Hospice, Palliative Care Providers Leverage Education Programs to Attract and Keep Staff

Palliative care and hospice providers are enhancing their staff education programs in an effort to better ensure they have a sustainable workforce.

In many companies, a changing of the guard is underway. More millennials are enter the health care workforce as more baby boomers retire. As the labor pool changes, employers will also need to adapt.

Priorities vary across different generations of palliative and hospice workers, and employers will need to mold their recruitment and retention strategies in response, according to Caitlin Brennan, director of research at Care Dimensions.

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For example, younger generations often value flexible scheduling over career longevity at an organization, said Brennan.

“Especially if you’re a millennial, Gen. Z or Gen X, you’re raised with this idea of finding your passion, and then you don’t have to work a day in your life. That mentality is playing out in relation to nurse residency programs and the clinicians that we’re hiring,” Brennan told Hospice News during the Palliative Care Executive Webinar Series. “There are generational differences as people are really demanding more work-life balance and more boundaries and flexibility with work. There’s also a difference in people who don’t necessarily stay at the same job for 30 years in the way that some of their colleagues from the baby boomer or older generations colleagues have done.”

Younger generations of clinical staff are seeking more manageable patient caseloads, as well as more control, autonomy and input in their daily schedule, according to Nancy Linscheid, clinical education specialist and nurse residency program director for UnityPoint at Home.

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Autonomous scheduling is a crucial key to retaining clinical staff and staving off burnout, Linscheid said.

Other keys to long-term sustainability include offering educational incentives and promising career paths, according to Linscheid.

UnityPoint at Home offers hospice, palliative and other community-based services. The provider is part of the UnityPoint Health system, which serves Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. UnityPoint has a nurse residency program that focuses on helping newly licensed nurses transition into the workforce, in addition to setting-specific training in hospice and home health.

Nurses who complete the organization’s  training program receive a retention bonus, as well as hands-on education and career development opportunities along the way. 

These represent draws that attract and help keep clinicians, said Linscheid.

When graduates complete the program and join the organization, they begin as visiting nurses and gradually move up in pay grade levels as they advance into case manager roles. This is among “the major selling points” for retention, according to Linscheid.

“Many of our graduates in the program have gone on to be clinical preceptors, clinical supervisors, patient care coordination coordinators, wound care specialists, and all those types of different positions within our organization,” Linscheid told Hospice News. “Our intern staff who do commit to the residency program are reimbursed for the cost of courses and testing upon successful completion.”

In terms of developing educational initiatives, providers have more than one way to shape incentives that multi-generational workers value.

Care Dimensions is also leveraging educational initiatives in their recruitment and staffing plansf. The Massachusetts-based hospice and palliative care provider launched a Learning Institute to educate the public, clinicians across the country, and their own staff.

Through the institute, Care Dimensions offers upwards of 70 programs for health care professionals and more than 20 educational programs for community members.

This has opened up staffing opportunities for the organization as younger professionals are increasingly taking different paths towards hospice and palliative care work, according to Susan Lysaght Hurley, senior scholar at Care Dimensions.

“For some of the younger generations this type of educational program meets them where they are, which is asking ‘Why wait for your passion?’ People don’t want to go through the traditional route,” Lysaght Hurley told Hospice News. It’s asking how we are going to support that route so that this generation doesn’t land badly into the field and gets more exposure to it.”

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