Hospitals often struggle with staffing shortages and burnout. Nurses are on the front line of patient care, and their efforts have a direct impact on patient outcomes and other factors such as readmissions and medical waste. To that end, hospitals should consider optimal staffing and engagement of nurses to be a critical strategy for both leveraging their expertise and deploying them in the most effective way possible.
In a stressful setting such as healthcare, it’s essential to foster mutually beneficial staffing and scheduling. Hospitals can achieve greater nurse engagement by providing choice, flexibility, and transparency. This leads to better quality of life for staff, managers, and patients.
According to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, organizations that
pay attention to work-life balance for clinical staff gain a valuable
competitive edge in recruiting and retaining top talent. The report also
states that the biggest influences on overall job satisfaction among
nurses are working conditions and schedules, followed by salary.
As a former hospital CEO, I understand the challenge when it comes to filling vacant shifts in hospital rosters via last minute emails, phone calls, and text messages. During my time managing a hospital, I saw a need to address staff shortages at short notice. Initially, I tackled this issue by setting up a group text messaging service, but I always knew it would be unsustainable in the long run.
Improving staff communication isn’t just about promoting collaboration among team members though.
Frequent and irrelevant communication with staff will frustrate and
overwhelm them over time. It takes away from a nurses’ sense of control
and autonomy.
The CliniShift software suite aims to enable hospital managers to
better engage with their clinical staff, removing the need for manual
processes and inconvenient forms of communication.
By empowering nurse managers with state of the art technology and giving
them a greater say in staffing and scheduling, hospitals will see many
benefits, including:
- Improved communication and collaboration
- Extra time freed up for focusing on patient care
- Reduced labor costs
- Accurate, real-time management insights
For more information, or if we can answer any questions about staff optimization, please feel free to use the contact us form.
