
#243 - Building the Healthcare Workforce Before They Apply
You Can't Hire Your Way Out of This — St. Elizabeth Healthcare Proves ItFeaturing Brittany Sorrell, Director of Workforce Development, St. Elizabeth Healthcare700,000 open healthcare jobs every month. 306,000 unemployed healthcare workers to fill them. The math does not work. Brittany Sorrell has spent three years building the model that actually does — and it starts in high school.Luke sits down with Brittany, a former bedside nurse and nursing faculty member turned workforce development director, to talk about what it looks like when a health system stops trying to recruit its way to stability and starts building a workforce from the ground up.🏫 K–12 Is the Real Recruiting Pipeline St. Elizabeth's workforce development strategy starts well before a candidate ever submits an application. Community partnerships, on-site exploration programs, and simulation center experiences give high school students a chance to discover careers they didn't know existed — radiation therapy being a standout example. Students leave asking to shadow. That's the pipeline. Organizations that wait until job posting miss the moment entirely.🎓 Funding Faculty to Fill the Classroom Brittany's most creative move: St. Elizabeth covers the salary gap for nurses who want to teach at partner universities — paying their clinical rate so the university can afford to keep them on faculty. The result: larger graduating cohorts, stronger institutional relationships, and graduates who already know St. Elizabeth before they apply. Two-year programs, funded by the Kentucky Work Ready Scholarship, are producing work-ready graduates at no cost to the student.🌱 The 30-Month Problem — and What St. Elizabeth Is Doing About It Gen Z nurses are outperforming every prior generation in retention through the first 24 months — then leaving at a higher rate than anyone else at month 30. Brittany's read: they're not leaving, they're growing. They hit proficiency, get the three-year itch, and start pursuing advanced roles. The organizations winning at this mark are identifying those nurses early, creating internal progression opportunities, and engaging them before the door opens.🔎 Where to Start If Workforce Development Just Landed on Your Desk Assess before you diagnose. Talk to your academic partners. Find out what they actually need — it may not be scholarships. Close the gap between what you assume and what you learn.Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.OUR SPONSORSAP3 Sponsor Read This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.Take2 Sponsor ReadThis episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started. Support the show










