NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The changes that supply and demand brought to hiring trends in the healthcare industry during the COVID-19 pandemic continued with increased vaccinations.
“It started out with essential employees being temperature screeners and then evolved into contact tracing and COVID testing,” said David Carr, Medix Director of Operations.
While these new roles opened up, positions that were already struggling were even more pressured. For example, Carr said respiratory therapists were in high demand even before COVID-19.
“And that’s something that was somewhat exasperated by COVID-19 and creating even more of a demand for those roles,” Carr said.
A shortage of nurses was also a longstanding issue that grew even more during the pandemic.
“Many health systems have plans in place whether it’s leveraging travel nurses or agency utilization,” Carr explained.
Now that vaccinations are climbing in Middle Tennessee, he said it’s opening up demand for workers to get shots into arms.
“When Governor Lee authorized certified medical assistants to administer vaccines, that not only opened the talent pool but that allowed the vaccination efforts to roll out more efficiently,” Carr said.
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From availability to current phases, find vaccine information for every Tennessee county using News 2’s Vaccine Tracker map.
He said they’re also seeing demand for nurses, pharmacists, and EMT’s as well as roles that were not solely tied to the healthcare industry.
“We’re still seeing a need for folks that have scheduling backgrounds, laboratory services, the behind-the-scenes folks that maybe aren’t at the vaccinations sites but are doing a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure these efforts are rolled out effectively,” Carr said.
Medix placed almost one thousand vaccinators at 26 entities across the country in recent weeks, including hospitals, medical groups, clinics, pharmacies, and departments of public health.
