HealthManagement, Volume 22 - Issue 5, 2022

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The healthcare workforce crisis is a global reality. The healthcare workforce is experiencing a shortage in staff and expertise, impacting staff well being and satisfaction. Fear of exposure to infection and transmission, staff shortages, inadequate personal protective equipment, and work stress has added an extra burden to an already stressful lifestyle resulting in increased burnout rate and suicide. The overall environment of healthcare work has changed, and Siemens Healthineers enhanced their education and workforce offerings to ensure the challenges are met with solutions.

Key Points

  • It is projected that there will be a shortfall of 15 million health workers by 2030, mostly in low- and lower-middle income countries.
  • It is estimated that there will be 40% more people over 60 years by 2030. 
  • 40% of US technologists report symptoms of burnout. 
  • The 2021 World Health Organization (WHO) annual health report recorded 7,00,000 deaths by suicide globally (Awan et al. 2022).
  • 61% of patients continue their search for a healthcare provider to find an earlier appointment. 
  • Healthcare faces several workforce challenges, including limited staff, limited skills and competencies, changing roles, tasks and expectations on work-life balance, excessive workload impacting staff retention and satisfaction and keeping up with evolving technology.  

Today’s workforce challenge is larger than expected, impacting overall performance with decreased revenue and financial and operational challenges. Healthcare workers lack the skills andexpertise as technology changes and increase in augmentation and automation. This contributes to reduced confidence, burnout and decreased mental health, which can cause them to leave the institution and suffer from illness or even death. Lack of skilled staff or resources poses pressure on the patient, and it is seen in reduced patient satisfaction rates, increased number of deaths and even an increase in violent attacks against medical professionals (Boyle 2022). Healthcare workers are key to providing patient care, so this crisis is top of mind for healthcare institution leaders. Three of the five key actions to close the gaps within the workforce are building skills, hiring, and contracting, and 58% of organ- isations state the skills gaps as a higher priority since the pandemic. With approximately 56% of healthcare providers’ expenses going into personnel, this is their largest investment (LaPointe 2018).




Siemens Healthineers offers services and solutions that enable healthcare workers to excel. These solutions allow healthcare organisations to create a sustainable workforce, manage their staff better with smart workforce management tools, address staff shortages, integrate hybrid learning, and ensure targeted education and coaching. This results in less stress and pressure for healthcare workers, increased confidence in their skills, and more flexibility in scheduling, leading to greater staff satisfaction, productivity, improved operational performance and outcomes, as well as revenue.


An important social trend that became prominent during the COVID-19 pandemic is the use of remote working/learning. Remote modes of higher education will continue to evolve in a post-pandemic future and will require innovative technologies and approaches to addressing the different needs of learners and accelerated adoption of new learning technologies and tools. Education delivery models will continue to evolve, and hybrid learning will be widely adopted. To remain ahead of the curve and deliver meaningful education to learners, it is essential to use innovative technologies like virtual, augmented and extended reality. 


Siemens Healthineers hybrid learning approach offers a lifelong learning strategy to ensure access to needed education, skills and experts, with optimised processes and digitally enabled solutions. These solutions allow healthcare workers to:

  • Improve and gain new knowledge and skills when and how they need to
  • Learn from experts on demand 
  • Improve operations, workflow and processes 
  • Improve turnaround times with patient scheduling and results 
  • Build a learning health system 


Siemens Healthineers innovative management, education and coaching, and staffing solutions include:


Workforce Management

PEPconnections 

PEPconnections supports a clinical institution’s performance growth with integrated workforce education management and administration features. It can help organisations manage the education of teams or departments and personalise the education experience of individual employees by combining education designed by Siemens Healthineers, the healthcare institution, or independent providers. 


Education and Coaching 

PEPconnect

PEPconnect is a complete personalised cloud-based education and performance management experience designed for healthcare professionals. It offers education and real time support in Medical Imaging and Therapy, Laboratory, Diagnostics, POC, and other healthcare-related topics via e-learning, webinars, job aids, and more. Learners can access the material anytime, anywhere, and on any device and can access more than 19,000 in-vivo and in-vitro and over healthcare-related learning activities, as well as Advanced Digital Education Subscriptions. Learners can benefit from the online network of professionals and connect, communicate, and be part of social learning groups whilst acquiring the certification they need.