Terry Shaw, president and CEO of Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth, has been focused on replenishing the system's workforce and leadership pipeline over the last few years.
"Workforce retention continues to challenge our industry, which is why we continue to be relentlessly focused on team member retention and recruitment," he told Becker's.
The health system, which has 95,000 team members, has a multi-pronged strategy for upskilling and training the workforce. AdventHealth developed the Leadership Institute to instill the system's values while training up the next generation of leaders.
AdventHealth has made particular progress with reducing nurse turnover under the leadership of Trish Celano, MSN, RN, senior vice president and associate chief clinical officer and chief nursing officer. Her philosophy of "use less, lose less, hire more" helped the system drop nurse turnover from 31% to 18.9%. The strategy aims to support registered nurses to work at the top of their license through team models and bringing on more licensed practical nurses and patient care techs to deploy team-based care models.
The system also launched nursing clinical ladders systemwide, and strengthened relationships with around 100 schools to bring in their recent graduates.
In addition to the Leadership Institute, Mr. Shaw said AdventHealth offers education assistance, clinical ladder initiatives and opportunities to grow the talent pool through AdventHealth University and partnerships with post-secondary institutions. The health system is also refining benefits and compensation to stay competitive.
The results?
"We're seeing our workforce turnover rates continue to decrease and top decile performance in employee engagement," said Mr. Shaw.
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