COVID-19 heaved overwhelming challenges upon the healthcare industry. Nursing and healthcare professionals answered the call amidst an unknown global pandemic, and in the process found themselves tired and leaving the workforce.
With over two years of fighting the pandemic now under the belt of healthcare professionals, many are actively confronting burnout and exhaustion. They’re also searching for new, more empowering ways to engage with their healthcare careers. That search includes:
- shifting away from set schedules toward more flexibility
- opening more opportunities in a variety of facilities
- prioritizing their mental health and personal lives
- evolving how they approach control of their careers
How should hospitals and healthcare facilities like yours best respond to that search, attract new professionals, and retain more experienced staff? In one word: empathy.
Why empathy is healthcare staffing matters
Healthcare facilities that act with explicit empathy toward today’s professionals can improve job satisfaction and engagement. Research notes that it’s crucial for facilities to create structures and policies to foster this approach. Their efforts should be focused on demonstrating empathy towards professionals that “help staff develop resilience in the face of the emotional labor” and protect them from conditions that spark burnout and feeling undervalued.
In healthcare, some professionals are overwhelmingly skilled. Many other professionals stand out for their continuous display of compassion. But why should nurses feel they need to choose between the two? In a world where the need for care is higher than it has ever been, it is imperative to have nurses who possess all of the above — the kind of nurse who your patients, their families, and your staff can recognize as outstanding role models in your facility.
Flexibility - like telehealth - was once considered a nice bonus. But the pandemic made it clear that both are necessities. Investing in empathy for healthcare professionals must include investing in flexibility.
Modern professionals are actively seeking a more flexible professional roadmap: it’s the linchpin to their ability to prioritize a healthier work-life balance. But it’s when facilities like yours recognize that flexibility is more than a cost-effective healthcare staffing solution that a commitment to empathy shines through.
Flexibility can help your healthcare facility workforce
Let’s take a look at what offering flexibility in the post-pandemic era of healthcare staffing can mean for your facility:
- It can demonstrate your facility’s commitment to addressing the evolving needs of modern professionals.
- It can serve as a reinvestment in creating systemic value for your team.
- It can empower your staffing managers with impactful resources so they can efficiently tackle future disruptions.
- It can transform your approach to workforce strategy and allow your staffing managers more efficiency in tackling fluctuating patient needs.
Your facility taking action today to stop a cycle of turnover means minimizing the risk of a disengaged workforce, one that usually leads to more burnout as well as fewer professionals on hand to deliver quality care. By providing healthcare professionals the opportunity to build a schedule that reflects their needs, they can enjoy a professional reset, prompting more job engagement and improved patient care.
With the CareRev platform, your hospital or health system, outpatient center, or skilled nursing facility can offer the post-pandemic necessity. Leverage our leading technology, certified by The Joint Commission, to source the talent you need to meet patient demand today. As the healthcare workforce continues to transform, through our app, your facility should feel empowered to be in alignment with said labor transformation.
