MOLINE, Ill. — For more than two years during the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses, doctors and other health care workers have cared for the sickest patients in our communities.
Now, our health care systems are looking to the future and for the next generation of hospital staff.
As the latest pandemic surge wanes, area businesses are starting to heal.
The same can be said for Genesis Health System.
"We need nursing staff. We need patient care techs. We need doctors, because there’s always going to be patients," said Allyson Miller, a workforce development specialist with Genesis Health System.
Miller is one of the people who helps recruit the hospital's workforce.
"We need to take care of our community," Miller said. "And in order to do that, we want community members to come work at the hospital and help take care of our own people."
In order to do that, Genesis Health System is turning to students to help fill the gaps.
Genesis has more than 200 entry-level job openings right now across its health system, according to a spokesperson for Genesis.
That's why Genesis was one of dozens of other businesses at a job fair at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline. That job fair was targeted at students and young adults ages 16 to 24.
"For almost a year I’ve been really interested in becoming a nurse," said Delaney Holmes, a student at Northeast High School in Goose Lake, Iowa, who said she recognizes there is a shortage of health care workers right now.
Holmes said health care careers run in her family, as her aunt is a nurse, too.
That's why Holmes stood in line at the Genesis booth at the job fair — to learn about how she could get her start in health care.
"I’m hopefully going to get my CNA over the summer and start working at a nursing home to kind of jump-start it from there," Holmes said.
Some of those positions are patient care technicians, which help nurses take care of patients.
"We’re going to lose a lot of, especially, nursing staff to retirement in the next 10 years, so we’re working really hard to build that pipeline," Miller said.
Other open positions include food service workers and people to help in the labs.
Some of those entry-level positions, including the patient care technicians, need to be 18-years old and have earned a high school diploma, Miller said. That requirement provides a gateway for students wanting to pursue a health care career, she added.
"We are definitely looking for young adults who want to make a difference," Miller said.
Genesis is also wanting to tap into the talent already in the Quad Cities, according to Miller.
"We are not only trying to incentivize young people to come into these careers but to stay within the area," Miller said.
For students that work for Genesis, the health system will also offer scholarships to help students further their education after starting in an entry-level position.
"We don’t want financial issues to be a barrier to starting a career," Miller said. "Because often times you get that community college degree and make really good money."
This student-focused job fair is helping both the workforce and its surrounding community heal.