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 The metropolitan Chicago area, like the rest of the country, is experiencing a significant health care workforce shortage that is expected to grow dramatically through 2020 if actions are not taken. The shortage includes nurses, therapists and technicians. The nursing shortage is currently estimated at 2,500 in the Chicago area alone and is expected to increase to 21,000 nurses statewide by 2020. Click here to access the Illinois Clinical Scheduler.
MCHC is firmly committed to working with our member hospitals, and educational, government, workforce investment and community partners to ensure a robust healthcare workforce for the communities we serve. In 2007, MCHC convened the first Healthcare Workforce Leadership Summit. Over 75 chief nursing officers and chief human resource officers from our member hospitals along with deans and program chairs of nursing and allied health met to develop a strategic plan for workforce development. Shortly after the Summit, MCHC partnered with the State of Illinois Subcabinet on Economic Development to align strategies in a framework that emphasizes public and private collaboration as we focus on four critical areas of the pipeline:
Development of a diverse, qualified applicant pool
Increased program capacity and improved student progress and completion
Successful transition of program completers to healthcare employment
Retention of registered nurses at the bedside Defining the demand and supply of registered nurses must take into account our current nursing workforce, factors for growth, increased demand for services, changing nursing workforce demographics and current graduation rates. The demand for new RNs entering direct care employment is 4,500 each year through 2014. Our current supply, or new entrants to the workforce, is 1,500 RNs per year, resulting in a gap of approximately 3,000 each year. Click here for the report, “Caring for the Future: Strengthening the Foundation for Meeting Metropolitan Chicago’s Growing Health Care Workforce Needs.”
The Workforce Department recently launched MCHC's Healthcare Career Board, the healthcare industry’s exclusive resource for online employment connections. The Career Board is free to all job seekers and provides you with access to the best employers and jobs in the healthcare industry and offers the most targeted advertising for your healthcare industry job openings. Click here to access.
MCHC has also partnered with Chicago LEADS, the City of Chicago’s response to economic forces that are changing the employment and business landscape. Focusing again on growing the nursing workforce and closing a projected gap of 700 new RN entries to the city’s healthcare workforce each year, MCHC and Chicago Leads are developing shared faculty models and strategies to improve nursing graduation rates in the city’s schools.
As part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, the Chicago Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs have been charged with the task of providing local high school youth with summer internship opportunities through the Mayor’s Youth Ready Chicago (MYRC) program. Click here for more information. Aggressive strategies for the short-term to increase capacity, reduce attrition and improve graduation rates in our schools of nursing were the focus of the Summit on Nursing Education Capacity, sponsored by the Department of Labor, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center to Champion Nursing and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. MCHC partnered with the State of Illinois to apply for participation in this summit, and out of 49 state applications, Team Illinois was among the 18 teams selected to go to Washington D.C. Team Illinois will make the most of this opportunity to network and tap into the creativity of our colleagues across the country and looks forward to reporting its’ progress.
Contact For more information, contact Mary Pat Olson, Workforce Development director, at 312.906.6020 or mpolson@mchc.com
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