Healthcare employers are facing unprecedented challenges in recruiting and retaining talent for critical entry-level roles. High turnover, rising costs, and fierce competition for the same limited pool of candidates have created an unsustainable arms race of signing bonuses and incremental wage increases. This session explores a dual-path strategy to stabilize and grow the healthcare workforce: upskilling internal employees for advancement and retention, and building community-based talent pipelines to recruit and pre-train new candidates for high-demand roles. Through real-world examples and a dynamic panel discussion, attendees will learn how healthcare organizations are investing in their current workforce to fill clinical roles from within—transforming nutrition services staff into patient care techs, or sterile processing techs into surgical techs. At the same time, they’ll discover how partnerships with community organizations and employers like Amazon are removing barriers for highpotential candidates outside of healthcare. Through its Career Choice program, Amazon is actively training its own employees to help them advance internally or launch new careers in healthcare, skilled trades, and other high-growth sectors. This strategic investment creates a unique opportunity for healthcare providers to access a pre-vetted, highly reliable talent pool—supported by Amazon’s training commitment—helping offset the hiring and onboarding costs they would otherwise incur. Key Takeaways: