources.

Workforce

Center for Workforce Studies: 2007 State Physician WorkforceData Book
The 2007 State Physician Workforce Data Book is an update and expansion of the 2006 Key Physician Data by State report, examining the active physician supply in each state, as well as current medical school enrollment and physicians in graduate medical education (GME) programs.

Comparative Employee Feedback Data Aggregate Report
Delta eligible hospitals have the option of participating in an employee feedback assessment. This assessment is available for full and part time hospital employees. An aggregate report of results is included with corresponding questions in six categories: planning, administrative and management, training, environmental and retention, performance and peer issues and supervisory issues. This report can be used to simulate discussion regarding employee issues.

Employee Feedback Form
This employee feedback form is a service provided to the Delta RHPI Project participating hospitals. Linda Powell of Mountain States Group manages the Employee Feedback process. For more information contact Linda Powell at lpowell@MtnStatesGroup.org or 208-336-5533 extension 235.

HRSA Database of Health Professional Shortage Areas
Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) have shortages of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers and may be geographic (a county or service area), demographic (low income population) or institutional (comprehensive health center, federally qualified health center or other public facility). You can use this database to search for HPSAs.

Health Care Workforce Resources from Hospital Connect
This site includes information on workforce issues including toolkits, ideas in action, education and upcoming workforce events.

Kids into Healthcare Careers
A HRSA Bureau of Health Professions initiative developed to supplement the pool of qualified applicants from economically and educationally disadvantaged and underrepresented minority populations for entry into health professions training.

Office of Rural Health and Primary Care, Minnesota Department of Health Workforce Data
The Office of Rural Health & Primary Care has a number of activities and programs that support health workforce development in rural and underserved communities, which may include communities designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas & Medically Underserved Areas.

Perspectives of Female Physicians Practicing in Rural Wisconsin
Author(s): Erin B. Kimball and Byron J. Crouse
The intent of this study was to identify the factors that influenced female physicians to enter rural practice and to look at the issues they are confronting.

Recruitment and Retention Of a Quality Workforce in Rural Areas
Author(s): National Rural Health Association
This document is a policy paper discussing recruitment and retention issues facing rural areas when trying to keep their quality workforce.

Small Business Salaries
The first step in developing a competitive pay policy is understanding market conditions for companies. This site helps small business executives and HR professionals access HR sourced pay data for thousands of positions.

Technology Enhanced Learning in Graduate Nursing (TELIGN)
The School of Nursing is a leader at the University of Minnesota in providing a range of online learning opportunities for students pursuing graduate education. The University of Minnesota has outstanding technical and web design resources that enhance the ability to bring the latest developments in online learning into students' homes.

Workforce Management
This site contains information on workforce news, articles and blogs.

Health Occupations Students of America
HOSA is a national vocational organization that promotes career opportunities in the healthcare field.

Discover Nursing
A website that contains information about the salary, benefits, job opportunities and education of a nursing career.

GAO Health Professional Shortage Areas Report
Author(s): Government Accountability Office (GAO)
This study was used to identify areas facing shortages of health care providers, HHS relies on its health professional shortage area (HPSA) designation system. HHS designates geographic, population-group, and facility HPSAs. HHS also gives each HPSA a score to rank its need for providers relative to other HPSAs.

National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
This site includes information, reports and data on health workforce issues and trends throughout the United States. The site focuses on workforce issues for nurses, physicians and other health professions.

Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2002-03 edition
The Occupational Outlook Handbook is a nationally recognized source of career information, designed to provide valuable assistance to individuals making decisions about their future work lives. The Handbook is revised every two years.

State Responses to Health Worker Shortages: Results of 2002 Survey of States
The Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) is a not-for-profit research organization that: Conducts studies of the supply, demand, use, and education of the health workforce; Collects and analyzes data to understand workforce dynamics and trends; Informs public policies, the health and education sectors, and the public; and, Is one of six regional centers devoted to health workforce studies with a cooperative agreement with HRSA/Bureau of Health Professions.

Tools

CEO Recruitment Guide
This recruitment manual gives a step-by-step process on how to effectively recruit a CEO for your hospital. The contents include a readiness assessment, recruitment process worksheet, job description approval and a how-to on selecting the best potential candidates. Published by Linda Powell of Mountain States Group and Dave Berk of Rural Health Financial Services, Inc.

Conducting Hospital Employee Satisfaction Surveys
This guide serves as a tool to help assess employee satisfaction. It includes information on assessment methods and conducting employee satisfaction surveys. This guide also provides useful templates for employee satisfaction surveys. Published by Linda Powell, Mountain States Group.

Physician Needs Indicator Worksheet
This tool helps determine the number of physicians needed in your community. The spreadsheet can by used two ways: 1) Input your service area population to see how many FTE physicians are needed. 2) Input your service area and your existing physician complement to see areas of over (under) availability. Produced by Stroudwater Associates.

Recruitment and Retention Guide for Small Rural Hospitals
Planning and Preparation is the most important ingredient for ensuring a successful recruitment effort. It is also the part most often neglected. Many hospitals and communities jump into the recruitment process with little preparation. Often this results from surprise at the sudden loss of a primary care provider. Hospitals that jump into recruitment typically spend more money and time on recruitment and enjoy less retention success than those that prepare and systematically search for the right candidate. In addition, surprise at the loss of a provider often indicates a lack of active retention building efforts.

Recruiting for Retention
This manual is a practical step-by-step guide to effective recruitment and retention techniques of primary care providers. Contents include a recruitment and retention action plan, checklist for recruitment readiness, conducting a needs assessment, gaining community support and establishing a recruitment team. Several tools are included: draft budget, sample letters, and a retention questionnaire.

Documents

The Aging of the Primary Care Physician Workforce: Are Rural Locations Vulnerable?
From the Rural Health Research Center "Large numbers of primary care physicians are nearing retirement as fewer new U.S. medical graduates are choosing primary care careers. This policy brief describes the rural areas of the U.S. where impending retirement threatens access to primary care, and offers potential solutions to the problem".

Alaska Economic Trends 2008: Alaska's Health Care Industry
The health care industry is one of the largest and has been one of the fastest growing sectors of Alaska's economy. More than one in every 12 jobs in Alaska is in the health care industry. In the Sitka Borough almost one in every six jobs is in health care. With at least 29,000 jobs spread throughout the state, this industry is both ubiquitous and essential to Alaskans' economic and individual health.

Changes in the Rural Registered Nurse Workforce from 1980 to 2004
From the WWAMI Rural Health Research Center. Knowledge of rural nurses' education, demographics, and practice characteristics, and how these have changed over time, is important for rural health policy and planning.

The Crisis in Rural General Surgery
Primary care providers are often unwilling to practice in a location without surgical backup. Without surgical services, small hospitals often fail, which reduces community employment, jeopardizes local health care and discourages businesses from locating in the community. Maintaining an ample supply of general surgeons is essential to meet the needs of our aging rural population.

The Crisis in Rural Primary Care
Primary care providers are the backbone of rural health care, yet primary care in rural locations is in crisis. The number of students choosing primary care careers has declined precipitously. Low compensation, rising malpractice premiums, professional isolation, limited time off, and scarcity of jobs for spouses discourage the recruitment and retention of rural primary care providers.

Health Care Industry: Identifying and Addressing Workforce Challenges
This report details what the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (DOL ETA)has learned from employers, employees, educators, workforce professionals, and researchers about health care workforce challenges and solutions. It provides the basis for developing strategic partnerships that include industry, education, and the public workforce system.

Jinx of the J-1 visa: IMGs Finding Other Paths to Residency
Some rural clinics are struggling to find physicians as the pool of international medical graduates willing to practice in underserved areas shrinks. The worsening situation may force some clinics to close.

National Center for Health Workforce Analysis
Highlights compile 2000 data on levels of employment, projected growth and key enviornmental factors that affect demand for health care. Details for medicine, nursing, denitstry, pharmacy, mental health and aides.

National Center for Health Workforce Analysis: U.S. Health Workforce Personnel Factbook
A compilation of data from more than a dozen professional associations and government agencies. With 67 detailed tables, the Factbook paints a comprehensive, descriptive picture of the health care workforce. Current and historical supply of physicians, denitsts, nurses, pharmacists, optometrists, podiatrists, and allied health professionals are covered. The Factbook also looks toward the future, detailing number of schools and first-year enrollment patterns for most health care disciplines. Trends in practice are depicted in tables that track the number of hospitals, hospital-based personnel and national health care spending over time.

Perspectives of Female Physicians Practicing in Rural Wisconsin
The intent of this study was to identify which factors influenced female physicians to enter rural practice and to look at issues they are confronting.

Threats to the Future Supply of Rural Registered Nurses
Shortages of registered nurses (RNs) in rural areas of the United States may grow even greater in coming years as the "baby boom" generation retires and as RNs commute to larger towns and urban areas for work.

 

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