3 Ways Hospital Leaders Are Developing Talent Pipelines for an Enduring Workforce

Executives share strategies for educating and developing healthcare workers at the HealthLeaders Workforce NOW Summit.

As healthcare’s workforce crisis continues to evolve, hospital leaders recognize that the long game requires building talent pathways at every stage, from early education levels to medical staff leadership.

At the HealthLeaders Workforce NOW Summit, hospital executives from across the country shared strategies to address staffing shortages by creating pipelines that ensure long-term sustainability.

The discussion, featuring Sharla Baenen, COO of Emplify Health, Bellin region, Martha Henley, CEO of Unity Medical Center and COO of Java Medical Group, and Jeshahnton Essex, COO of Baylor University Medical Center, part of Baylor Scott & White Health, made clear that while challenges vary across rural and urban settings, developing talent is the foundation of workforce resilience.

Here are three ways these leaders are developing talent to build the workforce of the future.

Reaching talent early

For each of the panelists, workforce development starts years before candidates graduate from nursing school.

Essex described how Baylor Scott & White is making investments at the middle and high school levels to capture interest in healthcare careers early.

“One of the strategies that we've really been pushing is our ability to develop more formal partnerships with post-secondary education institutions and try to be able to get to the talent base as early as possible,” Essex said.

Baenen outlined a structured pathway that gives students multiple entry points into the industry. Through healthcare academies, youth apprenticeships, and student nurse technician programs, Emplify Health creates a seamless journey from the classroom to the bedside.

“By the time they're graduating from nursing school, you've already done most of their orientation, which is amazing,” Baenen said. “So that's a huge time saver and cost saver.”

For rural communities, where recruiting from outside markets is especially difficult, Henley stressed that exposure is key. She highlighted that her organization invites students into hospitals for tours and hands-on learning, which goes a long way to creating a lasting connection.

“We do tours where we get them excited not just about the nursing aspect, but in the lab, in the office,” Henley said. “Once they're comfortable inside our doors, it feels like home to them.”

Leveraging education partnerships

Partnerships with academic institutions have become a cornerstone of workforce strategy, giving hospitals both a stronger pipeline and a role in shaping curricula.

Baylor Scott & White is one of 10 healthcare organizations working with Bloomberg Philanthropies to develop an education program for schools across the country, according to Essex. He noted that the effort is already paying dividends in Dallas, where students at Uplift Education are being introduced to healthcare careers and prepared to pursue additional training.

Emplify Health has taken a similar approach at the university level, funding education for licensed clinical social workers through a philanthropic gift and providing clinical placements.

“If we can remove barriers for learning and help students with clinical placement and licensure, it’s a huge benefit for us to maximize workforce opportunities,” Baenen said.

Henley shared that smaller systems can also play an outsized role in supporting vocational programs. When a local school needed space, Java Medical Group opened its doors so students could continue learning on site. That type of collaboration, she said, not only builds talent pipelines but also strengthens ties with the community.

Developing future clinician leaders

Talent development doesn’t stop at recruitment. All three executives underscored the importance of preparing physicians and clinicians to step into leadership roles to strengthen engagement and align on decision-making.

Baenen described how Emplify Health relies on physician dyad partnerships to ensure clinical leaders are equal partners in strategic and operational decisions.

“Within our structure, we have service line leadership and an administrative leader paired with a physician dyad partner,” she said. “That is key and is truly their partner to work together on opportunities related to recruitment, workforce, and the day-to-day operational challenges.”

Henley said transparency is critical for keeping physicians engaged and committed, especially in resource-constrained rural hospitals.

“From the very beginning we bring them in, show them the books, show them the numbers, show them what they’re working with, and it becomes a partnership,” she said.

At Baylor Scott & White, Essex pointed to a collaboration with Southern Methodist University that provides physicians with business and leadership training, equipping them for greater responsibilities in governance and operations.

“We’ve had a leadership development course for physicians that helps intersect business and medicine,” Essex said. “We had one physician recently that even shared that by going through that course, they thought it was possibly even more valuable than a whole semester of an MBA program.”

When combined, these strategies allow hospitals and health systems to go beyond simple recruitment to not only solidify today’s workforce, but build the workforce of tomorrow as well.

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