Month: June 2023

Originally published by Health Tech World online

Right now, the global healthcare industry faces a worldwide staffing shortage that is roundly expected to worsen.

A combination of factors is to blame, some pandemic-related – including the tragic scale of COVID-related deaths among healthcare workers – and others structural.

In Europe, where I live, the impact of the shortage has already grown profound:

In France, 30 per cent of hospital doctors — some 9,000 specialists — are missing in the public sector. The staffing shortage is severe enough that hospitals have closed more than 4,300 beds, and at times, have been forced to stop accepting patients in non-emergency departments.In Germany, 22,000 nursing positions are vacant (compared to 3,900 positions five years ago) and 57 per cent of hospitals report having to restrict services due to staff shortages.In Spain, the shortage has meant that nurses currently treat double and sometimes triple the number of patients recommended by the European Union.

Unfortunately, the data suggests that resolution is nowhere in sight; the World Health Organization projects a worldwide workforce shortage in 2030 of some 15 million healthcare workers.

Interestingly enough, I’ve noticed that when we business leaders wring our hands over the crisis, we tend to speak about it foremost in economic terms.

Amid all the necessary business talk, I implore us to not lose sight of our true focus: the real-world impact this shortage is having on patient care.

Let me tell you about the impact on one such patient: my sister, Sylvie.

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Cisco hosted its first-ever Black-owned Partner and Supplier Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on April 25. Word on the street is that it was a huge success, but today I’m checking in with event organizers Tanisha Gordon-Flowers, Sr. Manager, Strategic Alliances, Cisco Capital, Ronnell Nobles, Sr. Manager, Diverse Partner Investments, Andrico Spates, Senior Manager, Global Partner Sales and Business Development, and Bryan Wiggins, Leader, Supplier Diversity, to learn more about how it went.

What were you trying to achieve with this event?

Tanisha: The intent of the conference is really to bring our black owned businesses together as a community to network, share best practices, and provide information to help strengthen their businesses.

Andrico: It was about empowering them to excel with Cisco and beyond. To strengthen their businesses and expose them to what’s possible. Not just with Cisco, but also with each other, which is something that came out of the conference.

“The intent of the conference is really to bring our black owned businesses together as a community to network, share best practices, and provide information to help strengthen their businesses.” — Tanisha Gordon Flowers

Did it meet your expectations?

Tanisha: I thought it was really exciting to watch the participants interact with each other. They were so engaged. I loved when we were in the federal session, and they were banding together as one voice to communicate some of the challenges they were encountering while working in the federal space. They voiced opinions on their experiences and shared best practices. So, I loved seeing that interaction. That was the vision I had. That they would have a space that made them feel comfortable enough to be transparent and to express themselves freely.

Ronnell: I’ll also say that part of this was to show the Cisco commitment to the Black-owned business community. This was really the first time Cisco put together an event of this magnitude just focused on this community. We brought in our executives, we brought in outside speakers, and we focused on the content that was relevant to this audience. So just getting it done the first time was a win. But it’s really the follow up conversations and actions that come out of it that will be the true measure of success.

Bryan: I want to piggyback off one thing that Tanisha said—about the attendees coming together. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work with the incumbent suppliers and aspiring suppliers. And the way that our incumbents sort of embraced and reinforced our message was really great. They were explaining the programs we have to support suppliers, sharing their experiences with them, and encouraging the other businesses to get involved. I was surprised and impressed.

Andrico: The speakers at the event talked a lot about empowerment and excelling. And I think when it comes to the empowerment piece we landed that plane successfully. Now we’re all looking forward to how we will support their success as they move into the future.

What was the most surprising thing about the event?

Tanisha: I was surprised by just how quickly everyone embraced each other. You would never know that these people just met the evening before at the networking event or that morning. I introduced one of our finance partners to one of our channel partners the morning of the conference and it turned out they had met during the networking event the night before and already had an inside joke running like they were old friends.

Ronnell: I will say one other thing that I thought was pretty cool was that the partners we’ve been working with for a while were really advocates for us, throughout. They had taken a degree of ownership of this thing and they were helping some of the newer partners understand best practices and benefits of working with Cisco.

What do you envision for next year? Is this going to happen again?

Tanisha: Absolutely. I think that not only will we have continued support from our executive team, but after hearing about this year’s event we’ll have many more partners or aspiring partners and suppliers who will want to participate next year.

Andrico: I’m hoping we can look at the actions that have been taken between the first conference and the next one. I’d love to see the companies that attended share their achievements so other companies can emulate their success. Our closing speaker emphasized “Empowerment to Action.” We will continue with the empowerment piece, but also celebrate and evaluate the action component.

Bryan: We may wind up having a beginner track next year, because there are more Black-owned businesses that need to receive empowerment messaging and tools.

Andrico: I agree. It would be great to put our partners and suppliers in the forefront of the community. It would be more impactful for the alumni to be running sessions and telling the story.

Tanisha: It was nice to see some of the more experienced partners become mentors in a way to some of the other partners. So, maybe the partners who came this year can be mentors for the next round of folks coming in.

Ronnell: I completely agree. I definitely think there was more partnering than competition at this event—even though a lot of these companies are competing in the same spaces.

“It was nice to see some of the more experienced partners become mentors in a way to some of the other partners.” — Tanisha Gordon Flowers

Any final thoughts?

Bryan: Yes. I just want to thank all the people who helped make this happen but didn’t get credit because they weren’t standing on the stage like we were. The video team, the caterers, the people managing registration. They were almost all from diverse-owned companies and they brought so much value. It takes so many moving parts to put on an event like that and they are the ones who made it happen.

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Only 3 percent of the water on the planet is freshwater. And of that, only a half-percent is accessible to humans. The other 2.5 percent remains in polar ice caps, glaciers or underground, or is so polluted it’s useless. So, the water we have is finite, and as the population grows, this becomes a concern. In some places, it already is.

Roughly 2.2 billion people don’t have access to safe water, and nearly two-thirds of the population already face water shortages during at least one month of the year. 

“Many of the problems that we see, and we feel with water nowadays, are a consequence of the climate change that we are living in. And water is the first area where we as human beings perceive climate change so close,” said Dr. Cristina Alonso Alija SVP, Head of Sustainability, Safety, Health and Environment at Bayer. “It’s either too little water, or too much water, or water at the wrong time.”

“We know that agriculture is one of the big impacts in climate change. And usually where you have big impacts, you also have opportunities for big solutions.” – Dr. Cristina Alonso Alija, SVP, Head of Sustainability, Safety, Health and Environment at Bayer

Bayer is a partner of the “RUN BLUE” campaign led by water advocate and athlete Mina Guli. She aims to raise awareness that while human activity and population growth threaten our most foundational natural resource, there are ways that human ingenuity can help us adapt. 

Guli began running the first of her 200 marathons in the spring of 2022 in the lead-up to the United Nations water conference on World Water Day, March 22, 2023. Nearing the end of her journey, she described some concerning things she witnessed as she circled the globe. The Pantanal wetlands of South America are drier than they’ve ever been. Farmers in Turkey work around massive sinkholes that opened due to the overuse of groundwater. The women and girls of India risk their lives each day to fetch water. There is almost no place on the planet that remains untouched. 

“Climate change is water change, and climate risk is water risk,” said Mina Guli.

“Sometimes to make big, global, substantive change, you’ve got to… show people the power of what’s possible.” – Mina Guli, Water Advocate and Athlete

Agriculture uses 70 percent of available freshwater, which must change. Rice — which feeds half the world’s population — uses 30-40 percent of the planet’s freshwater. Growing a kilogram of rice takes 3,000 liters of water. The water-intensive process involves flooding paddies for weed control, but doing so creates a breeding ground for bacteria that, while harmless to the rice, produces methane gas, which harms the climate. 

Innovations such as Bayer’s direct-seeded rice offer a solution that allows planting directly on the fields without flooding the paddies. Bayer partnered with farmers in Bhauwal, India, in a direct-seeded rice program that provides a promising glimpse into the future. The project resulted in higher yields with less water and labor, meaning increased profits for farmers. 

“So, we get a very good quality of crop,” farmer Balwant Singh said.

“Sustainability embraces everything,” said Alonso Alija. “It embraces improving the planet’s health, and embraces improving people’s livelihoods. And improving people’s livelihoods means improving health, improving access to resources, and access to education. And, at the end of the day, being able to choose the life that you want to live.”

At Bayer, we’re working across the agricultural supply chain to create solutions for better water resource management and sustainability to achieve better harvests using less water. From seeds like direct-seeded rice to digital tools like Climate FieldView that help growers understand the best time and place to plant for increased efficiency, we’re committed to innovative agriculture that benefits farmers, consumers and the environment.

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The United Way of Hancock County in Ohio organized its spring Days of Caring event to bring together more than 900 volunteers to complete 100 service projects in five days.The volunteers logged 3,600 community service hours during the bi-annual event, which equates to more than $114,000 in savings for the nonprofit organizations.The United Way said the consistent level of volunteerism has allowed leaders to include smaller, home projects for residents in need of support through Backyard Mission Trip.

The annual United Way spring Days of Caring event in Hancock County, Ohio, home to Marathon Petroleum’s headquarters, featured another outstanding show of volunteers from the community. There were 900 volunteers working on more than 100 projects during the five-day event. From Awakening Minds Art to the YMCA, organizations benefited from the mass of people ready to work.

“Our extensive network of employee volunteers accounted for 750 of the people who gave their time to these projects this spring,” said Ashley Goecke, Advanced Community and Stakeholder Engagement Representative for Marathon Petroleum. “This is an event that employees look forward to and get excited about doing.”

United Way leaders said the consistent number of volunteers who signed up for the spring Days of Caring and the fall 2022 event has allowed them to include more organizations and more projects, including some for residents through Backyard Mission Trip. This spring, volunteers assembled a gazebo for City Mission of Findlay, washed windows at the Women’s Resource Center, landscaped at the American Red Cross and spread mulch for the City of Findlay. Members of Marathon Petroleum’s Audit Assurance & Advisory Services department volunteered four hours at the Challenged Champions Equestrian Center painting fences and barns.

“Our team laughed and learned about each other while giving back to a great organization.”

“We had a fun experience volunteering and learning about the great things Challenged Champions is doing for families and the community,” said ShaJuan Grace, Advanced Internal Control Auditor at Marathon Petroleum and Findlay Community Action Team Lead. “Our team laughed and learned about each other while giving back to a great organization. We look forward to participating in Days of Caring opportunities in the future.

More Opportunities

The United Way said the Days of Caring events provide a sampling of ways to get involved in the community, but volunteers can take it to another level to make a bigger impact in the community.

“Maybe you want to take a deeper step. Maybe you want to participate on a board or a committee,” said Angela DeBoskey, CEO of  United Way of Hancock County. “Maybe you want to be involved in helping vulnerable children. We can help you find that niche. Just connect with us.”

The United Way of Hancock County is planning the fall Days of Caring for Sept. 18-20. There will be a separate registration later this year for those interested in volunteering.

For more information, contact the United Way of Hancock County.