5 Strategies for Healthcare Organizations to Combat Staffing Shortages
Healthcare staffing shortage is the major shortcoming faced by healthcare recruitment companies. Due to various factors, talent shortages in the healthcare sector this factor has become one of the top concerns for healthcare executives.
Many healthcare professionals are already dealing with increased staffing shortages in hospitals or clinics, and recruitment and retention stay as the number one challenge. For the first time, staffing shortages were among the top concern in the American College of Healthcare Executives. The healthcare staffing shortages are witnessed as an unprecedented staffing shortage, especially in the case of frontline clinical. The reason is increased burnout, unsatisfied, and overburdened work.
Burnout is the reason for Staffing Shortages
The leading cause of staffing shortage in the healthcare sector is burnout and mental stress. The professionals have to experience excessive work pressure and unavoidable emergencies. This has made many clinical reach the breaking point. This makes the healthcare staffs leave their job and profession that once brought them fulfillment. This has not just impacted the retention rates, but today few of them choose to join an organization. As per a study by WHO the world will have to face shortages of nurses up to 4.6 million if no actions are taken.
The solutions to improve the healthcare staffing shortages
Providing incentives to the healthcare professionals
This is one of the most obvious retention strategies to offer your current and prospective staff. A few steps can help the nurses attract and retain talents. You can provide them
- Flexible work schedules
- High salaries
- Sign-on bonuses
- Incentives for perusing certifications
- Better retirement plans and children's discounts
As a healthcare leader, you provide nurses with better conditions, and you also must provide them with these incentives. Do you think organizations can retain and attract healthcare staff? To combat the healthcare shortages based on your location you can reduce the turnover by one percent and save $262,300 per year. Adding these incentives can considerably cost less, but it can save you time in finding new staff every time one leaves.
1. Consider more advanced practice nurses
When registered nursing jobs are given to licensed nurse practitioners they perform the work with greater responsibility even when they were given larger roles. These professionals in nursing jobs do the work and primary care extremely well. Their role will continue in your healthcare department because they will bring a value-based care model.
The effects of the staffing concerns on operations within medical practices are revealed by an MGMA Stat survey conducted on September 28. While 24% of practices say that they have not altered their operations as a result of workforce difficulties, 76% of them say they have. There were 767 relevant replies to the survey.
2. Strengthen the internal workforce to reduce retention
Any new hires or fresh talents cannot improve your organization’s condition overnight when your existing employees are inefficacious. Staff retention will cost you a minimum. Rather recruiting new staff will increase the cost because it will include every process right from onboarding to training the staff. There are a few proven ways you can include to reduce retention rates and decrease staff burnout. You can increase the pay and raise wages. Additionally, you can also appreciate giving gifts, employee perks, or lunches sometimes. This can help the healthcare staffs deal with burnout and stay loyal to the organization.
3. Automation can help the staffs deal with burnout
In a plethora of healthcare organizations mostly the work is handled by administrative staff. Right from scheduling appointments to taking payments there is a need for manpower. This has increased the workload and without technology, work automation is extremely impossible. You can enjoy the benefits of automating tasks that will provide an improved experience to the patients as well. Various tools like patient portals can ease the work process by eliminating the lengthy paperwork and helping the healthcare staff.
4. Invest in process
The healthcare workforce solution demands investing in process and technology equally. Healthcare organizations should always balance intrinsic and extrinsic culture and life stages differences. You can perform this function by utilizing technology to train staff. The traditional training methodology requires methods and people at the same pace to deliver training. Whereas inculcating and implementing technology to do the same can allow employees to learn at their own pace. As per the prediction of the World Economic Forum Policies that around 50% of the employees will need reskilling by the year 2025.
5. Reimagining organizational structure
Healthcare recruitment companies know the recipe for dealing with healthcare staffing shortages. You can upkeep a structured system to provide staff with additional benefits that could retain them. If you put a healthcare system that is multi-located and managed by your human resource team, you can promote diversity. These opportunities create a talent pool with out-of-town resources.
Recommendations to address staffing shortages
- Investing in technology and redesigning the work can help your healthcare organization deal with shortages and have a structured workflow.
- Improving employee morale through prompt responsiveness to feedback and fostering working relationships is a great approach.
- Connect with a staffing firm to create a culture and environment where employees feel comfortable sharing their thoughts.
- Keep your feedback mechanism up to date and be always open to feedback.
- Provide the employees with multiple feedback channels like suggestion boxes, and anonymous surveys.
- Implement one-on-one meetings that are focused on providing feedback and setting goals.
- By investing in training and development and enhancing skills you can provide employees with job satisfaction.
Healthcare recruitment faces a worldwide talent emergency because of unavoidable situations. Burnout and attrition rate are also the reason for frontline clinicians to leave organizations. As per a survey by Deloitte approx. 46% of clinical have higher burnout, 39% of them feel modest burnout. Whereas 19% of them felt too or minimal burnout.
