Healthcare HR Week Salutes the Important Work of Healthcare Human Resources Professionals

From March 10-16, celebrate the people who take care of the caregivers by recognizing Healthcare HR Week.

These regularly observed festivities began in 2012 and are promoted by the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA). The week calls attention to the hard work and dedication of HR professionals, whose jobs often go above and beyond the usual human resources duties. This time honors healthcare human resources professionals who work in hospitals, health systems, clinics, long-term care and hospice facilities, and any other healthcare organization, ASHHRA says.

Today’s healthcare landscape is more complex than ever in terms of providing care. That has an effect on those who work in it, as well as its HR professionals, who daily must navigate a thicket of issues, including:

• workforce management

• talent shortages

• compensation and benefits

• employee relations

• talent management

• employee wellness

• government regulations

• changing reimbursement rules

• evolving medical-record keeping and other new technology

All this and more means that every day brings unique challenges and requires a willingness to explore creative solutions in order to ensure that those who are providing patient care are getting all the support and services they need in order to do their jobs well, not to mention maintaining their own mental, physical, and emotional health.

You know you work in healthcare HR if …

Healthcare HR is a job that means being “on call” no matter where you are, and what you’re doing, say those who work in healthcare human resources. And they’ll tell you that their job decryption can be a bit fluid:

I’m not a doctor, but: Healthcare HR professionals constantly diagnose workplace conditions, sometimes with little information, and recommend treatment.

I’m not an OR nurse, but: They can focus with surgical precision on the task at hand, getting results.

And that list could go on and on. All the while, healthcare HR professionals know that what they are doing is affecting not only staff, but also patient care, satisfaction, and outcomes. It can be a high-stress job, but there’s also the satisfaction of knowing that without a strong HR team, no healthcare organization could do all that it does. You could say that healthcare HR professionals have their own set of patients—and so must have a lot of patience!

That’s only the employee-care portion of their duties. They also must be able to respond to institutional and external needs around recruitment, hiring, training, and compliance, as well as pivot quickly when rapid changes come. As Healthcare HR Professionals Week unfolds, it’s a good time to see if healthcare HR managers are being given the tools they need in order to rise to those challenges.

For instance, do they have access to innovative workforce education and operations solutions? HealthStream’s robust and evolving suite of solutions is tailor-made to the tasks that face healthcare HR professionals every day. In fact, we are trusted by more than 70 percent of healthcare organizations in the United States. Healthcare HR is always going to be a challenge, but why not rely on the top solutions to help with workforce education and competency management? Click here to learn more about our simple, customizable and effective services.