Leadership Is a Verb, Not a Title — and New Hope Treatment Centers Is Proving It

Featuring Tabitha Bramblett, Chief People Officer, New Hope Treatment Centers

Most organizations promote their best performer into a leadership role and then wonder why everything falls apart. Tabitha decided to build the program that changes that — and she did it at a 500-person behavioral health organization serving kids and teens across four states.

Luke and Bo sit down with Tabitha to talk about what leadership development actually looks like when you build it from scratch, why culture isn't a values poster, and what compassion has to do with your bottom line.

🏗️ Building Leaders Before They Have the Title
New Hope launched a formal emerging leaders program in partnership with CoEffX — an application and nomination process that gives aspiring leaders a chance to learn what leadership is and isn't before they're ever promoted. Graduates move into structured leadership cohorts with peer surveys built in. The result: people who don't actually want to lead opt out early, before a mismatched promotion creates a broken team and a gilded cage no one asked for.
Action: If you have no program at all, Tabitha's first two steps — hire a learning and development coordinator and find a program partner — are the place to start. You don't have to build it from scratch. CoEffX (coeff-ex.com) is worth a look.

❤️ Compassion as an Operational Strategy
New Hope built its entire culture framework — EPIC values: Excellence, Professionalism, Integrity, Compassion — around a single question: what if we started every interaction, with residents and teammates alike, with compassion? They operationalized it with loving-kindness meditations at shift start and major meetings. Their CEO modeled it personally during Tabitha's health challenges.
Tabitha's direct line: turnover, vacancy rates, and time-to-fill are all downstream of how people feel about each other at work.

🎯 The Recruiting Insight No One Talks About
Tabitha still reads resumes intentionally — not because AI can't filter, but because people are more than buzzwords on a page. The interview isn't a checklist. It's a conversation. And the question isn't whether the candidate can do the job — it's whether they share the vision.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

AP3 Sponsor Read 

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

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Nurses Tripled AI Use Without You, 170K New Grads Can't Fix 40% Turnover & CHROs Think They've Won

August 17th, 2026. All three: Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier — plus a first for the Monday News Drop: a special field correspondent. Three stories, one thread: is your workforce moving faster than your strategy?

🚨 Field Report: Candidate Fraud Is Already at Scale
Casey Marquette, CEO of Covenant HR and AP3 partner, joins as the show's first field correspondent. 22 North Korean operatives submitted 167,000 applications, completed 21,000 interviews, and secured 76 US jobs using stolen identities and AI-assisted interviewing. Covenant HR's platform flags 20% of candidates as suspicious. Gartner projects one in four candidates will be fraudulent by 2028. Healthcare is uniquely exposed: credential complexity is enormous and the stakes of a bad hire include patient harm and data breach — not just a bad fit. Only 31% of HR leaders report strong fraud prevention controls. The fix is identity verification built as a continuous layer from application through onboarding, with real-time photo matching across every interview stage.
Action: Visit ap3diligence.info to learn more about Covenant HR.

🤖 44% of Nurses Are Using AI. Only 4% of Healthcare Employers Are.
Incredible Health's 2026 State of Nursing Report (2,200 nurses, 1.5M platform records): nurse AI adoption went from 15% to 44% in 12 months — without employer strategy, training, or mandates. Only 8% of nurses report a clear AI strategy from their organization. But nurses with employer-guided training save 24+ minutes daily versus 16 for those without. Only 20% of nurses say pay is the top reason they'd stay. Three in four have considered leaving in the past three years.
Action: Ask your team what AI tools they're already using. That's your strategy's starting point.

💧 The Pipeline Isn't the Problem. The Leak Is.
US nursing schools graduated 170–190K new RNs this year. The national vacancy rate is still 8.6% and turnover rose to 17.6% — up from 16.4% two years ago. Some facilities are replacing 40% of their nursing staff annually. Nurses who left their first job had orientations nearly two weeks shorter than those who stayed. The minimum at some facilities: six and a half days.

Action: Review your orientation length and your 30-60-90-day touch point cadence. If structure disappears at 90 days, so will your nurses.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

AP3 Sponsor Read 

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

NEWS LINKS

Story 1 — Incredible Health: 2026 State of Nursing Report

• Incredible Health: 2026 Annual State of Nursing Report — AI Adoption Trends and Future Implications for Retention
• Incredible Health: The Workforce Moved First — Inside Our 2026 State of Nursing Report
• Distilinfo: Nurse AI Adoption Surpasses Hospital Strategies, Report Finds (July 8, 2026)
• Healthcare IT News: Nurses Are Fearing AI Less — And Using It More

Story 2 — RegisteredNursing.org: The Nurse Staffing Pipeline Paradox

• RegisteredNursing.org: The Nurse Staffing Pipeline Paradox — Why Graduating More Nurses Isn't Enough (August 10, 2026)
• RegisteredNursing.org: Nursing Program Expansion — State Investments & Pipeline 2026 (August 8, 2026)
• NSI: 2026 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report
• Becker's: Hospital Nurse Turnover and Vacancy Rates by Year

Story 3 — HMA CHRO Priorities + Becker's Compensation

• The Health Management Academy: 2026 CHRO Priorities Snapshot
• Becker's: Where Health System Compensation Dollars Are Going in 2026 (March 27, 2026)
• Becker's: 140 Hospital and Health System CHROs and Chief People Officers to Know — 2026

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You Can't Hire Your Way Out of This — St. Elizabeth Healthcare Proves It

Featuring Brittany Sorrell, Director of Workforce Development, St. Elizabeth Healthcare

700,000 open healthcare jobs every month. 306,000 unemployed healthcare workers to fill them. The math does not work. Brittany Sorrell has spent three years building the model that actually does — and it starts in high school.

Luke sits down with Brittany, a former bedside nurse and nursing faculty member turned workforce development director, to talk about what it looks like when a health system stops trying to recruit its way to stability and starts building a workforce from the ground up.

🏫 K–12 Is the Real Recruiting Pipeline
St. Elizabeth's workforce development strategy starts well before a candidate ever submits an application. Community partnerships, on-site exploration programs, and simulation center experiences give high school students a chance to discover careers they didn't know existed — radiation therapy being a standout example. Students leave asking to shadow. That's the pipeline. Organizations that wait until job posting miss the moment entirely.

🎓 Funding Faculty to Fill the Classroom
Brittany's most creative move: St. Elizabeth covers the salary gap for nurses who want to teach at partner universities — paying their clinical rate so the university can afford to keep them on faculty. The result: larger graduating cohorts, stronger institutional relationships, and graduates who already know St. Elizabeth before they apply. Two-year programs, funded by the Kentucky Work Ready Scholarship, are producing work-ready graduates at no cost to the student.

🌱 The 30-Month Problem — and What St. Elizabeth Is Doing About It
Gen Z nurses are outperforming every prior generation in retention through the first 24 months — then leaving at a higher rate than anyone else at month 30. Brittany's read: they're not leaving, they're growing. They hit proficiency, get the three-year itch, and start pursuing advanced roles. The organizations winning at this mark are identifying those nurses early, creating internal progression opportunities, and engaging them before the door opens.

🔎 Where to Start If Workforce Development Just Landed on Your Desk
Assess before you diagnose. Talk to your academic partners. Find out what they actually need — it may not be scholarships. Close the gap between what you assume and what you learn.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

OUR SPONSORS

AP3 Sponsor Read 

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

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Gen Z Nurses Need 2.5x More Manager Contact, 69% Lack Fraud Controls & New Hires Decide in 5 Days

August 10th, 2026. Bo is back. All three: Bo Brabo, Luke Carignan, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier. Three stories, one thread — the distance between the workforce you have and the strategy you're running.

👩‍⚕️ Gen Z Is 30% of Your Nursing Workforce — Your Manager Model Wasn't Built for Them
AONL and Laudio's spring 2026 report (nearly 100,000 nurses, 150+ hospitals): Gen Z is the second-largest RN generation and the only cohort growing. They need 2.5x more meaningful manager interactions per month to match prior generation retention outcomes — one-on-ones, timely recognition, personalized feedback. The 30-month inflection: Gen Z retention is stronger than prior generations through month 24, when structured residency programs support them. At month 30, when that structure disappears, their turnover rate surpasses every other generation. They stay because the structure holds them. They leave when it vanishes.

🔐 Do You Know Who You Actually Hired?
Phenom and Checker's 2026 report: only 31% of HR leaders have strong fraud prevention controls. 69% are operating with partial controls or openly lack confidence. Hiring fraud runs three categories: credential misrepresentation, interview fraud (deepfakes and proxy candidates — one person interviews, another shows up), and identity fraud. A typical healthcare hiring process runs candidates through six separate systems. A flag at one stage doesn't carry to the next. The fix is identity verification built as a continuous layer from application through onboarding, not a single-point check.

🤖 AI Literacy Is Now a Legal Requirement
The 2026 NAAHR Conference: 58% of TA leaders couldn't explain the difference between AI, conversational AI, and agentic AI. States including Colorado, California, Illinois, and Texas now require AI governance committees. Five-day rule: new hires decide whether they'll stay within their first five days on the job. One organization cut their application from 50+ questions to essentials — flow increased, quality held. Another replaced a 90-minute phone screen with a five-minute version, cutting three weeks from time-to-hire with no quality drop.
Action: Count your application questions. If it's over 20, cut three and watch what happens to applicant flow.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

OUR SPONSORS

 AP3 Sponsor Read 

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Take2 Sponsor Read

This episode is brought to you by Take2 — a proud AP3 partner and the AI recruiting platform built specifically for healthcare.

Hiring in healthcare is harder than ever — high-volume openings, hard-to-fill clinical roles, and recruiting teams stretched thin. Take2 changes that.

Take2's AI agents automate the work that slows recruiters down — sourcing candidates, running outreach, screening and vetting applicants, scheduling interviews, and verifying licenses and certifications. It works around the clock, syncs directly into your ATS, and gives your recruiters hours back every week so they can focus on the people, not the process. From CNAs and EVS to RNs, APPs, and physicians, Take2 helps you hire faster across every role.

Vetted through AP3. Built for healthcare. Proven to perform.

Visit take2.ai/ashhra to learn more and get started.

NEWS LINKS

Story 1 — Laudio + AONL: Gen Z Nurses Report (Spring 2026)

• GlobeNewswire: Laudio and AONL Report Reveals Distinct Expectations and Work Patterns Among Gen Z in the Healthcare Workforce
• AONL: Engaging and Retaining Gen Z Nurses: Trends and Strategies
• Fierce Healthcare: Gen Z Nurses Prioritize Schedule Flexibility, Need More Manager Interactions to Avoid Turnover
• Laudio: Gen Z RNs Are Reshaping Health Systems' Culture

 Story 2 — Phenom + Checkr: Hiring Fraud in Healthcare 2026

• Phenom: Hiring Fraud in 2026: What CHROs Need to Know Now
• Checkr: Fraud Prevention — HR's Next Big Opportunity
• Universal Background: Candidate Fraud in Healthcare — Smarter Identity Verification That Protects Patients and Candidates

 Story 3 — NAHCR 2026 Conference Takeaways

• Cisive: Top 5 Healthcare Recruiting Trends 2026 — Takeaways from the NAHCR Conference
• iCIMS: Definitive Guide to AI Adoption in Talent Acquisition
• Ravehealth: 8 Critical 2026 Healthcare Recruiting Trends Shaping the Future of Hiring 

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You've Been Treating Burnout. It's Actually Moral Injury.

August 3rd, 2026. Luke Carignan is flying solo, and he has something to say. Three stories. One thread. An uncomfortable conclusion the research is forcing.

🩺 It's Not Burnout. It's Moral Injury. That Changes Everything.
Connect RN's "Burnout in 2026 Looks Different" draws a distinction that reframes the whole conversation: burnout is depletion. Moral injury is a wound — the repeated experience of being asked to act against your own values with no way out. A global study of nearly 10,000 nurses across 35 countries found more than half experiencing severe mental health symptoms tied to their work. 58% feel burned out most days. Only 39% plan to stay in their current position next year. And yet 75% still say becoming a nurse was the right choice. They love this work. They're losing patience with the conditions of it. The Joint Commission now recommends organizations focus on meaningful work and professional autonomy — not coping skills. You cannot wellness-program your way out of moral injury. You have to change the structural conditions that cause it.

⚠️ There's an Early Warning System. Are You Using It?
In fall 2025, AONL partnered with Laudio to analyze 95,000 nurses across 150+ hospitals and identify the operational signals that predict burnout before it becomes turnover. The strongest single predictor: nurses regularly leaving late. Others include 50% of a team not using PTO in six months, and teams skipping breaks — linked to a 15% retention decline among early-tenure nurses. This data already exists in your systems. Late clock-outs are in timekeeping. PTO balances are in your HRIS. The question is whether anyone has connected it to workforce risk. Full report and PDF linked in the show notes.

🔧 93% Know It Needs to Change. 71% Can't Make It Stick.
Aya Healthcare's 2026 Workforce Innovation Report: innovation energy concentrates in hiring and onboarding while scheduling and shift management — the operational layer with the most direct daily impact on nurses — lags as the lowest priority. The fix is not a technology roadmap. It is management discipline: one high-value use case, a clear owner, protected time, one pilot unit, measure, scale.
Action: Pull one operational metric this week — late clock-outs, PTO balances, or break compliance — for your highest-turnover unit. See what it tells you that your annual survey doesn't.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

Support the show

41% of Nurses Stay for One Reason: They Can't Afford to Leave

July 27th, 2026. Luke Carignan and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier open with a number that is hard to sit with — and spend the rest of the episode on the organizations doing something about it.

🩺 Nurses Are Staying. But They're Not Okay.
The Nurse.org 2026 State of Nursing Survey (2,000 nurses nationwide): job satisfaction dropped from 55% to 47% in a single year. Eight points in 12 months is a cliff, not a slope. 43% say they're likely to leave the bedside in the next year. 23% are considering leaving the profession entirely, up from 15% last year. And the number that reframes everything: 41% say the number one reason they're still at the bedside is financial necessity. Not mission. Not their team. They stay because they can't afford to leave. 37% of nurses who received a raise last year still couldn't cover an unexpected $1,000 expense without going into debt.
Action: A raise and financial security are not the same problem. They don't have the same solution. If you've found an approach that moves the needle, drop it in the comments — we want to hear it.

🏛️ Washington Did Something Right: Title VIII Advances 21 to 0
The Senate HELP Committee advanced the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act with a unanimous bipartisan vote. Title VIII is the primary federal program funding nursing scholarships, loan repayment, and training grants. The bill reauthorizes it through FY2030 and adds a nurse faculty demonstration program. The alternative to reauthorization isn't the status quo — it's those programs sunsetting. The nurses you recruit in 2028 and beyond are being shaped right now by whether this pipeline stays funded.

🏆 165 Organizations Are Cracking the Culture Code
Becker's 2026 Top Places to Work in Healthcare: 165 organizations doing what everyone says they know they should do — consistently. Structured career ladders with a real map. Leadership development with protected time. Listening strategies where leadership visibly acts on feedback. Scheduling autonomy for clinical roles. Recognition that is personal, timely, and specific. The difference isn't knowledge. It is operational commitment — the whole leadership team on the hook, not just HR.
Action: Forward one article from today's show notes to your CNO this week. No explanation. See what they say.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

News Links

Story 1 — Nurse.org 2026 State of Nursing Survey

• Nurse.org: 2026 State of Nursing Survey — Stress, Pay, Safety & Beyond
• Nurse.org: 43% of Nurses Want to Leave the Bedside. Most Can't Afford To.
• Nurse.org: 55% of Nurses Got Small Raises in 2025 — Many Can't Cover a $1,000 Emergency
• Fierce Healthcare: Nurses' Job Satisfaction Stumbles After Post-Pandemic Gains
• Becker's: The Current State of Nursing 2026

 Story 2 — Title VIII Nursing Workforce Reauthorization Act (July 22, 2026)

• AACN: Title VIII Reauthorization Advances Out of the Senate HELP Committee
• Senator Collins: Bipartisan Bill to Strengthen America's Nursing Workforce Advances Out of Committee
• Newswise: Title VIII Reauthorization Advances Out of the Senate HELP Committee

 Story 3 — Becker's 165 Top Places to Work in Healthcare 2026

• Becker's: 165 Top Places to Work in Healthcare 2026

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700,000 Openings, 306,000 Workers & Smart Rooms Are Keeping Nurses from Quitting

July 20th, 2026. Luke Carignan and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier cover three stories connecting workforce math, program accountability, and the technology investment quietly becoming a retention strategy.

📊 Stop Calling It a Shortage — It's a Structural Gap
The Conference Board, in partnership with Northwell Health: every month in the US there are more than 700,000 healthcare job openings and only 306,000 unemployed workers available to fill them. Supply is less than half of demand — every single month. The report calls on four levers: expanding career pathways, improving job quality, promoting team-based care, and deploying technology to extend what existing workers can do.
Action: You cannot hire your way out of this. Build retention infrastructure now and grow talent from within through apprenticeships, career ladders, and non-traditional pipelines. ASHHRA's coalition with Dallas College, Baylor Scott & White, and University of Colorado Health is doing exactly that — contact [email protected] to plug in.

🔬 Is Your Wellness Program Actually Working?
The Initiative Intelligence Guide — released last week by the Coalition for Physician and APP Wellbeing, AHA, Advent Health, and Providence's Wellbeing Trust — gives HR leaders a four-question evaluation structure: What evidence do we need? What data do we have? What conclusions can we draw? Should we continue, refine, scale, or stop?
Action: Build evaluation into program design from day one. The organizations that demonstrate ROI on their people programs keep funding them. Free download linked in the show notes.

🏥 Smart Rooms Are a Workforce Strategy, Not a Tech Story
The AHA's July 14th market scan confirmed it: smart rooms reduce nurse burnout and contract labor dependency. Advent Health is equipping 13,000 acute care rooms across 57 hospitals by year end. Houston Methodist reports less burnout and reduced agency reliance after rollout. Motion sensors, digital whiteboards, and ambient tools eliminate manual charting and cut documentation time from hours to minutes.
Action: If this conversation is happening in your clinical or operational teams, HR needs to be at the table. Which roles change, how you recruit for tech-enabled environments, and how you design training — that is an HR design problem.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

News Links

Story 1 — The Conference Board: America's Health Care Workforce Shortage

• Conference Board: Report — America's Health Care Workforce Shortage Threatens Patient Access and Economic Competitiveness
• PR Newswire: Full Press Release
• Conference Board: Addressing US Health Care Workforce Shortages (Solutions Brief)

Story 2 — The Initiative Intelligence Guide (July 15, 2026)

• GlobeNewswire: Coalition for Physician & APP Well-Being Launches The Initiative Intelligence Guide
• AHA News: Guide Available to Help Healthcare Organizations Improve Workforce Well-Being Program Evaluations
• Download the Guide — bethejoy.org

Story 3 — Smart Rooms and Workforce (July 14, 2026)

• AHA Market Scan: Why Health Systems Are Increasingly Investing in Smart Rooms (July 14, 2026)
• Hatchmed: Smart Hospital Rooms — How Hospitals of the Future Are Designing Care in 2026
• AHA: Why Smart Hospitals Are Defining the Future of Patient Care

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$60,090 Per Nurse Exit, 3.35 Million Workers Finally Protected & Virtual Nursing Is Working

July 13th, 2026. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier cover three stories that all connect to the same question: are you doing everything you can to keep the people you have?

💰 The Number Your CFO Hasn't Modeled: $60,090
The NSI 2026 National Healthcare Retention and RN Staffing Report — 527 acute care hospitals, nearly a million workers — puts the cost to replace one staff RN at $60,090. National RN turnover is 17.6%, costing the average hospital $5.2 million annually. Every percentage point shift in turnover is worth $295,000. And 56.8% of all RN departures have less than two years of service.

Action: Bring $60,090 into your next budget conversation about retention. The ROI on almost any retention investment looks different at that baseline. Also: know how your health system makes money today. Ambulatory care is running 43% profit margins at some systems. Internal mobility toward high-margin service lines changes what you can invest everywhere else.

🧠 3.35 Million Healthcare Workers Can Now Seek Help Without Fear
The Dr. Lorna Breen Healthcare Provider Protection Act was reauthorized for five more years. As of May 27th, more than 3.35 million healthcare workers now practice in states or systems that removed stigmatizing mental health questions from licensure applications — 44 medical boards, 9 nursing boards, 11 pharmacy boards have made the change.

Action: Check your state's status at the Lorna Breen Foundation tracker and share it with your CMO and credentialing team. If EAP utilization and wellness participation are low, the upstream problem may be built into the credentialing system itself.

📺 Virtual Nursing Is No Longer an Experiment
The 2026 CNO Survey from Wolters Kluwer: nearly 9 in 10 nurse leaders have adopted new care models and 90% say they are working. Across 10 health systems at scale — including Advocate, Ochsner, Henry Ford, Piedmont, and UC Health — one 69-hospital system saved 43,000 nursing hours in a year. Patient experience improved as much as 80% at some sites. Nursing turnover reduction saved one system $6.3 million.

Action: If this conversation is already happening in your clinical or operational teams, HR needs to be at that table. Which roles you recruit for, how you compensate, and how you design career paths for nurses shifting to virtual roles — that is an HR design problem.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

News Links

Story 1 — NSI 2026 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report

• Becker's: The Cost of Nurse Turnover in 10 Points — 2026
• Nurse.org: Nurse Turnover Is Rising Again — And It's Costing Hospitals Millions
• PeopleElement: The $60,090 Problem Most Health System CFOs Have Not Modeled
• NSI Nursing Solutions: 2026 National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report (Full PDF)

Story 2 — Dr. Lorna Breen: Mental Health Licensing Milestone

• Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation: More Than 3.35 Million Health Workers Now Practice in States and Systems That Support Their Mental Health
• AMA: Congress Extends Dr. Lorna Breen Law for Five Years
• Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes' Foundation: Remove Barriers Initiative — Full Board Tracker
• J&J Nursing: Reauthorizing the Dr. Lorna Breen Act: Mental Health Support for Healthcare Workers

Story 3 — Virtual Nursing: What's Working

• Becker's: Virtual Nursing at 10 Systems — 23 Results to Know
• Wolters Kluwer / Lippincott: Nurse-Led Innovation and New Care Models — 2026 CNO Survey
• MUSC: Demonstrating the Value of Virtual Nursing — 2026 Report (PDF)
• AONL 2026: The Future of Virtual Nursing and Care Model Redesign

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The Hiring Automation Gap No One Is Talking About

Featuring Mike DeMarco, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Phenom

Healthcare is ranked #2 out of eight industries for overall hiring automation maturity. Healthcare was among the first to deploy voice screening agents. So why are nurses still taking 64 days to fill and internal positions taking 57?

Bo and Luke welcome Mike DeMarco — the self-described "Bruce Springsteen of Product Marketing" — to unpack Phenom's 2026 State of Hiring Automation Report, which audited over 200 companies across eight industries and surfaced a gap that explains almost everything.

📊 The Gap: You're Good at Getting Candidates In. You're Not Qualifying Them.
Across all eight industries, organizations scored above 50% maturity on attraction, engagement, and conversion — getting candidates to click apply. Hiring automation scores — what happens at the moment of application — dropped to sub-28%. The candidates are there. The qualification infrastructure is not. And for the first time in the survey's history, quality of hire (54%) outranked speed and cost as HR leaders' top hiring priority.

🤖 What Good Looks Like
Baylor Scott & White completes 1,000 voice screens in a single day when a job is posted. Allara Caring reduced time to offer by 32% and found that 40% of screens happen after hours — candidates engaging on their own schedule, not waiting for a recruiter callback. Seven-minute apply-to-interview-scheduled flows exist in retail today. Healthcare is next.

🔎 Where to Start — This Week, Almost Free
Luke's practical framework: record conversations with your best and worst performers in each TA role. Ask what they actually do — not what they're supposed to do. Then run everything through Claude: compare top and bottom performers, identify automation opportunities, and generate a business process map. Total cost: roughly $100/month. Mike's team is also offering a complimentary two-role hiring automation audit for listeners.

📋 Resources
Phenom 2026 State of Hiring Automation Report + free audit.

AI isn't replacing recruiters. People who know how to use AI will replace people who don't. Start today.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

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Healthcare Is Dead Last in Recognition Culture. Plus: AI That Predicts Who's About to Quit & What CEOs Are Betting On in 2026

July 6th, 2026. Bo, Luke, and ASHHRA Executive Director Jeremy Sadlier are back from the long weekend with a deliberately positive episode — three stories built to give you energy heading into the week.

🏆 Healthcare Is Last in Recognition Culture — and the Fix Is Free
The OC Tanner 2026 State of Employee Recognition Report (42,000 employees, ten countries) found healthcare at the bottom for recognition champions — leaders who actively build cultures of appreciation. The cost: employees at organizations with strong recognition cultures have four times greater odds of staying two-plus years and seven times greater odds of feeling belonging. Recognition also compounds — employees who work with recognition champions are three times more likely to recognize their own coworkers.
Action: You don't need a platform to start. Walk down the hall and tell someone specifically what they did well today. Four times retention. Seven times belonging. That's the ROI on a 30-second conversation.

🤖 AI Is Now Predicting Who's About to Quit — Before They Know It Themselves
Mount Sinai implemented predictive analytics flagging nurses at high attrition risk by analyzing absenteeism, overtime, survey responses, and workload patterns. Results: 17% reduction in voluntary nurse turnover and 15% reduction in burnout-related resignations. Health systems using these tools report 15–25% reductions in contingency labor costs and 10–18% improvements in nurse retention within two years.
Action: You don't need Mount Sinai's stack to start. Pull your absenteeism and overtime data by unit — the patterns are already there. The barrier is data quality, manager trust, and readiness to act on what the data tells you.

📊 The CEO Playbook: Three Bets Healthcare Leaders Are Making Right Now
PwC, EY, and Witt Kiefer's 2026 healthcare outlooks converge on three moves: AI shifting from experiment to infrastructure (57% of health systems planning clinical AI investment, nearly tripling in two years), ambulatory care as the growth engine, and culture as a competitive retention strategy — not HR overhead. 98% of healthcare CEOs expect to pursue M&A or strategic alliances in the next 12 months.
Action: Know your CEO's playbook and build your people strategy around it. Your mission is the recruiting advantage your competitors cannot replicate.

Enjoying the show? Subscribe to The ASHHRA Podcast on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

This episode is brought to you by AP3 — the ASHHRA Preferred Partner Program.

Healthcare HR leaders are navigating rising costs, workforce shortages, and an overwhelming vendor landscape. AP3 cuts through the noise.

Managed in collaboration with Lockton and backed by ASHHRA, AP3 is a governed ecosystem of vetted, healthcare-aligned solution providers across talent acquisition, benefits administration, workforce compliance, financial wellness, and employee engagement. Every partner is rigorously vetted. Every relationship is governed. Every solution is built for healthcare.

No directories. No bidding wars. Just trusted partners proven to perform.

Visit AP3.info to learn more and get connected with a partner.

News Links

Story 1 — O.C. Tanner: 2026 State of Employee Recognition

• O.C. Tanner: Full 2026 State of Employee Recognition Report
• BusinessWire: O.C. Tanner Releases the State of Employee Recognition 2026 Report
• O.C. Tanner: Overview & Key Insights from the 2026 Report
• O.C. Tanner: 5 Workplace Culture Trends for 2026

Story 2 — AI Predictive Analytics & Workforce Planning

• HealthTech Magazine: How Healthcare Organizations Can Benefit from Predictive Scheduling Systems (March 2026)
• Shiftmed: AI-Driven Predictive Staffing Analytics in Healthcare
• CWS Health: Using Predictive Analytics to Solve Healthcare Staffing Shortages
• Shiftmed: From Reactive to Proactive — Using AI and Analytics for Workforce Optimization

Story 3 — The CEO Playbook: Business Bets on Healthcare

• PwC: 2026 Healthcare Investment Themes
• HIT Consultant: PwC 2026 Outlook — Health Services M&A Poised for Rebound as AI Becomes "Core Driver" of Value
• EY: Healthcare Sector Outlook in 2026
• WittKieffer: Healthcare CEOs' Agenda — Top Priorities for 2026
• Fierce Healthcare: Key Trends That Will Shape Healthcare M&A Activity in 2026

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