It was a very 2022 get-together: women who connected on social media, meeting in person for the first time over wine and hors d’oeuvres at a business that teaches computer coding — to talk about what comes next when you leave a career in health care.
Although it is well established that Americans rarely stay in one career for their entire lives, the “Great Resignation” made that fact undeniable.
“The pandemic made many of us realize what we took for granted — from in-person education to toilet paper,” said Tess Keim, a physician assistant moving out of her career.
A major shake-up is under way in Idaho health care employment
The rate of health care workers quitting their jobs in the pandemic has broken records, according to seasonally adjusted data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics — peaking in November at a rate 40% higher than at any point since the data began in 2000. Some quit to join staffing companies whose recruiters offered premium pay for work in crisis zones. But some of them left health care altogether.
Stefania Moore shows a Raspberry Pi microcomputer at her business, an iCode franchise in southeast Boise. Moore opened the business a year ago, after pandemic-related delays. It operates year-round with five classrooms, about 35 students a week and a dozen instructors and lab mentors — mainly high school and college STEM students or recent graduates. (Audrey Dutton/Idaho Capital Sun)
For some health care workers, the pandemic brought exhaustion and trauma.
Pandemic-driven burnout wasn’t the only reason Keim chose a new career, she said. It wasn’t the only reason her new friends began to leave health care, either.
I always feel like that was my first chosen profession. I feel like there’s a little part of me that wants to have allegiance to it.
– Stefania Moore, registered nurse and owner of iCode Boise
Keim, Niki Manning and Stephania Moore connected on a Facebook group for Boise women i …