Last week, the Wilmington Chamber held an in-person gathering of the NC Health Talent Alliance’s Southeast NC cohort. This alliance, orchestrated through the combined efforts of the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce, SEAHEC, the NC Chamber Foundation, and the North Carolina Center on the Workforce for Health, represents a commitment to combating the critical health care workforce shortages in our state.

At the heart of the strategy lies the implementation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM) program, specifically across the North Carolina Area Health Education Center’s (AHEC) network. By leveraging this program, it will foster robust public-private partnerships, pinpoint training gaps, and extend crucial support to individuals pursuing essential health care training.

During this pivotal meeting, the coalition committed to collaborative efforts such as providing strategic direction for the TPM initiative, co-creating a regional training system, contributing to curriculum development, and offering mentorship or work-based learning opportunities. Additionally, the group collectively decided to develop recruitment strategies that incorporate best practices to build candidate pipelines, especially in underserved communities, while emphasizing employee retention as a key priority to bridge the gap in health care providers.

“We believe there are solutions to the health care workforce challenges,” said NC Chamber Foundation President Meredith Archie during her remarks at last Tuesday’s event. “That is why we have committed significant resources, including investments in upcoming data-backed research, to helping build out this statewide workforce development infrastructure.”

She also emphasized how the Chamber’s annual CEO survey continues to show that workforce is a top priority, and that the NC Chamber Foundation’s goal is to create partnerships in multiple industries to tackle workforce challenges.

“The Health Talent Alliance will organize employers, the education community and policymakers around this challenge in a way that no one has before,” she said. And in everything we do, employers are going to lead the way.”

Notable representatives from last week’s event included a roster of esteemed employers in the Southeast region from Novant Health, Wilmington Health, Veterans Affairs, Coastal Horizons, EmergeOrtho, Liberty Healthcare Management, Lower Cape Fear LifeCare, Well Care and others, collaborated during the event to envision a collective roadmap forward. These actions present a significant step forward in addressing the pressing challenges within the Southeast region’s health care workforce.

For health care providers eager to engage with our NC Health Talent Alliance in Southeastern NC, please connect with Dr. Steven Hill at hill@wilmingtonchamber.org. To receive updates on the Talent Alliance’s work, please fill out this online form.