Jessica Gummow

Jessica Gummow is master student of perfusion science at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Prior to this, she completed her Bachelor of Science degree at the Medical University of South Carolina in 2003.  Since completing her undergraduate degree, she has worked as a Staff Perfusionist, Chief Perfusionist, and is currently the Director of Perfusion at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Over the last several years, there has been a significant shift in the staffing level of perfusionists across the United States. In this high demand market, it is critical for organizations to understand what perfusionists prioritize when seeking new employment. Her master thesis, titled, “Perfusion Recruitment Strategies Using Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis” will use conjoint analysis to gain understanding of what attributes of employment opportunities are most important in this medical specialty.  To her knowledge, a similar study has not been conducted in the perfusion community, and doing so will better equip hiring organizations to produce employment offers specific to perfusion candidates.

Results

Background: A significant shift in perfusion staffing has created a high-demand market with organizations competing for the same candidates. The purpose of this study was to use a choice-based conjoint analysis to determine what attributes of employment opportunities are most important to perfusionists so that hiring organizations are better equipped to produce employment offers specific to each perfusion candidate.

Methods: The Sawtooth Software Discover program was used to create a choice-based conjoint survey that was distributed to perfusionists. After a series of demographic questions, respondents were asked to choose between three employment offers that were comprised of 8 attributes, each with 3 varying options. Completed surveys were analyzed using the Discover software, producing importance scores.

Results: 240 surveys were completed, 154 (64%) male and 86 (36%) female. ECMO impact to the perfusionist and hours worked per week ranked most important, at 19.4% and 17.5%, respectively. A significant difference exists between ECMO impact to the perfusionist and all other attributes. The least important attributes were annual continuing education funds and sign-on bonus/relocation, at 6.8% and 4.7%, respectively. Respondents in their 20’s and 30’s find the importance of ECMO impact on the perfusionist to be significantly less important when compared to those in their 50’s. Perfusionists with a Masters degree believe salary to be significantly more important when compared to perfusionists with other types of perfusion education.

Conclusion: A common theme of how ECMO impacts the perfusionist repeated itself throughout the survey results. Offering large sign-on bonuses and relocation packages to entice new employees is not indicated as a viable way to satisfy perfusionists. Appropriate management of hours worked, days on call, and how ECMO impacts the perfusionists will be most impactful in recruitment of new employees.