Stemming the Healthcare Worker Shortage

NJ institutions are forging solutions to close the workforce gap in healthcare.

By Jim Pytell, Managing Editor On Nov 4, 2024

The healthcare sector is currently grappling with a workforce shortage that shows no signs of slowing down. According to projections from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, New Jersey faces a shortage of 11,400 nurses by 2030, ranking third highest in the nation. This challenge is driven by several factors, including an aging healthcare workforce, with one in four New Jersey nurses falling within the 56-65 age bracket, as reported by the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing (NJCCN). The pandemic has also exacerbated this issue, as the National Council for State Boards of Nursing estimates that 100,000 nurses left the workforce during the pandemic, with this figure projected to rise to 900,000 by 2027.

These shortages are not limited to nurses. According to Jeffrey R. Boscamp, M.D. president and dean, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, the next few years will also bring a shortage of about 2,500 doctors in the state.

“Overall, I think it’s not quite as simple as an overall healthcare worker shortage or physician shortage,” Boscamp tells New Jersey Business Magazine. “While there is a doctor shortage, it’s also much more complex than that in terms of the overall workforce needs. For instance, it’s also the specialty of doctors who are going to be required. There’s a very severe primary-care doctor shortage, which we’re already experiencing. People have trouble getting an appointment with a primary care physician. A subset of this that immediately comes to mind is the aging population; the shortage of geriatricians is tremendous. There are just very few people who are skilled in taking care of the elderly population.”

Cultivating a More Robust Pipeline

Fortunately, work is being done to unearth, attract and tap into talent to fill needed positions in the healthcare field. 

“We have pathway and pipeline programs to draw in promising candidates from diverse backgrounds,” says Boscamp.

For example, Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine’s M.I.N.D.S. (Medical Internship Navigating Diversity and Science) program is a 6-week paid internship for underrepresented or financially disadvantaged high school juniors and seniors interested in pursuing a career in medicine or allied health professions. 

“We also have other programs which seek excellent candidates from undergraduate, high school, and even as early as middle school,” Boscamp says. “This is a crucial tactic, not only to get those interested in healthcare by reaching out to them, but also by having them engaged and to find mentors and role models for them.”

Separately, in August 2023, William Paterson University launched its School of Nursing.

“We now boast the largest nursing enrollment on any single college campus in New Jersey, with more than 1,800 nursing students enrolled today across the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels,” says Joshua Powers, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at William Paterson University.

Since 2019, the university has graduated nearly 1,400 students with undergraduate degrees in nursing. Additionally, close to 650 nursing professionals earned advanced degrees and/or certifications from the university during this time.

“We are also looking more toward recruitment of international students with interest in healthcare,” says Powers. “Moreover, we have been very successful in applying for and receiving grants that support the education of aspiring healthcare practitioners. Just this summer, we received a $1 million scholarship grant largely in support of nursing students with financial need. We are also developing a program whereby high school juniors and seniors can earn dual enrollment academic credit and be employed in hospitals or other clinical settings at the same time, providing them with the skills for that position through their coursework, such as in phlebotomy, for instance.”

Crafting the Proper Curriculum

While finding ways to get more people into the healthcare field is important, developing a forward-thinking curriculum that equips students with necessary skills and knowledge is just as critical.

“Cooper University Health Care partners with many colleges and universities to influence and support their curriculum and programs to assure that students are well prepared to enter the current workforce,” says Beth Green, SPHR, PCC, senior vice president & chief HR officer, Cooper University Health Care. “We also partner with other regional healthcare organizations to share ideas and evidence-based practices, and influence program offerings. For example, Cooper has been involved in the Respiratory Therapy (RT) program which started two years ago at Rowan University. At the time, there were no RT schools in South Jersey. Through these partnerships, we were able to have a program for RTs in our region for the first time in 10 years.”

Green says that Cooper has also been establishing a strong partnership with Camden County and Camden City High Schools to offer career exploration presentations in healthcare. Recently, Cooper reviewed and evaluated the Camden County Technical Schools CNA curriculum to make recommendations for transitioning the course to a Patient Care Technician Program while ensuring that it meets the educational requirements of Cooper’s CCT Patient Care training. 

“This course transition began this semester, and [is expected to] result in more employable graduates in areas such as critical care technicians, EKG technicians, and phlebotomy technicians,” says Green. 

Additionally, Powers says that William Paterson University seeks insights from healthcare leaders in its various partnering organizations, as well as its alumni and community supporters who sit on the university’s College of Science and Health Advisory Board. 

“We turn to them to understand market demands, the areas where they need more employees, and the skills those employees need. We pride ourselves on our market-driven curriculum,” he says.

“We are also currently looking to expand our allied health offerings to better serve the broader healthcare needs of New Jersey – a state that has a large population of senior citizens and, therefore, large healthcare needs,” says Powers. “Clinical laboratory science, radiology, and physical therapy are among the areas we have identified as having great need in the state. Non-degree certification programs that meet career and industry needs are also key here, such as those in medtech and medical cannabis.”

Conclusion

While the statistics raise alarm bells as to the state of the healthcare workforce in the near future, it is comforting to know that myriad efforts such as those outlined in this article are taking place in New Jersey and beyond.

“I am hopeful people and policy-makers are really paying attention to this now and finding ways to address it,” says Boscamp. “The basic solution is producing more physicians, which clearly is one of the aspirations of our new school – but it’s also about maximizing clinical impact, calibrating how healthcare teams can work more efficiently with nurse practitioners and physician assistants, with physicians in a supervisory role, in order to provide more clinical capacity for patients.” 

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