| Course | HLTH 4373 Human Resources for Healthcare Administrators |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 2 |
| Paper type | Recruitment and selection plan |
| Length | 1,190 words, about 4 pages plus title and reference pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | American College of Education |
| Program | B.S. in Healthcare Administration |
| Updated | September 2026 |
Free sample paper for HLTH 4373 Module 2
Four Open Chairs for Swallowing and Speech: A Recruitment and Selection Plan for Speech-Language Pathologists at an Inpatient Rehabilitation Hospital
Student Name
American College of Education
HLTH4373: Human Resources for Healthcare Administrators
Module 2 Assignment
Instructor Name
October 12, 2026
The Hiring Problem
The workforce plan for the therapy department of our composite 60-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital identified speech-language pathology as the discipline with the largest proportional gap. The department employs four full-time speech-language pathologists against a need of more than six, and two positions have been posted for over eight months. Speech-language pathologists in our hospital evaluate and treat swallowing disorders, which affect many stroke and brain injury patients and carry a risk of aspiration pneumonia, as well as disorders of speech, language and cognition. When the department is short, patients wait for swallowing evaluations, diets stay restricted longer and therapy minutes fall below what the program requires.
The labor market is competitive. Federal projections show employment of speech-language pathologists growing 17% from 2025 to 2035, far above the all-occupation average, with about 12,500 openings a year (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2026). Schools, outpatient clinics, home health agencies and private practices compete for the same graduates, and many offer schedules without weekends. This plan sets out how the hospital will attract and select speech-language pathologists more effectively.
Job Analysis
Recruitment and selection should rest on a job analysis, a systematic description of the tasks a job involves and the knowledge, skills and abilities a person must bring to them. I interviewed the therapy director and two current speech-language pathologists and reviewed a sample of their schedules and documentation. The analysis identified five core tasks: bedside and instrumental swallowing evaluations, including participation in videofluoroscopic swallow studies with radiology; treatment of swallowing, communication and cognitive disorders; family training; documentation that meets Medicare requirements for the inpatient rehabilitation program; and participation in weekly interdisciplinary team conferences.
From those tasks came the selection criteria: current state licensure or eligibility, and the certificate of clinical competence from the national professional association or completion of the clinical fellowship leading to it; clinical reasoning in dysphagia management; the ability to explain complex information to patients and families in plain language; comfort working in a fast-paced interdisciplinary team; and willingness to work one weekend in four under the redesigned schedule. The analysis also showed that the current job posting, a generic template, mentioned none of the work that makes the role attractive to clinicians interested in medical speech-language pathology, such as the instrumental swallow studies.
Sourcing Candidates
The plan uses four sources. First, a university pipeline: the hospital will sign affiliation agreements with the two graduate speech-language pathology programs within 150 miles, host at least four graduate students a year for medical placements, and offer clinical fellowship positions to strong students. New graduates must complete a supervised clinical fellowship before full certification, and a hospital that provides good fellowship supervision becomes attractive to graduates seeking medical experience. Second, a rewritten posting that leads with the clinical work, instrumental swallow studies, brain injury and stroke rehabilitation and a real interdisciplinary team, and states the weekend schedule and pay openly. Third, professional channels: the state speech-language-hearing association's job board and its annual conference, where the hospital will host a session on dysphagia management in rehabilitation. Fourth, employee referrals, with a $2,000 bonus paid after a referred hire completes six months.
The hospital will stop relying on general job boards for this role, since the last eight months produced few qualified applicants from them.
Selection Methods
The selection process will use methods with evidence behind them. Research on personnel selection has long found that structured interviews, in which each candidate hears an identical set of job-based questions and every response is scored against defined standards, predict job performance better than unstructured conversations (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). A more recent reanalysis by Sackett et al. (2022) argued that the range restriction corrections applied in older meta-analyses were too large, so the validity of many selection procedures had been inflated, yet structured interviews still came out first among the procedures it examined once the estimates were revised. The hospital's current process, an informal conversation with the therapy director, is the kind of unstructured interview the research ranks lowest.
The new process has three stages. A phone screen by human resources confirms licensure, certification status and schedule fit. A structured interview by a panel of the therapy director, a speech-language pathologist and a nurse uses eight questions drawn from the job analysis, such as describing how the candidate would respond when a patient's family insists on a regular diet the evaluation does not support, with answers scored on a behaviorally anchored five-point scale. A brief work sample asks the candidate to review a de-identified bedside swallow evaluation and explain their recommendations, which tests clinical reasoning directly. Scores from all three are combined before any discussion, so that the first impression of one panel member does not dominate the decision.
Fairness and Legal Compliance
The process must be fair and lawful. Every question in the structured interview will be reviewed by human resources to confirm it relates to the job and avoids protected characteristics such as age, disability, pregnancy, religion or national origin. The panel will be trained to score answers against the anchors rather than on general impressions, and interviewers will not ask about family plans or childcare, even when asking about the weekend schedule; instead, all candidates will be told the schedule and asked whether they can meet it. Sackett et al. (2022) also reported information on the size of group differences associated with different selection procedures, a reminder that validity is not the only consideration; structured interviews compare well on both counts. Human resources will track applicant flow by stage to watch for any pattern suggesting adverse impact.
Making the Offer Competitive
Selection is wasted if the preferred candidate declines. The hospital's pay for speech-language pathologists is close to the national median, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports at $97,870 a year (BLS, 2026), but it offers less schedule flexibility than competitors. The offer will therefore emphasize what competitors cannot match: supervised experience with instrumental swallowing studies, a clinical fellowship with a named mentor for new graduates, continuing education funding of $1,500 a year and the one-in-four weekend schedule. For experienced candidates, the hospital will pay a sign-on bonus of $7,500 with a one-year commitment. Offers will be made within three business days of the final interview, since delays lose candidates in a competitive market.
Measuring the Plan
Human resources will measure the plan with five indicators: time to fill each speech-language pathologist position, with a target of under 90 days; the number of qualified applicants per posting; the offer acceptance rate; the source of each hire, to learn which channels work; and first-year retention of new hires, since a selection process that brings in people who leave within a year has failed. The hospital will also compare new hires' performance reviews at one year with their structured interview scores, a small internal check on whether the process predicts performance in this setting. If the university pipeline produces no hires within 18 months, the hospital will review the quality of its student placements before investing further.
References
Sackett, P. R., Zhang, C., Berry, C. M., & Lievens, F. (2022). Revisiting meta-analytic estimates of validity in personnel selection: Addressing systematic overcorrection for restriction of range. Journal of Applied Psychology, 107(11), 2040-2068. https://doi.org/10.1037/apl0000994
Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.124.2.262
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2026). Speech-language pathologists. In Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Department of Labor. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/speech-language-pathologists.htm
HLTH 4373 Module 2 instructions, in plain terms
Module 2 of HLTH 4373 often turns to hiring. Prompts commonly ask you to choose a hard-to-fill health care position and build a plan to recruit and select for it: describe the job through a job analysis, identify where qualified candidates can be found, choose selection methods and explain why they are valid and fair, and plan the offer. Some versions add onboarding; others ask for a sample job posting or interview questions. Plan to cite current federal pay and job outlook figures for the role you choose, for example its entry in the BLS handbook, along with at least one research source on selection methods. Look closely at the Canvas instructions for whether the role must come from your own organization.
How this HLTH 4373 Module 2 example is built
This sample moves in the order a human resources department would work. It defines the hiring problem by its clinical consequences and by labor market data. The job analysis section explains how tasks and criteria were identified and uses the analysis to show why the old posting failed. Sourcing is targeted to where speech-language pathologists actually look, including a pipeline that uses the profession's clinical fellowship. The selection section explains the evidence for structured interviews, including a recent reanalysis, and describes a three-stage process with scored answers and a work sample. Separate sections cover fairness and the offer, and the plan ends with measures that include a check on whether interview scores predict performance.
HLTH 4373 Module 2 rubric: what full marks look like
Rubrics for recruitment and selection plans usually reward a clear job analysis, targeted sourcing, valid and lawful selection methods and a measurable plan. The job analysis criterion wants tasks and competencies stated, not just a job title. Sourcing earns points when channels match the candidate population. The selection criterion carries heavy weight, and graders reward methods supported by research and designed to reduce bias, such as structured interviews with scoring guides. A legal compliance criterion appears in most human resources rubrics, so questions to avoid and adverse impact monitoring matter. Measures of time, quality and retention complete the plan, and APA 7 formatting finishes the score.
HLTH 4373 Module 2 help: mistakes that cost points
Hiring plans often lose points by skipping the job analysis and writing criteria from a template. Another common error is listing every job board rather than choosing channels the target candidates use. Selection sections lose credibility when they rely on gut feeling or unstructured conversations, or when interview questions touch on protected characteristics. Students also forget the offer, where many hires are lost. Include a way to tell whether the process worked, such as first-year retention. Cite research for your selection methods, and keep labor data current. Planning for a different role, such as night-shift nurses or coders? Send the role and your rubric, and a Module 2 plan will be written around them.
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HLTH 4373 Module 2 questions, answered
What does HLTH4373 Module 2 usually ask for?
The second module of HLTH4373 often focuses on hiring: a recruitment and selection plan for a hard-to-fill health care role, grounded in a job analysis and using sound, lawful selection methods. Your classroom's instructions decide the role.
Why use a structured interview?
Research on personnel selection consistently finds that structured interviews, with the same job-related questions and defined scoring, predict job performance better than unstructured conversations.
What is a job analysis?
A systematic description of a job's tasks and the knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform them. It is the basis for job postings, selection criteria and interview questions.
Where can I find a free HLTH 4373 Module 2 sample paper?
You can read it on this page. The complete Module 2 recruitment and selection plan for speech-language pathologists is posted, from the job analysis and sourcing channels to the structured interview design and offer strategy.
How do you measure whether a hiring process works?
Track time to fill, qualified applicants per opening, offer acceptance, hiring sources and first-year retention, and compare early performance with selection scores.