Healthcare employers: Seek out talent early, that's when they start looking
About 36 percent of new physicians started their job search in the second to last year of residency, survey shows.
Hospitals and practice leaders need to get an early start when it comes to recruiting talent, according to a recent survey by PracticeMatch, a company that provides data, recruitment resources, and online job boards to healthcare employers.
About 36 percent of new physicians started their search for their first practice opportunity in the second to last year of residency, according to the recent survey of 691 new physicians, and more than half of graduating physicians began their job search at the beginning of their final year of training.
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Only 18 percent waited until the end of the last year of residency or fellowship to start looking, PracticeMatch said.
"The most competitive, proactive healthcare employers are catching onto this trend as well, establishing relationships with residents and fellows earlier in their training, and offering monthly stipends for the last year or two of training, further motivating physicians to commit to employment sooner," said Mike York, chief operations officer of PracticeMatch.
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This is especially true for in-demand specialties like primary care, the company said.
Ironically, the survey also indicated that formal job search training and resources are lacking for most residency and fellowship programs with nearly half of respondents reporting little to no job search guidance in their training.
The most common forms of training reported were live job fairs, financial planning / student loan advice, helpful website services, resume writing and virtual job fairs. Good old word of mouth seemed to still dominate as a means to finding a job, with nearly three-fourths of respondents using peer referrals or word-of-mouth to look for work. Newer methods like online job boards were a very close second, with 60 percent of respondents using them.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sanborn@himssmedia.com
