“What Opportunities?”: Understanding Committed Frontline Healthcare Workers’ Perceptions Of Career Advancement Opportunities

Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare organizations face recruitment and retention challenges with their frontline workers, particularly Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), Medical Assistants (MAs), and Patient Service Representatives (PSRs). These in-demand roles can be physically and emotionally draining and generally pay low wages.

United by the goal of improving retention and advancement of entry-level workers into wealth-building wage roles, the Chicagoland Healthcare Workforce Collaborative (CHWC) and WORC partnered with five major Chicago-area healthcare systems: UChicago Medicine, UI Health, Northwestern Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, and Advocate Aurora, to identify and articulate career pathways for CNAs, MAs, and PSRs and how healthcare systems can help facilitate the movement of incumbent workers into wealth-building wage roles.

Highlights of Findings

Interviews were conducted to develop a survey investigating employee perceptions of the current state of career pathways at their healthcare system. Survey findings were aggregated across the healthcare systems and demonstrated that perceptions of career pathways and advancement opportunities were similar across CNA, MA, and PSR respondents. Overall, survey participants indicated that they:

• Are generally happy at their healthcare systems

• Feel they have opportunities to gain skills, but cost remains a barrier

• Are interested in advancing their careers, but are unsure about the likelihood of success

• Desire more career guidance

To find out more, read the research report here.