It is interesting to watch the employee landscape change in senior care and see how those changes impact management responsibilities.  Beyond the technical metrics having to do with certain staffing levels being met and certain positions requiring certain credentials, there is a new wrinkle that managers are now recognizing.

I won?t startle anyone when I observe that there has been a long-term shortage of clinical talent in the United States.  There have been lots of schemes, big and small, to ?import? talent from overseas.  For a while it was Philippine nurses who were seen in the largest numbers, then Chinese nurses and now Korean and South American nurses are entering the long term care employment market in larger numbers.

This has created a new challenge for nursing home Administrators:  how to balance the sensitivities of their multi-cultural workforce with the ongoing shortage of clinical talent.  Sometimes it is a matter of not having nurses from one culture speak their native tongue in front of patients or residents who are not from that culture, since the patients often feel excluded at least and may be concerned the staff members are talking about them at worst.  Some Administrators have told me they have needed to mediate issues between different ethnic groups based on how the staffing is balanced as well as the perception about which groups work hardest.

An Administrator?s job is a hard one in the best of circumstances.  Now it appears that cultural awareness and sensitivity will be as essential a management skill as marketing or fiscal effectiveness.