Shortages in the anesthesia workforce have hit the healthcare industry hard, but academic institutions have some advantages over other providers.
Having a built in pipeline of residents and nurses is definitely helpful, but there are still shortages at academic institutions. Developing resilience and flexibility among the workforce is key to retention and keeping individuals around for the long term,
Stuart Bertsch, MD, who was recently appointed chair of the department of anesthesiology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, recently connected with Becker’s to talk about some of the workforce challenges facing the anesthesia space.
Note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: How has the anesthesia workforce shortage impacted your organization as an academic institution compared to other types of healthcare providers?
Dr. Stuart Bertsch: We are blessed to have a little bit of a developed pipeline that’s put in place in terms of trainees. You have residents that are coming through, you have nurse anesthetist students that are coming through on a regular basis. And that affords you a bigger opportunity for recruitment and retainment of staff. It’s important to work with the individuals to figure out what their purpose is, and that’s really what we’re centered around. We optimize the work environment and the home environment so that people feel valued and that they can fulfill their own purpose. You want people to stay around for the long term, so that we don’t have to go through that recruitment process all the time. People’s lives change every single day. We want to meet them where they are.
We still face some shortages. It’s important to develop resilience. At times we’re going to be pressed to do more, to stay later, to fulfill the next case. As a profession, that’s sometimes what we need to do in terms of taking care of our patients. But then there’s the opposite side of that, which is, using some predictive analytics to then look at those next days and say, ‘Do I really need the full amount of staff that we have scheduled right now? What’s the optimal time that I need to give them the opportunity to take a vacation day?’ Again, creating that flexibility within the system and making sure that you can expand to the demand that you have, but then contract when the volume isn’t there as well.
