SFHHA 2022-2023 Focus: Workforce and Education
The South Florida Hospital & Healthcare Association (SFHHA) supports operating councils that are advisory to our Board of Directors. One of those Councils is our Workforce and Education Council.
The SFHHA Workforce and Education Council’s charter makes clear that the Council is responsibility for making recommendations to the Board on issues associated with the overall healthcare workforce. It is also tasked with assisting in the preparation for the future business continuity, business growth, and business agility. This preparation shall also include issues of diversity and inclusion.
We are proud to share with our readers that one of this Council’s Co-Chairs is Dr. Bryan Stewart who currently serves as President of Miami-Dade College’s Medical Campus. He is a respected leader in academic affairs with more than 32 years in the industry.
Dr. Stewart holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Tarleton State University. He also holds a Master’s in Mathematics and a Ph.D. in College and University Teaching with a minor in Mathematics, both from the University of North Texas.
This council will be embarking on their journey in light of significant workforce and education challenges that lie before the healthcare community.
One of the reports that the Council will be considering, prepared quarterly by the American Hospital Association (AHA) and their partner Prolucent, is titled the Health Care Jobs Report. This report analyzes and evaluates healthcare job posting from across the United States with additional drilldown capabilities for each of the AHA’s regions. We are located in AHA Region 4 which includes Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.
According to the most recent report that looks at the second quarter of 2022, healthcare job postings have declined slightly since the prior quarter by 1.4%. Florida had almost 38,000 listings, well surpassing the other states in our region. To put this into perspective, this percentage decline in Florida amounted to about 275 fewer listings. When you look at these listings by role for the same period, listings for allied health and therapy professionals increased while the listings for nursing declined a modest two percent.
Further, looking at only those job postings for all types of nurses, they declined by 2.1 percent, which amounts to about 532 listings out of a total of about 25.5 thousand listings. Florida saw increases in the number of listings for Med-Surg, Critical Care, and OR/Surgery while also seeing fewer listings for Emergency and Step-Down nurses.
Another slightly improved metric is that the average time to fill one of these Florida positions has declined from 52 days to 49 days. This result is not earthshaking, but it is movement in the right direction.
Trying to match the educational process for health professionals, the supply, to the healthcare provider demand for trained and educated labor will be the focus of our Council. If you think that you are a stakeholder in this discussion, please feel free to let us know. We will be setting up dates, times, and places for our Council to meet over the next couple of weeks and your participation will be appreciated.
