As healthcare leaders reimagine their approaches to staffing, they’re tasked to do so with one simple axiom: flexibility is the new currency.
Burnout, struggles to engage and retain healthcare professionals, and a sharp increase in nurses who are near retirement continue to cause problems for these leaders. While they search for ways to bridge the gap between needs of the facility and needs of professionals, their challenges are compounded by the fact that “nursing schools across the country are struggling to expand capacity to meet the rising demand for care given the national move toward healthcare reform.”
So how can they modernize their approach to battling burnout in the midst of the current labor crisis while also building the healthcare workforce of the future? Providing professionals a platform to match the needs of local healthcare systems is CareRev’s answer.
Addressing systemic causes of burnout in healthcare
The demand for healthcare professionals continues to rise. In fact, “staffing shortages are now the nation’s top patient safety concern, forcing Americans to endure longer wait times when seeking care” or even to be turned away from care. It’s easy to see how - amidst this demand - healthcare professionals are asked to take on more responsibilities and hours.
But it’s also easy to see that such an approach is not sustainable and is not in the best interest of professionals or patients.
Handling multiple patients and shifting administrators to more time on the floor to help with staffing exacerbates stress and burnout. Both are bandage solutions that ignore the need to revamp the healthcare staffing system in ways that:
- prioritize improved well-being and job satisfaction
- reignite engagement with the work
- clear barriers to what matters most for healthcare professionals
How CareRev takes on burnout and builds for the future
Let’s take a look at the experience of our founder. He entered the field of nursing to make a difference - a thread that is common among healthcare professionals. He also faced the same challenges those professionals face today, including “the inability to match the supply of professionals with the demand of patients in real time.”
His frustrations didn’t stop there. As a trauma RN, he knew all too well the struggle of facing emergencies in the ICU with staffing based on averages - not on real-time census. Taking on multiple patients at the bedside, documenting care in their charts, and managing his own levels of stress - all while being understaffed - left him feeling as if he couldn’t produce at his level of clinical expertise. That caused guilt and burnout. But it also sparked his drive to solve the staffing problem.
He built CareRev to empower healthcare professionals. With the ability to take command over when, where, and how often they work, they also prioritize their work-life balance and their well-being. Here’s why that is crucial for your facility:
- increased flexibility to your staffing approach
- added resources to strengthen your workforce
- strategic opportunities to connect and engage with healthcare professionals in your community
- access to technology to help you meet the needs of modern healthcare professionals
Two out of five nurses are considering leaving the profession, so tackling this labor crisis is of the utmost importance. CareRev offers sustainability in our arm of the staffing ecosystem. From reengaging professionals near retirement who want to work a few shifts a month to attracting professionals to a new facility and engaging them in the new paradigm of flexibility, CareRev is focused on providing opportunities. Professionals get to define their careers, and your facility gets to tap into its local talent pool, keeping caregiving in your community.
Additionally, your facility can count on professionals on the CareRev platform to pass our Joint Commission-certified onboarding process. Patient safety is a passionately reinforced priority here at CareRev, and we take great pride in supporting safe and positive clinical experiences for our facility partners. More opportunities for professionals to engage with their work means less burnout and a stronger approach to building the healthcare workforce of the future.
CareRev will host a U.S. News Panel webinar entitled Battling Burnout While Building The Health Workforce of the Future on September 27 from 2-3pm ET. Join the following guests as they focus on how hospital and health system executives can best approach the current strain on the health workforce ecosystem:
- Erin Fraher, Ph.D., MPP - Director, Carolina Health Workforce Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Ernest Grant, Ph.D., RN, FAAN - President, American Nurses Association
- Scott C. Rissmiller, M.D. - Enterprise Executive Vice President and Chief Physician Executive, Atrium Health
