Hospitals are undergoing labor polarization. They are demanding more from their most- and least-skilled workers, while job opportunities for semiskilled occupations that don’t require a college degree gradually erode. The workforce change is due to a range of factors, including technological advances and increased attention to healthcare costs and patient outcomes.
Anthony Carnevale, director of the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., told the Wall Street Journal that a bachelor’s degree is now becoming a requirement for many entry-level positions in healthcare and in hospitals.
For instance, hospital positions such as licensed practical nurses and medical record clerks are being cut or pushed into lower-paying care settings, like nursing homes, according to the report. In 2002, more than 25 percent of LPNs worked in hospitals. But by 2012, that figure dropped to 17 percent, according to the report, and many major hospitals have completely cut their LPN jobs.
In 2010, an Institute of Medicine committee recommended that 80 percent of registered nurses have bachelor’s degrees by 2020. That means nurses today who have associate’s degrees may soon find themselves in the position LPNs face today, according to the report.
But while middle-skilled positions are pushed out of hospitals, others proliferate. Skilled occupations, such as physician assistants and nurse anesthetists, and low-skilled positions, like medical assistants and home health aides, continue to grow, according to the report.
Mr. Carnevale said this phenomenon has occurred in every industry. “The entry-level requirement has gone up across the board,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “Healthcare has been especially fast.”
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