Now, more than ever, we need solutions that bring together workforce organizations, Florida colleges and others to identify and nurture health care talent.
The new federal minimum staffing requirements on nursing homes, requiring them to increase their care to 3.48 daily hours per resident, brings new urgency to the need for innovative health care talent solutions in Florida, which is ground zero in the nationwide shortage of qualified nursing staff amid a rapidly aging population.
Now, more than ever, we need solutions that bring together workforce organizations, Florida colleges and others to identify and nurture health care talent. This means finding new ways to bring people into the health care career “funnel,” including those who might traditionally never get the chance. It means four-year colleges taking the long view in student recruitment by supporting initiatives that on-ramp overlooked populations — bringing them into Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) training and then leveraging their success to steer them toward degree paths like nursing.
Florida already has the highest percentage of senior residents in the United States, and it is projected that seniors will account for almost a third of Florida’s population by 2030, a significant increase from today’s 20%. Nursing homes are critical to meeting these seniors’ health care needs.
In contrast, a recent study projects that Florida will have a shortage of 60,000 nurses by 2035. Prior to the federal mandate, which is aimed at ensuring high-quality patient care and alleviating the burden on health care professionals, our nursing homes were already working hard to address the workforce shortage in anticipation of the upcoming influx of seniors. Recent efforts have reduced the vacancy rate for registered nurses from 21% in 2022 to 13% in 2023. But, in the wake of this mandate, hiring more CNAs will be even more critical to help meet these new minimum care requirements.
Dwyer Workforce Development, a health care workforce development nonprofit, is addressing the severity of Florida’s health care workforce shortage through a holistic model that more organizations should follow. It includes training, job placement support, need-based wraparound services and person-centered case management to individuals who lack opportunities, helping them become registered CNAs. Dwyer Workforce Development works with its partners to provide traditional training as well as comprehensive wraparound services such as subsidized child care, transportation vouchers and affordable housing.
With unmatched support and case managers, 81% of Dwyer Workforce Development’s scholars have completed their CNA training program, with 86% of those scholars successfully placed in a health care career. And perhaps most important: Dwyer provides continued support, including tuition for CNA graduates who want to continue their postsecondary education.
Florida’s colleges understand that one of the greatest needs in health care is to facilitate an attainable path to nursing and other health care careers. Dwyer Workforce Development’s approach, for example, allows students to begin earning money as CNAs while enrolling in a Florida college to graduate with an AA degree or higher. This is a truly life-changing path, and it is a community-based model that helps individuals to not only improve their own lives — but then pay it forward to help the lives of their patients
Dwyer Workforce Development launched its services in Florida in 2023, starting in Brevard County with a partnership with CareerSource Brevard. They are now also partnered with CareerSource Polk and Astoria Senior Living, CareerEdge and Suncoast Technical College in Sarasota, and will expand services to Chipola and Citrus, Levy and Marion counties this summer. This momentum is encouraging.
The approach embraced by Dwyer works because it addresses the whole person, challenging models seen in other programs. This holistic, person-centered case management will not only help attract more people to the field but also improve program retention and completion.
Organizations and communities are encouraged to join this movement in advancing innovative solutions for this growing health care workforce crisis — both in Florida and across the country.
Tony Carvajal is CEO/executive director of the Association of Florida Colleges.