Health systems are finding creative ways to recruit and retain staff, shifting away from broad workforce initiatives in favor of more targeted strategies.
From licensure support programs to clinician well-being strategies and workforce violence prevention efforts, organizations are testing new models aimed at strengthening workforce pipelines.
Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente is expanding its mental health career accelerator program with a goal of helping 1,000 master’s-level graduates complete licensure by 2028.
The initiative, launched in 2023 with the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, focuses on supporting graduates through the licensure process — a period Kaiser leaders said often causes candidates to leave the workforce pipeline.
“We saw that many people who graduated from a master’s-level mental health program never became licensed, and some of the reasons for this are things like complex license processes, financial stresses, like they have to work three jobs, or care for a family member, or they’re in isolation so an area that doesn’t allow them to practice,” Pamela Schwartz, executive director for community health at Kaiser Permanente, told Becker’s.
The program spans eight states and has enrolled 395 candidates. Kaiser said the first 160 participants have already supported more than 31,000 patients while progressing through licensure.
The redesigned initiative includes stipends of up to $10,000, mentorship, networking opportunities and exam preparation support. Ms. Schwartz said Kaiser shifted funding directly to candidates after learning financial flexibility was critical for retention.
Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System is using a precision well-being framework designed to identify and address operational causes of clinician stress before burnout escalates, Ryan Breshears, PhD, chief behavioral health officer and chief well-being officer, told Becker’s.
“What we’ve tried to do is retire these one-and-done interventions,” he said. “You can give a clinician a great experience, do a camaraderie dinner, but the next day, they walk right back into the same set of conditions that was driving their stress, and the benefits of that previous dinner erode very quickly.”
A Wellstar spokesperson said physician distress has declined by more than 40% since 2021. The system’s 2025 high-distress rate among physicians was 24.47%, compared to 36.1% nationally.
Clinicians complete annual well-being assessments, while higher-risk employees receive structured support pathways that can include retreats, follow-up assessments and individualized reviews. The system uses “hot spots,” a structured data approach to identifying clinicians and care teams experiencing elevated stress levels.
Dr. Breshears said the strategy allows Wellstar to tailor interventions based on specialty-specific concerns, such as workflow inefficiencies or leadership challenges.
Newport, Va.-based Riverside Regional Medical Center implemented a behavioral response team after identifying gaps in workplace violence prevention.
The initiative increased workplace violence reporting by 245% from 2024 to 2025 and improved real-time intervention for escalating behavioral health situations, Mary Haigh, MSN, RN, senior director of emergency services, told Becker’s.
“We really took a deep dive looking at our workplace violence prevention program and what we could do to kind of do better,” Ms. Haigh said. “We definitely had underreporting of events, and we were noticing some trends in events that were occurring.”
The team is designed to support front-line staff across the hospital, outside of the emergency department, where specialized psychiatric and security resources are already embedded. Riverside reviewed 430 workplace violence and “near miss” cases between June and the end of February. Of those cases, 337 actions were taken.
The response team includes emergency department psychiatric technicians, nursing supervisors, security staff and unit leaders. Riverside also shifted reporting responsibilities from nursing staff to security teams to reduce administrative burden and improve reporting rates.
“Now our security does 100% of reporting, and there’s no nursing burden to report events,” Ms. Haigh said.
Riverside is also deploying aggression risk assessments integrated into Epic to identify high-risk patients before escalation occurs. The health system said emergency departments using the assessment reduced locked restraint use by 62%.
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