The US healthcare industry is facing unprecedented worker shortage and it’s getting worse. These critical shortages are now being acutely felt across the sector and having a negative impact on both healthcare providers and patients. From neurosurgeons and heart specialists to nurses and dental industry staff, crucial aspects of patient care must be addressed.

Demand for high-quality healthcare practitioners was already much higher than supply before the onset of the COVID crisis. The pandemic merely accelerated this development. In testimony during a congressional hearing on addressing the dire healthcare workforce shortage, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) CEO David J. Skorton, MD noted that the issue of increasing clinician burnout has been intensified by the pandemic and could prompt doctors and other health professionals to cut back their hours or even fast track retirement plans.

More than two out of every five active physicians in the US will be 65 or older within the decade, and their retirement decisions will significantly affect the scale of national workforce shortages. The AAMC projects that the US could experience an estimated shortage of 139,000 physicians by 2033, with shortfalls in both primary and specialty care.

These projections in tandem with the current scenario shows just how dire the healthcare situation is. It can be even worse when considering this caveat from the AAMC. If marginalized minority groups, rural communities, and people without health insurance had the same healthcare needs and use patterns as population segments with fewer barriers to access, up to an additional 180,400 physicians would be needed now.

According to the AAMC, primary care (general pediatrics, family and geriatric medicine) has a shortage range prediction of between 17,800-48,000 physicians and nonprimary care specialties between 21,000-77,100 professionals. These are, indeed, startling estimates, and the dental industry is not immune, with figures showing that—as in other areas of healthcare—the country is also in the midst of an acute dental labor shortage.

Poll data from the ADA Health Policy Institute supports this:

  • 35.8% of dental practice owners are recruiting dental assistants
  • 28.8% are seeking dental hygienists
  • 26.5% are looking to hire administrative staff
  • 13.1% are in search of associate dentists

These dental practices owners are also finding the current job market to be far more competitive than pre-pandemic, making the task of recruiting and retaining staff more challenging than ever. Given the overall lack of qualified dental staff, the ADA reports that headhunters and competitor practices are wooing away team members with better job offers, which creates a higher turnover and, ultimately, a less unified practice and less satisfied patients. The general increase in dental staff salary has also hit practices hard given that many are still recovering from the low patient volume experienced during the pandemic and higher overhead costs.

Finally, most people develop more health problems as they age. So, if you add to the mix that the overall population of the United States is expected to increase by 10.4% in the next 15 years—with the number of people over 65 forecasted to rise by 45.1% over the same period—this means fewer dental workers taking care of more dental patients. The specter of increased burnout among dental providers looms large.

Is “The Great Resignation” Real?

The simple, but very resounding answer, is yes. Figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) show that 4 million Americans quit their jobs in July 2021. In November, resignations climbed in several industries, with the largest increases registered in healthcare and social assistance; hospitality; as well as in transportation, warehousing, and utilities.

In an in-depth global analysis of more than 9 million employee records from more than 4,000 companies across a range of industries, HR strategist Ian Cook and his team determined two key trends:

– resignation rates were highest among mid-career employees between 30-45 years
– resignations were highest in the tech and healthcare industries

Expanding on these, Cook points out that 3.6% more healthcare workers quit their jobs than in the previous year (2020), while in tech, resignations were up by 4.5%.

“In general, we found that resignation rates were higher among employees who worked in fields that had experienced extreme increases in demand due to the pandemic, likely leading to increased workloads and burnout.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, many workers lost their jobs as businesses shut down because of the lockdowns and firms laid off employees amid falling revenues. As the world gradually comes to terms with the new normal, the question is: can companies fill all of the new positions that have been created in the previous two years, as well stop the flood of resignations?

Even amid the resignation epidemic, it’s not all doom and gloom. Workers aren’t just quitting their positions and exiting the workforce completely, but switching jobs. In many instances, these new positions are even in the same industry, but simply in a different location or with another company. And the kicker? There are currently 1.5 jobs for every unemployed person in America.

Instead of seeing it as a one-time employee exodus, some choose to be more positive and rather look at it as the great reshuffle. Even better, the Great Resignation can be turned into the Great Retention if employers develop smart strategies to keep their best and brightest.

great resignation in healthcare

How It Affects Recruitment and Retention in the Dental Industry

Labor shortages have long plagued the dental industry, but against the backdrop of the Great Resignation, tackling this problem is taking on a new sense of urgency. In the current climate, dental industry experts expect labor costs to increase along with other overhead expenses such as hiring and onboarding new employees.

Dental practices, no doubt, will need to establish or improve programs for employee retention. This could include stay interviews to gauge employee sentiment, ensure teams feel appreciated, listened to, and are given the proper tools to fulfill their roles, competitive pay and benefits, and reconfiguring training programs. Regular performance reviews can add another layer to career development while positive feedback can help improve morale and motivation.

Cook believes organizations should adopt a data-driven approach to improve retention strategies and proposes a three-pronged solution. First, employers should quantify both the problem and its impact on key operational areas. Next, identify the root causes that are pushing workers to quit. Finally, he says, employers should implement targeted retention campaigns that directly speaks to specific issues dental industry employees are struggling with the most.

dental industry labor shortage

Challenges Faced With a Reduced Workforce

When positions are left open, it triggers an inevitable snowball effect that leads to morale issues, affects the way dentists and their remaining team members operate, and, very possibly, results in subpar levels of service for patients.

It becomes a vicious cycle where employees are left feeling overworked, overwhelmed, overlooked. Some may even consider quitting. Even day-to-day dental practice functions could become increasingly difficult to execute with short staff. With so many dental assistants, hygienists, and specialist positions staying open longer, patients may experience longer wait times for procedures or even routine checkups. This can affect the entire dental practice, as patients (current and prospective) may look elsewhere.

Then there’s the very real possibility that already under pressure employees operating in understaffed practices could be subjected to increased stress, anxiety, and head for burnout faster.

Leveraging dental industry technology to make processes easier will help stop workers from getting swamped. A quick and easy way to drive down stress levels in understaffed dental practices is by automating tedious, repetitive tasks. Using online scheduling platforms and AI chatbots, for example, lessens the burden of front-desk staff and streamlines the patient experience. If routine tasks aren’t digitized or automated, then the stress that administrative staff experience could build up fast, and lead to resignations.

Why You Should Worry About Employee Burnout

Another phenomenon is playing out amid the labor shortages and ongoing global pandemic, and healthcare, again, appears to be at the epicenter.

Burnout—it has been found—is the primary driver behind the mass employee exodus in 2021. According to a Limeade survey of 1000 full-time US workers who started new jobs, the No. 1 reason why employees left their previous employers was burnout (40%), followed by organizational changes at the company (34%), not feeling valued (20%), and insufficient benefits (19%).

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as a syndrome triggered by chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed. It’s characterized by three aspects: exhaustion, lower productivity, and increased mental distance from one’s job.

There are several contributing factors driving the rapid rise of stress among health workers. Of these, prolonged and excessive job demands, lack of resources, individual vulnerability, and poor work organization can be directly attributed to high levels of work stress, and consequently, burnout.

Excessive amounts of work, even over short periods, can lead to chronic fatigue, absenteeism, high staff turnover, patient dissatisfaction, and, critically, increased diagnosis and treatment errors. When an office of 5 people is taking on a workload that 10 people should be sharing, then all 5 employees are at risk of experiencing burnout.

So, burnout is real and its impact on the dental industry is damaging, detrimental, and debilitating.

The first step to tackling burnout in a dental practice is to acknowledge it's happening in the first place. Then, what’s urgently needed are proactive interventions to mitigate the psychological impact that stressful workplaces can have on employees.

Of course, every dental practice is unique with specific needs, but some universal preventive measures include:

  • Check in regularly with with employees – Make time to ask employees how things are going, personally and professionally. In other words, make them feel secure. This way, employers hone in on the pain points and can intervene accordingly. Have conversations rather than talking down to them. And, importantly, listen, really listen to employees.
  • Get better organized – Reduce job strain by optimizing workloads and working times, ensuring safe staffing levels, encouraging regular breaks and having flexible schedules. Rethink shift lengths to avoid fatigue, and consider shift rotation.
  • Encourage time off – Downtime allows team members to recharge and invest in their own physical and mental well-being. This will help build morale and translate into a more healthy dental practice.
  • Focus on team-building – While work is serious business, nurturing positive relationships through fun activities will help create a better, lighter atmosphere for all. Scheduling such activities encourages team members to know and understand each other better on a personal and professional level, and will build camaraderie.
  • Invest in office technology - Patient schedule setter and automated reminders can reduce the administrative workload. Surveys post-service can also raise morale or identify improvements that can be immediately made without straining staffing resources. Finally HIPAA-compliant telemedicine solutions can make virtual dentistry a viable option for treating patients and reducing employee burnout.

Focusing on the well-being of employees can translate into raised productivity and higher profits. In fact, WHO reports that every $1 spent on workplace strategies for better employee mental health will yield an ROI of $4.

An ongoing commitment to make employee mental health a priority by mitigating or eliminating workplace stressors while promoting meaningful change in organizational practices will demonstrate to employees that employers care and are sympathetic to the stresses they feel. Remember, if one employee feels overwhelmed and decides to quit, it can easily spread across the team. And if multiple workers resign, the idea of quitting can quickly build into a mighty avalanche.

Telemedicine: Saving Your Practice, or Asking for More Visits?

When patients find it hard to access in-person services, the obvious alternative is to bring services to the patient. Telehealth was already on the rise before the pandemic, but has now become more pronounced across the dental industry. A study by FAIR Health found that telehealth claims to private insurers increased by 4,347% from 2019 to 2020. As demand for telehealth options rise, healthcare professionals will need to be agile enough to adapt.

That said, a University of Michigan study has found that 10.3% of the patients first seen through a direct-to-consumer telehealth visit ended up having an in-person visit in the next week, compared with 5.9% of those who had their first visit in person. Another FAIR Health report, meanwhile, shows that though telehealth applications are gaining traction, it is far lower than growth seen in March 2020. What this indicates, according to mHealthIntelligence, is that though telehealth is shaping up to be a key part of the care portfolio going forward, providers have yet to figure out how best to integrate it with other types of care delivery.

"I think of virtual care and virtual visits as a channel in a multichannel strategy," says Gurpreet Singh, health services sector leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. "What I mean by that is, think of it less as an on-or-off replacement of therapies that can't be handled in person, but rather a channel or a tool in the portfolio of options that the health system or even physicians have."

Amid the talent shortage, workforce planning becomes a key consideration even with virtual care options. It comes down to more analytics, Singh adds. “It's basically trying to get ahead of where these surges might occur. Some are trying to predict when the demand flows are going to change and how that might affect your supply, if you will, of nurses, the staff that you need, and the staff that's required in both [in-person and virtual settings]."

Improving Quality of Life

The stated reasons for workers walking out on their jobs were percolating long before the pandemic... The global health emergency was simply the catalyst for this trend to become a crisis. With businesses in a state of flux, now is an opportune moment to proactively address these triggers that have kept dental industry workers unfulfilled, frustrated, and restless.

“People reached their limits,” says Limeade’s chief science advisor Laura Hamill of the Great Resignation, who then offers a most apt interpretation of the phenomenon.

“There was a societal breakdown when it came to the ecosystem of work, home and wellbeing.”

Great employee experiences create workplaces where people want to be, and employee wellbeing is the watchword going forward. Remember, your team is the most valuable resource of your dental practice. Improving employee experiences—every interaction a worker has with an employer from the very first touchpoint through the exit—are going to be key in retaining talent.

Training and development is a big part of creating great employee experiences which, in turn, has proven to put a dent in staff turnover rates. From CE-credited seminars to free live and on-demand webinars, Sterngold Dental offers dental professionals and their teams the ability to stay abreast of rapidly evolving developments in restorative dentistry which can yield more loyal employees and build more resilient practices.

By enlisting the support of practicing Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) as well as leveraging internal expertise in the areas of mini and convetional implants and attachments, digital dentures, as well as alternative pain management prescription, Sterngold provides your entire dental team with the knowledge and understanding to enhance patient care outcomes.

Our mission is to help dentists provide an enhanced quality of life to patients so they can do more, enjoy more, smile more, with access to our quality and affordable products. 2022 presents a brand new opportunity to grow.