Healthcare Staffing Report: Aug. 22, 2013

Print

Survey: Healthcare workers’ confidence holds steady

Healthcare workers’ confidence remained fairly consistent in the second quarter, according to the Randstad Healthcare employee confidence index. The index edged down slightly to 54.3 in the second quarter from 54.5 in the first quarter. The survey found 26 percent believe the economy is growing stronger, up from 22 percent in the first-quarter survey.

Healthcare workers’ confidence in their personal situations remained stable. Fifty-four percent of healthcare workers said they could find another job, the same as in the third quarter, and 20 percent of workers believed there are more jobs available, down from 21 percent in the first quarter of 2013. However, after a slight decline in the first quarter, 30 percent of healthcare workers say they are likely to look for a new job this year, up four percentage points from 26 percent in the previous quarter.

“We continue to see an uptick in the demand for key healthcare skills, and believe it will only intensify as hospitals and healthcare systems begin to gear up for the influx of patients with access to care resulting from the Affordable Care Act,” said Steve McMahan, executive vice president of Randstad US, Professionals.

Despite the delay of the employer mandate provision of the ACA, many healthcare organizations can’t pause due to other time-sensitive, mandated initiatives, such as the implementation of ICD-10 and the rigorous requirements to transition to electronic medical records by 2015, McMahan said.

The index is derived from a survey of 188 healthcare workers from April 1 to April 3; May 7 to May 9; and June 4 to June 6.