Covid-19 has managed to shake up the reality of everyone’s work lives in the last few years. The healthcare industry has felt the tremors of Covid-19’s wake especially hard, and this has led to many healthcare professionals feeling uncertain about their futures. In fact, there are many major happenings within the industry making staff hesitant about where the next 10 years might take them.

Staffing Shortages Have Yet to Go Away

The sheer amount of hospitals, doctor offices, and other needed medical facilities that remain understaffed is dispiriting. Between a lack of funds and a low pool of healthcare professionals, staffing shortages have made the pandemic that much more brutal. Due to how carefully Covid-19 must be contained, the ever-shifting pool of employees who are well enough to work makes this crisis that much worse. The sometimes harsh lingering effects associated with those that have contracted Covid-19 make this issue all the more frustrating.

Because of these factors, the staff at hard-hit locations are often expected to work lots more hours, especially if they are new hires. This has led to major blowback and worker fatigue that make many of the other items that we’ll discuss within this article that much harsher, and harder to handle. Without the needed staffing pool, many medical facilities are finding it difficult to keep their patients and staff completely safe.

Is It Time To Retire?

To make the already major staffing shortage in the healthcare industry worse, there are a higher number of healthcare professionals who are taking the pandemic’s stresses as a sign that their careers need to end entirely. With the number of professionals retiring (especially older and more at-risk workers), there is more room for younger professionals to snag awesome jobs, but in the meantime, the shortage of workers will only be exaggerated by the number of important positions being left empty.

That being said, the state of the industry, and political climates, have made it more difficult for some healthcare professionals to retire. Some professionals even see it as a moral issue that they continue to fight the pandemic to the best of their abilities (even if it puts them in potential danger from the virus).

New Positions Might Prove Appealing to Younger Healthcare Professionals

The Covid-19 Pandemic has seen major, almost unheard of cooperation within the globe’s national medical industries. These efforts have led to huge leaps forward in the actual technologies and capabilities the medical industry can wield. With these improvements, more hybrid jobs and brand-new positions within the medical industry are beginning to pop up (especially for those who are qualified as both medical professionals and scientific researchers).

While the amount of new positions is exciting, it has become another key reason that some industries within the medical field are finding positions hard to fill. Especially when it comes to some of the most common and important positions in the field (such as nurses and physicians) demand for employees remains notably high. Due to this, employers need to be able to provide major pay and benefit perks to attract top talent (and sometimes even employees who are brand new to their roles).

Vaccination Mandates are Still Proving Controversial for Some Healthcare Professionals

Despite the medical industry sporting one of the largest percentages of workers that are actively vaccinated against Covid-19, there remains a small (yet loud) portion of employees who are hesitant (or outright hostile) at the thought of getting vaccinated. With many of the largest employers requiring their staff to get the shot or get fired, this small minority has made the staffing crisis that much longer-lasting. Florida has seen an especially noticeable shift in available positions in the medical industry.

The recent rulings by the Supreme Court of the U.S. shooting down many of the Biden admin’s Covid-19 vaccination mandates’ regulations have made this issue even more complicated (and future rulings make things that much more uncertain). Although some frontline workers are still all but required to be vaccinated to work, some major companies are beginning to loosen up (or almost get rid of entirely) on their own company-made vaccine mandates. HCA and Tenet have been two of the most well-known and employee-heavy examples of major players beginning to shift their approach to vaccination mandates amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Healthcare Professionals Should Not Hesitate to Reevaluate Their Career Path

Whether you’re all behind the vaccination effort, or still skeptical, all healthcare workers out there should be giving serious thought to how they want to proceed with their careers in the healthcare industry. The number of crises regarding staffing and vaccination regulations shows no sign of stopping, so you can not afford to put this question on the backburner. Finding the most comfortable, and skill set-fitting role for your future within healthcare will keep you much safer and happier in the long run.