As hospice providers scramble to hire new clinical staff, they also need to consider who will be their next generation of leaders.

CEO and executive turnover has been rising during the past two years, among organizations that run the gamut as far as size, tax status and ownership structure. The reasons behind the trend are also plentiful. For starters, many hospice leaders are aging with the rest of the population and reaching retirement age. Others have migrated to other providers or have been removed by a company’s board.

Tangential to this is executive transitions related to acquisitions, though those are typically a planned component of the subsequent integration.

To prepare the next generation to take the helm, providers need to think now about leadership development, Lisa Novak, CEO of Northern Illinois Hospice, said at the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s (NHPCO) Annual Leadership Conference in Denver.

“It’s an intentional choice for all of us as leaders to provide our staff some time to nurture their skills, some time to sit with them …,” Novak said at the conference. “Hospice is interdisciplinary. We know how to bring different voices to the table. We know how to bring different styles to the table. Where we fall short is we’re sometimes resource light, and we don’t carve out the time, the intentionality to do it.”

At Texas-based Hospice of the Pines, the company prioritizes educational opportunities for staff, according to CEO Demetress Harrell. Employees of all disciplines, including non-clinical staff, are required to take at least one course per year to develop their skills using online platforms that the hospice makes available.

Initiatives like these send employees a message that their hospice is willing to invest in them and wants to see them grow in their organization, Harrell said. This can include sending workers to relevant industry conferences for further education.

“We do have to show them why that investment is so important, and why they can make a difference within our industry,” Harrell said in a presentation at the conference. “I believe in future generations, I believe that there is so much more to offer, and so we have to bring those people in and allow them to grow within our organization.”

Expanding educational training and broadening the scope of career path opportunities are strategies being employed to strengthen hospice staff recruitment, as well as retention.

A large contingent of organizations have developed closer mentorship in their onboarding training programs, with new staff receiving more hands-on learning under experienced supervision to better equip them in meeting the various unique and complex care needs of terminally ill and dying patients. Some have partnered with nursing schools and other learning institutions to advance employees skill sets and engage new clinicians entering the field.

Hospices mold new leadership, but the reverse is also true. New leaders will transform the future of hospice, Novak indicated during the presentation.

One area of change will likely include the further integration of new technologies into hospice care and operations, according to Zach Holt, CEO of Crater Community Hospice, who also spoke in the NHPCO presentation. 

“What I’m excited for with the next generation is watching them use technology, opening the world up to them,” Holt said at the conference. “It’ll be kind of a natural progression. They’ll grow in their work life with those technologies, and I think will be some really great changes to hospice because of that.”