What this means for you as a hospital administrator is that hospitals should be able to provide both high quality clinical care and an excellent patient experience at the same time, by focusing on those elements. Which you can find discussed here: Patients’ Perception of Hospital Care in the United States.

Prior to this shift in their employee relations, they had struggled to get their travelers to buy in to their methodologies and hospital mission. Since their facility relied heavily on travelers and other temporary contract workers, they realized that they needed to try a different approach if they were going to improve the quality of care. They recognized that they had previously treated their travelers as outsiders.

It was at that point they decided to enhance the relationship with their travelers. This new strategy didn’t require much effort or formal statements. They simply emphasized inclusion. As they state, “make them part of the family.”

Travelers are sometimes viewed as uncommitted due to the fact that they work their 13 week contract and move on to the next assignment. But when it comes down to it, they’re really no different than your permanent staff. They strive to work in an environment where their skills can make a difference and they are treated as a valued part of the staff. Isn’t this what we all look for?

But are you aware of the hidden values of using travel nurses?

1. For starters the additional help can take a big stress of your permanent nursing staff. The less stress and more satisfied with their jobs your perm nurses feel the better your hospital will run and the better patient care you will be able to provide.
2. Another benefit that travel nurses bring to your healthcare facility is a fresh perspective and a wide variety of different experiences that can breathe new life into a nursing unit.
3. Research has also shown that better patient outcomes are related to higher percentages of temporary nursing staff. In fact compared to perm nursing staff the research showed that temp nurses are just as experienced and even more likely to hold a BSN or higher.
4. Travel nurses can also free up your permanent nursing staff to attend training sessions or important meetings.
5. Travel nurses are an invaluable resource for providing feedback for your hospital or unit. They have seen how a lot of similar units operates and can give you real insight into areas where your healthcare facility could improve. They may even be helpful in implementing new forms and protocols that they have used at other facilities (with permission of course).
6. The nature of the travel nursing industry lends itself to discussions about which healthcare facilities they prefer to work at. So travel nurses can also let you know the areas that your facility excels in because sometimes we can be our own worst critics, especially without a frame of reference to compare against.
7. Travel nurses can also be a valuable resource as you grow your hospital and expand the scope and responsibilities of your units. Either through freeing up the perm staff for additional training or contributing their knowledge and ideas from other healthcare facilities.
8. Travel nurses can also set a great example of flexibility and eagerness to learn new competencies to your existing nursing staff.
9. They can also add a level of diversity and cultural awareness that your permanent nursing staff may not be able to add because as a travel nurse they are exposed to a number of different parts of the country and types of healthcare facilities.

So when you are making the decision about using travel nurses at your healthcare facility don’t forget to look past the bottom line and see the hidden value of travel nurses and the positive impact they can have on your hospital and staff.

The mentor is paired with a new nurse or new hire and provides them with real world practice, advice and counseling. This is a great way to make new nurses feel welcome and at ease while building their confidence to handle the workload and at the same time giving some relief to the veterans and encouragement to stay longer. For both the overall goal is to give them enhanced job enrichment.

It is important that mentors understand that their role is to teach, coach, and share wisdom; to listen and advise; to help increase motivation and job satisfaction; and to provide clinical expertise.The expectations of the mentee, on the other hand, are to be genuinely committed to the opportunity, and to be open-minded and open to feedback, recognizing that they don’t have all the answers.
Your nurses are an investment and what better way to gain from that then by providing them with the opportunity to show you value them and the important work they do day in and day out.

For more information on mentor programs visit: Mastering Nurse Mentoring

There are however a number of nurses (Aprrox. 300,000+), most of whom fall under the “baby boomer” demographic that are no longer working and could help buffer the shortage. Many of the reasons for leaving are a result of the shortage. When hospitals make certain cutbacks it has a ripple effect that is felt from the top down. If hospitals can figure out a way to retain these nurses by offering different incentives such as, lighter workloads, bonuses and so forth. There may be a chance to keep “veteran” nurses around a lot longer to help teach and groom new nurses just entering the profession.

The nursing profession is still very appealing, it’s just there isn’t enough faculty or class space to accommodate the numbers. Some states are taking the initiative and offering grants for nursing-school expansions to help with the increasing numbers being turned away. These new initiatives are in their infancy and it is still debatable whether this will have a positive affect. Besides the issues with education, a bigger and more severe problem is contributing to the nursing shortage.

To compensate for certain staffing shortages, hospitals have made major budget cuts which in turn makes them make adjustments in patient care. Never is this good thing. Often times nurses are told to keep the amount of time with patients to a minimum, which leads to the obvious, poor patient care. There are nursing organizations trying to implement laws in which the ratio of nurse to patient are increased to ensure there are enough nurses to provide the quality care patients expect.
These are just a couple important factors to this ever growing nursing shortage and without governments and educational institutions taking action, things will only get worse.

The need to do this is one of the reasons that we have structured our system to have one dedicated client manager for each hospital. Not only does this help them sell your facility to nurses and allied health professionals better, but even the part of the country you are located in.

The article talks about how being strong in this area can give your facility a real advantage in the healthcare recruiting war. Some simple steps you can take if you work with Medical Solutions is to be sure to send your Client Manager any marketing materials about your facility or the surrounding area so they can convey that to our Recruiters.

73% of nurses don’t think the staffing on their unit or shift is sufficient.
59.8% of the nurses said they knew someone who left direct care nursing because of concerns about safe staffing
Of the 51.9% of the nurses that are considering leaving their current position, 46% say it is because of inadequate staffing
51.7% of nurses surveyed thought the quality of nursing care on their unit has declined over the last year
48.2% of the responding nurses would not feel confident having someone they care about receiving care in their own facility

These results illustrate how important it is to keep your nursing staff large enough to not only provide patient care, but also take the pressure off your current staff.

It’s nice to know that hospitals are constantly trying to keep up with patient comments and requests relating to their past experiences. This gives the facilities a better idea of what is expected of them from a patient point of view. I have a little experience in the field of customer satisfaction. I was once a research consultant for a local survey company. My duty was to call past patients of hospitals all across the country and ask them about their stay, attitudes towards those who cared for them and so on. To my surprise, many were positive, but sprinkled in were a few horror stories. Hopefully hospitals take to heart the data that was collected and use it to their advantage.

Nurses and other personal care workers bear the brunt of such attacks, with 25 injuries annually resulting in days off from work for every 10,000 full-time workers at 12 times the rate of the overall private sector, according to the bureau. The most dangerous settings are psychiatric units and nursing homes, where patients are often confused, disoriented or suffering from mental ailments, as well as emergency rooms, where long waits for care can anger patients, and the people with them.
Low morale is another side effect of these attacks if the staff doesn’t feel management’s concern or support in these matters.

What can be done to protect your staff without hiring more security or adding an airport-like screening? Increasing staffing levels seems to be the surest way to reduce these attacks. Another benefit of increasing staffing levels is the positive effect it can have on your patient care.
Every facility must ask themselves if their staffing levels are putting their employees at risk, and if so is it cheaper to add staff or to settle a lawsuit that could result from an assault.

Now that California has shown that this can work, nurses elsewhere around the country are demanding the same of their states. The National Nurses Organizing Committee agrees that this is one effective way to quell the nursing shortages in hospitals around the country. Since the law has been in effect in California, some 80,000 have come into workforce, either returning or new. More lives are being saved, patient needs are fully assessed and nurses are staying at the bedside longer which in turn is reducing the effect of the shortage.

The hospital industry has tried to overturn the new laws, but the popularity among patients, nurses and communities is too strong. Nurses who have had experience with the ratio law have praised its effectiveness and nurses elsewhere reiterate the importance of having similar laws in their own states.
Not only does patient care increase, so does the workforce. “Before the ratios were enacted, we had complete turnover of our entire RN staff twice in three years,” said Trande Phillips, RN, Kaiser Permanente, Walnut Creek, CA. “We were always working short staffed and patients suffered. Now the only time nurses leave is if they are moving or going back to school.”

With the laws in place, nurses have more time to do their jobs properly. There’s time to fully check charts and do the patient and family teaching that is essential to avoiding future complications. I agree that this is a step in the right direction. However this is only part of the solution, there are still many factors to the shortage that must be addressed. It is a good start though.