Health-care shortage hits home

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Finding trained medical staff is increasingly difficult according to local health-care recruiting and employment agencies. |ret||ret||tab|

"We already have a shortage of registered nurses in the health-care field," said Rick Naegler, vice president of Sen-ior Recruiters and Total Health-care Services. "Within 10 to 15 years, health care is going to be in a crisis."|ret||ret||tab|

Total Healthcare Services is trying to increase the number of health care workers in Missouri, and specifically in Springfield, Naegler said. |ret||ret||tab|

"From physicians to certified nurses, we do temporary staff-ing, contract staffing, and I also have a full time medical re-cruiter recruiting physicians, nurses, radiology technicians, anything in the health-care field."|ret||ret||tab|

The company recruits through schools, the Internet, newspaper advertising and polling. |ret||ret||tab|

"We poll applicants, and ask them what would make them happier in their work," he said. |ret||ret||tab|

Money is seldom the top issue, he added. "Being able to perform their job and take care of people is their number one goal." |ret||ret||tab|

Nancy Merry is executive director of Medical Employ-ment Directory, a medical em-ployment agency. "We do phys-ician recruitment, nursing re-cruitment, and medical clerical recruitment," she said. "We find temporary staffing for medical offices as well as permanent placement for anything related to the medical field.|ret||ret||tab|

"The medical labor force right now is very down, as far as quality trained medical staff-ing," Merry said. It's difficult to find certified staff, she said, as well as clerical workers who understand medical terminology and medical protocol. |ret||ret||tab|

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New strategies|ret||ret||tab|

Doctors are stepping back and examining the situation, and looking at ways to revamp their strategy. |ret||ret||tab|

"You have to market smarter to attract better employees," Merry said. "You need to really take the time to train people, and you have to offer better sal-aries and benefits." |ret||ret||tab|

Western Medical Services hires LPNs and CNAs for private duty nursing. "The Bureau for Special Healthcare Needs for Children calls us with referrals," said Gayla Harlow, ad-ministrator, "and Medicaid pays for the services." |ret||ret||tab|

The private-duty nurses hired by Western Medical provide care for children in the home.|ret||ret||tab|

Harlow said LPNs are harder to find in the Springfield area than in the northern part of the state. "I think there's an abundance of need in Springfield," she said, "with all the hospitals and home health agencies."|ret||ret||tab|

Overall, the labor situation has actually improved for private-duty nursing, she added. "But the need in the hospitals is tremendous, because they em-ploy more RNs." |ret||ret||tab|

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Men in the field|ret||ret||tab|

Although nursing has been a female-dominated profession for a long time, Naegler, a registered nurse, said that through the years there has been a natural increase in the number of men becoming nurses. |ret||ret||tab|

"I can't really pinpoint exactly why," he said. But Naegler added that some of the reasons he became an RN are bacause he enjoys medicine and enjoys taking care of patients. "And you can make a decent living at it," he said.|ret||ret||tab|

He believes the increase in male nurses has had a positive effect on the field. "I think it adds a good balance," he said. "It's a myth that men aren't caring."|ret||ret||tab|

Attendance has been down at schools of nursing, Naegler said, and a number of nurses are leaving the profession. Many female nurses are retiring as early as age 30 to stay home with their children, he said. Male RNs, on the other hand, tend to enter the field and find that the money is not what they expected. They then use their experience to pursue other careers. |ret||ret||tab|

"So, what our company is doing, on the temporary side, is trying to get some of these people back into the field of nursing by offering more flexible schedules and better pay," said Naegler.|ret||ret||tab|

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Demand for care|ret||ret||tab|

The number of people needing care compared with the number of available professionals to cover the need can be discouraging for those in the medical field, he added. "Nurses, or any kind of health-care professionals, get into it to take care of people. When they lose the ability to take care of people the way they should, or could, they get burnt out."|ret||ret||tab|

Merry said that specialty doctors such as pediatric surgeons are hard to find, as are X-ray technicians, specialized nurses, ultrasound technicians and certified billing coders. |ret||ret||tab|

For a while, she said, the nursing field was saturated, so people began backing off. "Now, it's recycling," she said. "Peo-ple are realizing that this is again going to be an entity that, if you have the dedication, work ethic and capability, you'll find a position." |ret||ret||tab|

Naegler foresees a more aggressive approach to filling the ever-increasing need for health care workers. |ret||ret||tab|

"What we're going to have to do on a societal level is we're going to have to make the health profession attractive again," he said. "People used to encourage their kids to become doctors. Now they say, You don't want to be a doctor, you'll get sued, and you have to go to school for several years.' We have to change those perceptions. Kids that are in kindergarten and first grade now will be taking care of us someday."|ret||ret||tab|

Right now, health care is provided very well in this region, Naegler said. "That's not true everywhere. What we've got to do is look beyond today, way into the future." This will take a team effort, he said, with cooperation between health care institutions and private companies.|ret||ret||tab|

"A lot of times my type of company is perceived as an enemy to health care, but that's a misconception," he said. "We have the same goal and the same agenda as the health care institutions trying to find quality people who can take care of patients."[[In-content Ad]]