Navigating the Shifting Sands: Education, Staffing, and Healthcare Industry Trends

The healthcare industry is in a constant state of flux, grappling with evolving demands, technological advancements, and persistent staffing challenges. Addressing these challenges requires a multifaceted approach, blending innovative recruitment strategies, employee development initiatives, and a keen awareness of emerging trends. This article delves into the key aspects of education, staffing, and industry trends shaping the healthcare landscape.

The Persistent Staffing Shortage in Healthcare

The healthcare industry has faced staffing shortages for years. A recent study projected a shortage of 100,000 healthcare workers by 2028, with specific impacts varying by state. These shortages place immense pressure on existing staff, potentially compromising patient care and overall system efficiency.

Uneven Impact Across States

The impact of these shortages will be uneven and an added burden to a system strained by geographic and demographic disparities in access to care, the report states. Populous states like California, Texas and Pennsylvania are expected to weather the storm with the estimated labor supply exceeding demand. Acute shortages are projected, however, in states like New York and New Jersey.

Nurse Assistants: A Critical Shortage

Only 13 states are expected to meet or exceed future demand and Mercer forecasts a shortage of about 73,000 NAs by 2028. Because NAs make up a large share of the overall health care workforce, these projected shortages warrant close attention.

Registered Nurse Availability

Mercer projects a slight surplus of RNs by 2028. This is counter to many other projections by experts who forecast a shortage of nurses.

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Physician Supply and Demand

Under different scenarios, the report’s authors expect a surplus of about 28,000 doctors. The authors based their findings on the Bureau of Labor Statistics standard occupation codes for all physician jobs. While some states may find a modest surplus of physicians by 2028, states like California (-2,580), Texas (-2,830) and New York (-2,706) could see sizable shortages and the combined impact of shortages for both NPs and physicians may result in significant disruptions to the continued delivery of preventive care.

Compensation and Geographic Mobility

Understanding compensation variation by occupation and geography is crucial to prepare for potential shortages. If NAs can earn more for doing the same job by moving to a neighboring state, or even a metropolitan area, they may choose to relocate, the authors note.

Strategies to Mitigate Staffing Shortages

Healthcare recruiters must remain nimble and open to new approaches to overcome these shortages. Several strategies can be employed to address these challenges:

Investing in Employee Education and Development

Our 2024 Jobseeker Report showed that nearly two-thirds of healthcare professionals want support for continuing education from their employers. The traditional approach includes healthcare systems offering tuition reimbursements or stipends. Partnerships could include establishing specific training pathways, such as helping medical assistants earn their Bachelor of Science in nursing degrees. Employee engagement increases when employees believe the company is invested in their success. The McKinsey article noted that a highly engaged workforce is up to 14 percent more productive.

Internal Skill Diversification

When current employees diversify their skills, it expands your existing talent pool. Upleveling your workforce is more efficient and cost-effective than external recruitment. Providing education benefits is a well-established approach to enhance recruitment and retention. Collaborate with health system leadership to innovate new strategies, such as developing educational partnerships that fill recruitment funnels.

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Building a Strong Company Culture

Your company culture is one of the most important components of your recruitment plan. Simply saying your company prioritizes learning isn’t enough-prospective hires want specific examples. Building a skilled, engaged workforce will help your health system thrive and, ultimately, deliver the highest-quality care.

Assessing Supply and Demand

Assess your specific supply/demand risk by occupation and department.Project internal demand for critical occupations due to attrition, expansion of services and evaluate demand against projected supply. Determine where the greatest risks lie for not filling vacant positions promptly. Some occupations are more critical than others and will require special attention and investment. Develop an understanding of the local labor market for these critical roles. If there is not a sufficient local labor market to fill critical shortages, discuss needed steps to address the situation.

Rethinking Sourcing Strategies

To ensure a consistent pipeline of talent in your local market, consider collaborating on investment in occupational development, increasing educational capacity and reviewing compensation. These include expanding your current talent acquisition efforts, internal training and graduate pipeline. You may need to pivot recruitment beyond current boundaries to meet talent where it is. Explore ways to build talent internally through training, development and certification programs. This takes time and requires proactive decision-making and a planned investment.

Prioritizing Employee Well-being

This can help improve retention and reduce burnout among staff - a common source of attrition in health care. Monitor the marketplace and fine-tune the employee value proposition with respect to pay and benefits, schedule flexibility, career growth opportunities and job satisfaction.

The Evolving Staffing Landscape: Trends and Benchmarks

After several years of sharp swings, 2025 was a year of normalization for staffing. Clients, candidates, investors, and regulators all raised their expectations at once. The dominant theme this year was not “boom” or “bust,” but sorting.

Key Trends Shaping the Staffing Industry

Normalization: After sharp swings, the market stabilized, with a cooler but tight labor market.
Wage Growth: Real average hourly earnings rose, but clients are cost-conscious.
AI Adoption: AI is widely used for sourcing, screening, and communication, but trust is a challenge.
Regulatory Scrutiny: New laws mandate bias audits and transparency for AI in hiring.
Flexible Work: Hybrid and remote options are now core differentiators.
Evolving Candidate Expectations: Same-day/weekly pay and side hustles are common.

Performance Benchmarks for Staffing Agencies

While every agency operates differently, several 2025 benchmarks offer a useful performance yardstick. According to the 2025 Staffing Speed Report from Staftr, agencies fill temporary roles in about 6 days, contract roles in 8 days, and permanent placements in roughly 32 days. Yet speed varies widely: top-performing permanent placement firms fill jobs 14 days faster than laggards, and more than 60% of candidates drop off if they wait over two weeks for a response.

Key Priorities for Staffing Agencies

Data-Driven Approach: Get serious about data and pricing.
AI Integration: Treat AI as both an accelerator and a compliance topic.
Speed and Experience: Compete on speed and experience.
Specialization: Lean into specialization and differentiation.
Flexibility: Design around worker flexibility.

Merger and Acquisition (M&A) Environment

The 2025 M&A environment is active but selective, with deal volume up, stable valuations, and strong buyer interest in specialized, profitable, tech-enabled staffing firms. To succeed, even without selling, run your firm as if you might: clean financials, consistent margins, and low client concentration increase strategic options and a clear sector focus and scalable tech stack attract acquirers and large clients. Griffin Financial Group’s Staffing Market M&A Report for Q4 2025 describes the mood as one of “cautious optimism.” Deal volume fell to 93 staffing transactions in 2024 but rebounded with a roughly 25% year‑over‑year increase in deals in the first quarter of 2025, the strongest pace since late 2022. Valuations are stable, but structures are creative. Griffin’s data show mid‑market staffing firms (with EBITDA of roughly $3-4 million) trading around 4.0-4.5x EBITDA for light‑industrial/commercial businesses, 5.0-6.0x for professional staffing, and higher multiples for fast‑growing IT and healthcare firms. Private equity is more selective. Strategic buyers are prioritizing tech and niche expertise. 2025 is still a seller’s market if your firm is profitable, specialized, and demonstrably tech‑enabled.

Technology and Automation

Highest-return priorities for agencies in 2025-2026 include: an integrated modern ATS/CRM; automation for repetitive tasks (like sourcing, outreach, scheduling, and document collection); and analytics for real-time KPIs (including time-to-submit, time-to-fill, margin, and recruiter productivity).

The Nursing Shortage: A Critical Concern

The U.S. is projected to experience a shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) that is expected to intensify as Baby Boomers age and the need for health care grows. Compounding the problem is the fact that nursing schools across the country are struggling to expand capacity to meet the rising demand for care.

Key Statistics and Projections

The RN workforce is expected to expand by 6% over the next decade.
Federal authorities project a shortage of 78,610 full-time RNs in 2025 and a shortage of 63,720 full-time RNs in 2030.
Several states are projected to have significant nursing shortages by 2035.

Factors Contributing to the Shortage

Aging population and increased demand for healthcare
Nursing school capacity limitations
Nurse burnout and attrition
Retirement of experienced nurses

Impact of Nursing Shortages on Patient Care

A growing body of research clearly links baccalaureate-prepared nurses to lower mortality and failure-to-rescue rates. The latest studies published in the journals Health Services Research in August 2008 and the Journal of Nursing Administration in May 2008 confirm the findings of several previous studies which link education level and patient outcomes. In March 2007, a comprehensive report initiated by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality was released on Nursing Staffing and Quality of Patient Care. Through this meta-analysis, the authors found that the shortage of registered nurses, in combination with an increased workload, poses a potential threat to quality. A shortage of nurses prepared at the baccalaureate level is affecting health care quality and patient outcomes. In a study published September 24, 2003, in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Dr. Linda Aiken and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania identified a clear link between higher levels of nursing education and better patient outcomes. This extensive study found that surgical patients have a “substantial survival advantage” if treated in hospitals with higher proportions of nurses educated at the baccalaureate or higher degree level.

Strategies to Address the Nursing Shortage

Increase enrollment in nursing education programs
Expand nursing school capacity
Provide financial aid and scholarships to nursing students
Improve nurse retention through better working conditions and support
Promote the value of nursing as a career
Address nurse burnout and improve well-being

Education as a Cornerstone of Healthcare Workforce Development

Education plays a pivotal role in addressing the staffing challenges and ensuring a high-quality healthcare workforce.

The Importance of Baccalaureate-Prepared Nurses

The Institute of Medicine in its landmark report on The Future of Nursing called for increasing the number of baccalaureate-prepared nurses in the workforce to at least 80% to enhance patient safety. The current nursing workforce falls short of this recommendation, though more than two-thirds of RNs are educated at the baccalaureate or graduate level. Variations in Nursing Baccalaureate Education and 30-day Inpatient Surgical Mortality. Researchers found that having a higher proportion of baccalaureate-prepared nurses (BSN) in hospital settings, regardless of educational pathway, is associated with lower rates of 30-day inpatient surgical mortality.

Addressing the Faculty Shortage in Nursing Schools

According to a Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions released by AACN in October 2023, a total of 1,977 full-time faculty vacancies were identified in a survey of 922 nursing schools with baccalaureate and/or graduate programs across the country (84.6% response rate). Besides the vacancies, schools cited the need to create an additional 103 faculty positions to accommodate student demand. The data show a national nurse faculty vacancy rate of 7.8%.

Strategic Partnerships and Initiatives

Many statewide initiatives are underway to address both the shortage of RNs and nurse educators. For example, in October 2022, the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State joined forces to create Coalition for Nursing Equity and Excellence, which will work with every school of nursing in the state, healthcare providers, and others to increase enrollment in nurse education programs, expand equity in the nursing workforce, and increase student success. Nursing schools are forming strategic partnerships and seeking private support to help expand student capacity. For example, Shenandoah University announced in March 2023 a new collaboration with Valley Health and the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association to address the region’s nursing shortage through a program that leverages retiring nurses and simulation to create a sustainable pathway into nursing.

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