How can public health organizations recruit diverse talent?
Project Summary
Policymakers struggle to find new ways to recruit healthcare workers. In this project, we examine how governments can more effectively attract nurses and nursing assistants in international, digitalized labor markets, especially to more rural areas. Together with the Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership at Aarhus University, the MoRe-Project (Megastudy on Recruitment) is partnering with public health organizations and governmental partners in Denmark to test outreach interventions related to recruiting nurses and nursing assistants.
Why is this issue important?
The public healthcare sector in many countries faces a recruitment crisis. Globally, we face a shortage of approximately six million nurses with shortages particularly dire in rural areas, according to a 2020 report by the World Health Organization. As the pandemic has demonstrated, the lack of staff in healthcare organizations threatens public health and is among the most pressing policy problems facing the healthcare sector.
What are we doing?
In partnership with researchers from Aarhus University and multiple Danish public health organizations and governmental partners we are currently designing a “megastudy” that will test the efficacy of up to 20 different social media messages on the recruitment of nurses and nursing assistants to Denmark. The messages themselves will be co-designed with nurses as well as behavioral science experts.
What comes next?
This project is currently in the design phase. We expect the field experiment to begin in 2024.