Healthcare workers are vital to keeping every generation healthy and to help the sick and injured, what would we do without them? Being in healthcare is a stressful and taxing job that requires a lot of time to train and study to become one. In this guide, we explore six things impacting US healthcare jobs in 2024.
Physician shortage
Due to a multitude of factors, there are now many physician recruiter experts who are predicting a shortage of physicians in the coming decade as the population grows and doctors retire. It takes a huge amount of dedication, studying, and hard work to become a healthcare professional, but the job comes with a lot of stress and little recognition who are underpaid. Along with several other reasons, there is a lot of work put on healthcare workers which could prevent more people from wanting to work in that field.
Aging population
Aging is a part of life, but as we get older, we require more care as more can go wrong with age. As the baby boomer generation ages, there is increased demand for healthcare services and workers to care for this growing senior population. This includes jobs like nurses, home health aides, and physical therapists which puts a strain on the workers and requires more staff to keep up with the demand.
Rise of chronic diseases
Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity are on the rise, requiring more healthcare workers to help manage these lifelong diseases. There are a multitude of reasons as to why there is a rise of diseases, part of it could be a genetic reason and others are caused by various reasons for the person to eat unhealthy or not exercise which increases the risk of chronic diseases. Since there is an influx of patients requiring help, this can strain the existing workers with a bigger workload.
Advances in technology
There are new technologies in healthcare like telemedicine, wearables, and AI are changing how some healthcare jobs are done and this leads to new opportunities like telehealth coordinators but could reduce the need for some in-person roles. This impacts the workers as there are some jobs that could get replaced, however, it could also help advance healthcare with the support of AI and other evolving technologies.
COVID-19 pandemic
The aftermath of the pandemic placed a strain on healthcare workers and may have caused some to leave the field early. But it also highlighted the need for roles like contact tracers and infection control specialists in case of a further breakout or another virus. The aftermath of the pandemic is still affecting the sector as the stress and strain of what was put on the workers was a lot and have caused issues with the workers.
Job market
In the past few years, there has been a decline in the healthcare market as fewer people want to work in those jobs. According to a new report, the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a series of difficulties and burnout for healthcare professionals in the United States. Because of this a series of other issues, if the industry doesn’t change, over half of them intend to resign from their existing roles.
