An “unprecedented workforce crisis” is the backdrop for a national campaign launched by the American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living on Wednesday to educate job-seekers about career opportunities in long-term care and to equip providers with resources to attract new caregivers.
“This is an unprecedented situation,” AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson said. “It’s impossible to exaggerate the challenges that providers currently face in providing care because of the inability to obtain and to hire workers.”
Pointing to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Parkinson said that assisted living communities are short 40,000 workers compared with pre-pandemic employment numbers. In an NCAL survey released in June, 30% of participating assisted living providers said they were limiting new move-ins (24%) or closing their communities (6%) as a result of operating and staffing challenges.
The situation is even worse in skilled nursing, where facilities are down almost 250,000 workers. Other sectors — including physicians’ offices, home health and hospice, and hospitals — have recovered their workforce, or are close to it, he added.
“It’s unique to long-term care that we face this crisis,” Parkinson said, adding that a material reduction in the workforce equates to an inability to admit residents due to worker shortages. “This unprecedented crisis requires an extraordinary response by the private sector and the government.”
As part of that solution, AHCA/NCAL is launching Careers in Caring, a dedicated website where long-term care providers and professionals can find a “one-stop-shop” of resources and tools to support hiring efforts in assisted living communities, nursing homes and facilities for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. The site provides informational videos, messaging materials, social media tools, graphics and more to help the sector build a pipeline of caregivers.
The website is the result of focus groups, research and one-on-one surveys with past, present and future employees to home in on what it would take to entice workers back to the long-term care profession, Parkinson said. The findings, which he called “encouraging,” point to a desire for career advancement opportunities and the ability to work in a field that provides a calling to those who genuinely want to help people.
“There are very few occupations where you can provide the type of satisfaction to somebody who has a real desire to help other people,” Parkinson said.
AHCA Board Chair Phil Fogg, who is the president and CEO of Oregon-based senior living and skilled nursing provider Marquis Companies, said that the COVID-19 pandemic started the crisis, but many factors contributed to the current situation, which is creating “serious access issues.”
He and Parkinson called on federal and state policymakers to contribute to the solution through immigration reform and funding in the form of increased Medicaid and Medicare rates. Educational system capacity in the various healthcare professional jobs in the industry, and the promotion of healthcare careers within high schools, also are necessary to increase training and career opportunities, they said.
Fogg also called on professional licensing entities to be quicker and more efficient in clearing immigration delays and licensing healthcare workers so they can fill open positions.
“Absent these actions, our industry must forge ahead to try to move the needle on this workforce challenge for our seniors,” Fogg said. “Our goal through Careers in Caring is to make it as easy as possible for facilities to recruit more caregivers. Caregivers are the backbone of our long-term care facilities.”
