1. Skip to content

Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Health Care

They are talking about this topic: Workforce Trends & Challenges

 

Your Selection:


The quotes below are about this issue:
General Workforce Shortage: Many employers are having difficulty filling positions, particularly for LPNs, advanced practice and specialty, and clinical lab careers.

Employer Quote Region
"I've had an ad out now for seven months for an LPN with no hits. We decided we needed LPNs but we can't find them, so we'll go to all RNs. I put out an ad for an RN, and I got four in one day. But when they find out what the job entails, it's not glamorous enough. They don't want to do what an LPN does. And so we're stuck between a rock and a hard place because I need LPNs, but I can't get an RN to do what they do." Northwest
"In this area, greater Minnesota, it's generally always challenging to find professionals. It doesn't matter what occupation." Northwest
"I don't know what it's going to take, but we're struggling to find LPNs. They're just not out there. And they're going directly into the RN program, and then going to hospitals, I know we're close to Fargo, and I know a lot of people in our area go to Fargo. So, I don't know what the answer is." Northwest
"It sounds like there's a big demand in Bemidji for LPNs who are in northern Minnesota here. So, if there's a big demand for LPNs, there are maybe other programs with MnSCU—maybe that's the thing to take to MnSCU—that the other programs will have to ramp up there." Northwest
"Or maybe we need to actually promote what an LPN does. Because we have surveyed our students, and none of them want to be LPNs. They go through the program because it's the only option there. So, it's one of those really tough things. It used to be that—when I went through the LPN program—I wanted to be an LPN. So, things have changed. But there's certainly not the promotion there that we see for other health care fields. So, what's it like being an LPN? What's the great part about giving individualized care and having an opportunity to see what they do at long-term care facilities? It means you get to be connected with people. I think that the whole promotion of that career has been lost." Northwest
"I guess for us, even if our LPNs look different, and are trained differently three years from now than they are now, at least we have LPNs. I was talking to an administrator in another town saying, 'We're not able to admit residents at this time because we don't have the staff to care for them.'" Northwest
"We have 20 LPNs and all but one have graduated from the [MnSCU college] Licensed Practical Nursing Program. What I see happening at our long-term care facility is that they work as a CNA while they're going to LPN school. And then they are an LPN while they're going into the RN program. And maybe they complete that in a year or two. So, I see good solid staff for three to four years which is huge in this industry—there's not the staff turnover like a lot of people see.

I was in a class one time, and I was told that the City of Bemidji is the second fastest growing city in the state of Minnesota. That's huge. Bemidji is booming. You know, look around us—Bemidji is booming. But can I operate a long-term care facility without LPNs? No. I cannot. I would have to shut the doors. I will not do medicine trained technicians. I cannot afford to hire RNs. We already have three full-time RNs on our staff, including myself. And because of the reimbursement—that we all know has gone to zero—it's not practical for me to have RNs in our facility passing medicines when we're doing everything else. We need LPNs to do the dressing changes and to do the medicine management and communications with doctors. I can't do it without my nurses. Do you want me to close the doors of my long-term care facility after being so successful for ten years? I don't think so. This city needs it. And if you allow me to speak bluntly: This is not our problem. This is the problem of the technical college. You've got to figure out a way to keep the program going. To keep getting us nurses, so that we can provide care for the seniors—the growth in senior care is exploding. I get one to two referrals every single day. And I have four calls a day, 'I need my loved one placed today. Do you have an opening?' Are you kidding me? This is going to continue. We have got to keep our nurses afloat, and it can't be just RNs. We have our direct care staff that consists of CNAs. We need them. I absolutely support the CNA program at the vocational school. Are there qualified nurses coming out of the program? Absolutely. Do they need some guidance and direction? That's why we're there. We are all experienced RNs, and we know what needs to be done. And if we're going to do it right, we need to keep them. So, do we want to do it right? Or do we want to fail our seniors and not provide them with the care that they deserve? I don't know what else to say."		 Northwest
"The CNA level—the need for that to continue to grow. We also see some of the younger people, because it typically is a young base for the most part, it's not someone who's choosing it as a career anymore. You know, 20 years ago, being a CNA was a career. It was a life choice. And you did that, and you took care of your family. Now, we see it with the younger base as a stepping stone to something else, maybe not even in health care. But it's a great job when you're coming out of high school and going into college and all of that. So, the people who are choosing to stay in it are the younger ones that need some satisfaction, need somewhere to go within CNA. Right now, we're looking at what we can put in place for a career ladder within our organization that CNAs can accomplish to get to another level of education or competency.

Question: Something other than becoming an LPN or an RN?

Employer: Right. Something that we can offer within our organization to keep them satisfied even while they're going to school or if they're choosing to just stay with CNA, which we are hoping that a lot of people will choose to do. To get people to understand that it can be a career again, and to slow down some of this turnover."		 Northwest
"Employer 1: There are some periods of time where there are zero applications for LPNs. So, there's a shortage.

Employer 2: So, on the LPNs—zero applications?

Employer 1: At some points.

Employer 2: I would wonder—with the LPNs in that group—how many of those are pursuing their RN degrees?

Employer 1: That was my question, too.

Employer 3: Yeah. I had that.

Employer 1: What we see, too—we're in long-term care and we see the same thing. We might not get LPN applicants, or if we do get an LPN applicant it's someone who is pursuing their RN degree and probably isn't going to stay in that position long-term. I think our program in Alexandria—when I visit with the LPN students—probably 80 to 90 percent are planning to move on to the RN program. So, it's hard to find LPNs that want to remain LPNs."		 Northwest
"I felt the same way being in long-term—that LPNs plan to move on to become RNs. And that creates a shortage. We don't have that pool of applicants either." Northwest
"I think that there's a lot of availability of that two-year RN, and we struggle more to get the four-year RN. In our organization, right now we are only hiring the four-year RN for acute care. And it also depends on the time of year. Right now, there is a pool of applicants, but by this fall we are really getting short on finding applicants. The other thing is that in Fargo—where we're taking a pool from the Minnesota side as well as from the North Dakota side—we are getting also a big pool of applicants that are coming from the Twin Cities. I don't know if you're seeing that at all in long-term care? We're getting a lot of applicants from the Twin Cities when they find out the hospitals there aren't hiring new grads. And then they're in our organization maybe a year, and then they move back.

Question: Move back to the Twin Cities?

Employer: Right. Or if you have a shift in Duluth—if there's not openings in Duluth, to look at outlines from the Duluth area as well. New grad applicants.

Question: Your preference is for a RN with four years?

Employer: Four years. They have to be signed off by the CNO in order to be hired if they are not a four-year prepared baccalaureate nurse."		 Northwest
"We're short in therapists. Respiratory therapists and physical therapists are in short supply in our area." Northwest
"CNAs are our ongoing shortage." Northwest
"One of the barriers is that the college needs so many applicants in the class before they can run the class. And, the turnover in CNA is greater than the output coming out as certified.

Question: So, people work and then go on or leave?

Employer: Right. They're student-based a lot, and so they're moving on in life. And that creates a hole for us, as an employer, that can't be filled that quickly."		 Northwest
"Therapy and speech language pathologists. We've struggled with those in the past." Northwest