How to Overcome Rural Healthcare Recruitment Challenges

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By Jeff Beilstein, Tennison Group, Inc. Dollarphotoclub_63532166web

Recruiters face several recruitment challenges when recruiting doctors to practice in rural communities. Geography, economics, culture, education, technological resources and health care resources are a main source of the recruitment challenges.

While challenging, a savvy recruiter knows that one of the best ways to find healthcare talent for rural locations is to create a recruitment plan that will not only attract a solid candidate, but will cater to both candidate and, if applicable, family members. Why? Because a shift to a rural community will not only affect the physician candidate, but their family as well.

Small Town Appeal

While small town communities face many challenges, they offer alternative opportunities and lifestyles. For example, they are less densely populated than suburban and urban areas. There tends to be less pollution, noise and crime.

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Rural communities tend to have less pollution, noise and crime.

Many rural areas offer beautiful scenery including mountains and lakes. Small town residents may also have access to open areas of land and the opportunity to live on the water, mountain or in pastoral communities. These communities may allow access to outdoor recreational activities such as camping, hiking, fishing, boating, horseback riding and bicycling. When recruiting for rural areas, a recruiter should take the time to become very familiar of the unique aspects of the recruitment community.

Opportunity to Builder Closer Working Relationships

Rural hospitals tend to have a quaint feel, similar to their community. In small towns, many hospital employees know each other. Many are neighbors. Physicians know their patients personally more often than not. It is not unusual for the physicians to run into their patients when while grocery shopping, dining or at the movies. This can help physicians feel a connection with the community. A word of caution for the recruiter–it is vital that the physician candidate must be made aware of this small-town atmosphere before they are brought to town for an interview and before they are hired.

The most successful physician recruits are those that are particularly interested in practicing in smaller hospitals. Doctors seeking smaller institutions tend to gravitate toward rural and suburban communities as the majority of small hospitals are located in these areas. As a general rule, the smaller the bed size (50 beds or fewer) the more likely that it’s located in a rural community. A selling point for the recruiter is that there may be fewer specialists and less backup for hospitalist providers in these smaller institutions. Medical resources and technology are usually limited in these rural areas. As a result, the hospitalist physician may be viewed as the go-to person, the expert in town. A recruiter needs to be sure that the candidate is secure in their skills and in that role.

A Final Suggestion

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Jeff Beilstein

In summary, small towns can be a challenge to successfully recruit physician candidates. The recruiter must identify candidates who are confident in their skills and the recruiter must identify the attractive characteristics of their community and match them to the ideal candidate.

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Jeff Beilstein is an Executive Recruiter with Tennison Group, Inc., a national executive search and consulting firm specializing in the recruitment of senior staff, management and senior management for accounting, finance and investment positions in all industries ranging from Fortune 100 firms to early stage enterprises.  He can be reached by email at jbeilstein@tennisongrp.com.