In Luxembourg, hundreds of healthcare jobs go unseen by most jobseekers. Not because they do not exist but because candidates do not know where to look. MediNation set out to fix that. Almost five years on, it has become the sector’s go-to recruitment platform.
When Patrick Kersten handed over the CEO role at his startup Doctena in mid-2020, he expected a quiet transition. What followed was a complaint he had heard before but never fully examined: healthcare employers could not recruit. “You say it is difficult to recruit,” he told them, “but I am sure it is also difficult to apply because your jobs offers are exclusively available on your own company websites.’’
Fifty Thousand Workers, Nowhere to Look
The numbers told the story. Luxembourg’s healthcare and social care sector employs 50,000 people, more or less equivalent to the finance industry in size. But where finance has hundreds of employers competing for talent on every major job board, healthcare has fewer than 100, and their vacancies were largely invisible. On mainstream platforms, you would find only 50 nursing jobs according to Kersten. However, the sector had three times that many.
“In many other European countries, there exists a dedicated job board for healthcare,” Kersten explains. “Luxembourg hosts one for Information Technologies professionals, for finance professionals, for law professionals, and much more. But nothing for nurses, caregivers, educators and psychologists. Basically, the ones who make up most of this sector.”
The gap was not only inconvenient. It was structural. Healthcare professionals, Kersten noticed, are humble by nature. In contrast to other sectors launching flashier and larger recruitment campaigns, they tended to keep a lower profile.
MediNation, launched in 2021 with 160 job listings. At the time, it was more than the number of jobs listed on mainstream job boards. Today, it hosts over 700 roles from 60 to 70 employers, with 120 nursing positions and 150 education roles. Between 80% and 90% of users access the site via a mobile phone, a reflection of the sector’s reality: nurses and caregivers are not sitting at desks.
Beyond the Job Board
The real innovation is not the platform in itself, but what surrounds it. Every employer on MediNation has a profile page with photos, videos and employee testimonials. It is a feature Kersten insists on, not as an upsell but as a standard. “The candidates wish to know more about them,” he says.
Decisions hinge on the mission and team culture of the company. “That is where we help these employers have a digital employer branding, they would not prioritise otherwise.”
According to Kersten, MediNation users spend half their time scrolling jobs, the other half exploring employer pages. Many follow specific organisations, waiting for the right role to open up.
A Platform for a Different Kind of Professional
The model works because it is built for a community that does not behave like other professionals. They are not career-hoppers and only one in six healthcare workers has a LinkedIn profile.
Kersten is strict about who gets on the platform. Employers need a sector-specific company code. The result is a curated ecosystem where every listing is relevant, and every employer is represented.
Scaling beyond Luxembourg
The platform has reached what Kersten names “maturity” in Luxembourg. With 50,000 professionals in the sector and 100,000 site visitors, growth has reached maximum capacity, but engagement has not. Employer profile views continue to climb. In May 2024, MediNation launched in Belgium, a market ten times the size of Luxembourg with 450,000 healthcare workers. The audience there has already surpassed Luxembourg’s. Belgium’s challenges mirror Luxembourg’s, but with higher stakes: staff shortages have forced some hospitals to close services.
The expansion raises questions: can a model built on purpose, impact and community scale across borders? Belgium’s healthcare landscape is fragmented, with different qualifications, regulations and titles in each region. Kersten acknowledges the complexity but sees the same gap. “There was no website in Belgium offering ambulance drivers and paramedics as a specific job category,” he says. “By doing so, we make life much easier and maybe help create vocations.”
MediNation’s success depends on a bet: that healthcare workers want more than what the mainstream offers. A place where the sector speaks to itself, on its own terms. Almost five years in, the bet seems sound.
For now, Kersten is clear about what drives him. “I have always tried to do things which have an impact,” he explains. In a sector where every hire matters, impact is measured one vacancy, one profile, one connection at a time.
This article was published in the latest Silicon Luxembourg magazine.
