By Cheryl Kirchner, RN, CPHQ, GRCP & Kenneth Slifer

This is a critical time for the industry, as recent nursing workforce trends paint a startling picture. Over the past two years, around 100,000 registered nurses have left the workforce, and almost 800,000 intend to leave by 2027. Notably, many of those planning to leave cite cultural factors, such as unsafe working conditions, underappreciation and emotional drain. Given that many of these issues are directly related to operations, healthcare organizations can implement new tools and tactics to address the root cause of these deficits.  

We sat down with RLDatix nursing leader Cheryl Kirchner, RN, CPHQ, GRCP, Director of Compliance Solutions at RLDatix, to explore how healthcare organizations can address today's staffing crisis head-on. With over 35 years of healthcare experience, Kirchner walks us through how hospitals can drive better outcomes and a brighter future with strategies that prioritize efficiency and empathy. 

We often discuss the staffing crisis at a national level, but what about the organizational level? How can teams address this on a day-to-day basis? 

Over the past few years, healthcare organizations have learned more than ever about their nurses and the pressures they face. Understandably, cost-cutting, an aging workforce and increasing patient complexities have all contributed to this crisis, and the pandemic has only added to the stress and exhaustion many nursing professionals were already facing. This is why it's more important than ever that nursing leaders focus their strategic efforts on the ways in which staffing and operational practices impact daily care. 

A few recent studies have validated the need for bold executive action to mitigate potential turnover, and there are opportunities to use predictive analytics and flexible staffing options to prioritize provider happiness on the job. It doesn’t just help the provider either — many of these efforts may actually improve performance, team relationships, patient satisfaction and cost management. 

What impacts do staffing models have on patient care? 

As a patient advocate and quality leader, I know most people enter this line of work because we're motivated by an "internal calling." We always want to do right by our patients and do whatever’s possible to improve outcomes. As leaders, we owe it to our nurses to support their ability to do so — particularly given the significant role that nurses play in both care delivery and quality. The good news is that there's an opportunity to reimagine staffing with patient care at the center and our workforce in mind. 

For instance, teams can align nursing resources with patient acuity to increase organizational agility, leverage mobile applications to support frontline nurses and integrate workforce analytics to enable dynamic resource mapping when circumstances change. As we all know, healthcare is constantly changing, and if we want to maintain quality in the face of uncertainty, "the way we've always done things" won't cut it — we need to build a level of agility directly into our operations.  

How can healthcare teams begin their journey toward more strategic workforce management? 

Across the industry, I'm seeing organizations start by focusing on a few key areas — namely metrics like hours and event data, learnings from healthcare leaders and qualitative feedback collected from patients and colleagues. 

It may seem straightforward, but some teams lack adequate insight into their workforce-related data, which can lead to reactionary — and sometimes damaging — staffing practices. Integrating cross-functional analytics that highlight problem areas and reaffirm the nurse's role in patient care makes it easier to see what needs to be fixed and how to stay ahead of it. It's a slight but transformative shift in mindset: going from workforce management as mostly scheduling to a strategic function that relies on cross-functional data, communication and continuous improvement efforts. 

"it's a slight but transformative shift in mindset: going from workforce management as mostly scheduling to a strategic function that relies on cross-functional data, communication and continuous improvement efforts.” - Cheryl Kirchner, RN, CPHQ, GRCP 

What might this look like in practice? 

We need to see the forest and the trees. That means integrating functions like risk and safety, compliance and governance into existing workforce management practices — for instance, implementing tools that can communicate policy updates to remote employees or predict trends related to staffing needs. 

Moving beyond traditional verticals and into connected healthcare operations is the only way to keep up with the constant demand and requirement shifts facing healthcare, like staying current with the upcoming Medicare and Medicaid minimum staffing standards for long-term care facilities in the U.S. 

Lastly, how can healthcare teams drive lasting change? 

I believe that we all have a responsibility to integrate whatever tools are at our disposal to track successes and mitigate failures based on hard data. To do so, we need systems in place that can allow teams to identify potential risks and possible solutions at both the tactical and enterprise level. This will allow those teams to deliver meaningful and sustainable innovation. 

With more dynamic operations and data-driven decision-making to guide us, we can all work to continuously improve the outcomes and experiences of our patients, colleagues and organizations — ultimately making healthcare safer for everyone. 

Interested in learning how your team can support safer, more strategic workforce management? Speak to one of our experts today!