- January 22, 2025
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As Florida continues to boom, and baby boomers continue to retire, workforce shortages are becoming more and more of a challenge in health care, AdventHealth East Florida Division CEO Dr. Audrey Gregory told the Flagler Tiger Bay Club at its monthly meeting, Jan. 22, at Hammock Dunes.
During the pandemic, many people decided to retire; Gregory said, “Overnight, we lost about 5 million people in the workforce.”
Nursing is a “very physically grueling career,” she said, and the average age is 52. “The No. 1 reason people plan to leave the bedside is because they’re retiring. This means that the majority of nurses are about to be retiring en masse, and there won’t be enough to replace them.”
In addition, generational differences make managing the workforce challenging.
AdventHealth now has five generations in the workforce. Gregory said. “When you have that on the same floor, you get tension.”
For example, she said, if the expectation for a nurse is to serve four patients, and the number ends up being seven instead, one generation will say, “Buck up and do it,” but a younger generation will be less willing.
Older nurses, Gregory said, might give the younger generation a “side eye,” and say, “What do you mean you don’t want to work weekends?”
And yet, the younger nurses have that right, Gregory said. She suggested that it may not be the right thing to expect more of workers, if you want to hire and retain quality workers.
Employers should be aware that younger generations are looking for more than just a paycheck.
“What does your organization feel like culturally?” she asked. “Is it a toxic work environment? The younger generation isn’t good at hanging out in a toxic work environment. If it’s toxic, they’re out.”
The next Tiger Bay meeting is Feb. 20.
