title: To have and to hold: personnel shortage in a Finnish healthcare organisation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Retirements of baby boomers will create a talent shortage in Finnish health care. Concurrently, difficulties exist in recruiting new personnel. This paper provides an overview concerning the bottlenecks in talent management in a Finnish hospital, and finds solutions for recruitment and retention problems of healthcare professionals (nurses and physicians). Because the healthcare staffing shortage is worldwide, the results of this paper are also useful internationally.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research was a qualitative case study and the research method used was group interview. Background data was gathered from the public media and healthcare trade organisations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The bottlenecks of talent management in hospital organisation seem to relate to retaining actions of senior personnel. Concurrently, the organisation should develop new practices for attracting new personnel. Very few efforts on image marketing and recruitment have been done. The Internet has not been fully exploited and recruitment information has not been sent even to the neighbouring nursing college. Job rotation has not been used as a help in recruitment and competence development. Difficulties exist in transmitting tacit knowledge from a retiring nurse to a junior nurse. Leadership skills of the superior seem to be important when retaining and committing senior personnel.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Recruitment and retention problems encourage organisations to develop new recruitment and commitment practices as well as management and leadership skills.
authors.affiliation: LUT School of Business, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland. Pia.Heilmann@lut.fi
authors.forename: Pia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Heilmann
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009726:Nurses / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010559:Personnel Management; D010560:Personnel Selection; D010820:Physicians / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011361:Professional Competence; D013192:Staff Development