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Nurse retention – how do you make them stay?

By Jeff on Apr 03, 2009 in Featured, Hospital Staff Retention

In an article I just read, a recent study published in Nursing Economics is discussed. It takes a look at nurse retention. It found that they are more likely to stay committed to their hospital and be satisfied with their jobs if a variety of factors exist.

These factors are really not that earth shattering. They are simply practices any hospital, or company for that matter, should try to have as part of their culture stratgegy.

The factors include:

Variety
Autonomy
Supervisory support
Work-group cohesion
Procedural justice (rights are applied universally to all employees)
Promotional opportunities
Collegial nurse/doctor relations

Given the immense benefits of retaining nurses (cost savings from reduced turnover, better patient care, less nurse burnout and consequently leaving the profession) it seems like these would be some simple things hospitals can do. Notice only one was in any way tied to pay or compensation. The rest had to do with giving them respect as professionals and treating them right. That should not really be that hard.

Here is a link to the nurse retention article. What do you think is the easiest of these measures to take at your hospital? Answer in our first Healthcare Staffing Blog poll.

Overtime and hospital staff burnout

By Jeff on Mar 20, 2009 in Featured, Healthcare Overtime, Hospital Staffing, Nurse Overtime, Nursing Staff Management

In the current economy we are seeing many hospitals relying on their own perm staff to fill a lot more overtime hours than in the past. For some nurses and therapists this is a welcome boost to their paycheck, while for others it may be something they feel obligated as caregivers to do. No matter the circumstances it will eventually start to wear them out. There is plenty of research available showing the negative effects of too much overtime, everything from nurse burnout, to costs associated with nurse turnover, to putting patients at risk. So what can you do as a unit manager to help ease the effects of overtime on your staff?

Your ability to help them through hiring more nurses or therapists may be limited unless you can convince the financial decision makers of the savings that come with being adequately staffed. But there are things you can have an impact on.

Since you know that too much overtime is going to eventually lead to burnout, you will want to keep an eye on the signs of burnout among your staff. It is also important for you to avoid burnout yourself, so that you can be there for your staff when you sense that they are stressed and give them advice and tips for managing their stress. Below are some links that give you practical advice on how to spot and respond to you and your staff’s burnout.

Battling Burnout: Maintaining Enthusiasm in a Challenging Environment
StressedOutNurses.com
Times flies, but you don’t have to
Help staff handle stress by boosting resiliency
Nurse retention through meditation
Nursing Burnout Prevention
Why Emotions Matter: Age, Agitation, and Burnout Among Registered Nurses

Nurse Burnout is it preventable?

By Jeff on Mar 10, 2009 in Featured, Hospital Staffing

I’ve been reading a lot about nurse burnout lately. There is a ton of information on the web about it, from the signs associated with it, ways to cope with it, its impact on patients and its financial implications.

For a nurse manager there are some practical measures you can take to help reduce nurse burnout in your hospital unit. Key to this is being able to understand where it is coming from, what causes it and recognizing the symptoms. Here are some links to some great resources to help you recognize and deal with nurse burnout in your staff:

Addressing Nurse Burnout – Changing Culture Is The Cure

Institute for Healthcare Leadership

Stressed Out Nurses

Just remember that left unaddressed nurse burnout can eventually lead to losing a valuable member of your staff and that can have a real impact on the patient care you are able to provide.

How to evaluate a traveler's resume

By Jeff on Feb 14, 2009 in Featured, Healthcare Hiring, Hospital Staffing

When you are receiving 30-40 resumes for any open travel nursing or travel allied health position need that your hospital has it is imperative that you are able to quickly and accurately assess the talent and qualifications of the candidate. Hiring the wrong candidate or even wasting your valuable time talking to the wrong travel nurse or therapist can be a big drain on your hospitals resources. One of the best ways to do avoid this scenario is through a thorough but efficient look at the travel healthcare candidates resume. Here are some quick tips to help you do just that:

Have a plan. First look at skills, then the unit worked in, then experience.
Look for job relevance and make sure that the travel nursing or therapist candidate meets the minimum requirements for the job.
Try to picture the applicant in the nursing or allied health position and interacting with your current hospital staff.
Avoid making assumptions, if anything looks irregular on the traveler’s resume; make sure to follow up with the travel staffing company or the candidate during the interview.
Look for gaps in work history any sort of vagueness, this will help you avoid a nurse or therapists who may be hiding something.
Ignore disclosed information that may cause you to subconsciously discriminate against a candidate.

Hopefully following these quick tips will help you bring the most qualified and talented healthcare providers to your hospital.

Tips for interviewing travel candidates

By Jeff on Feb 06, 2009 in Featured, Travel Nurses

When you are working with a healthcare staffing company, whether it is a travel nursing company or travel allied health company, it is important to place the proper emphasis on interviewing the travel nursing or therapist candidate. Filling your nursing or unit needs is far too important to start it off with out a great interview process.

For starters the speed in which you get the interview done is very important. The best travel nurses or therapists are always in demand, especially right now when there are not as many jobs for them to choose from and an abundance of candidates for a smaller number of jobs. Remember they still have many companies talking to them and you want to make sure the best candidates do not get away from you and compromise your ability to deliver quality patient care.

Once you have reviewed the resume and decided to interview the travel nurse, therapist, or tech here are some tips to help it go smoother:

Have a clear understanding of what you are looking for, list the skills, personality and moral traits you want in a candidate.

Have a list of questions ready, Use the same one on every interview and develop it as you go.

Take the time to build a good relationship with the travel nurse, therapist, or tech candidate so they feel more comfortable and are able to demonstrate their true qualifications.

Ask open ended and situational questions. Avoid yes/no questions to really see want the travel candidate knows and what they are really like and how they will react in situations they will be faced with.

See if the nurse or allied health candidate has any questions of their own, it is a good sign when they do as it shows someone who has done prior research and was paying attention during the interview.

A succesful interview really comes down to preparation, so do your homework and take the time to get the interview done right the first time. It will save you time and money in the long run if the travel nurse or allied health professionals is not a good fit.

Are you ready for a change?

By Jeff on Jan 31, 2009 in Featured, Medical Solutions Staffing News

In this economy and considering the current state of the nursing and healthcare staffing industry, nurses and therapists don’t need “recruiters” who are not interested in the long term benefit they can bring to a travelers career. They need a partner who can understand their career goals and help them achieve them. At Medical Solutions we have always tried to build that kind of relationship with our nurses, therapists and techs so we finally decided to go ahead and officially change the titles of our Recruiters to Career Consultants.

What does this mean for you a nurse manager looking for travelers for your hospital? It means you can be more confident in your decision to use Medical Solutions knowing that your travel nurse or therapist is fully supported by a company that is looking for more than a quick commission. This kind of relationship with our travelers means that you can expect travelers that care about their nursing career and are not just in it for the money, but truly want to provide quality patient care and become better care givers.

Keeping your nurse and therapists happy

By Jeff on Jan 16, 2009 in Featured, Hospital Management, Hospital Staffing

During this economic crunch it is important to remember that along with keeping patient satisfaction high, it is also important to treat your own staff great too.

When you are making staffing decisions for your hospital, the way the new nurse, either permanent or a traveler, meshes with the rest of your nursing staff and internal culture is huge. As a Unit Manager or HR Manager, making sure the new staff coming in has the same core values as your hospital will be very important to the overall morale of your nursing and allied health staffs.

And this directly impacts your patients and their families. Repeatedly studies have shown that hospitals with satisfied nurses and allied health professionals and that are adequately staffed provide the best care. Are you looking at a healthcare staffing company’s values when you decide to work with them? If not with the current economy this is the time to start.

Including travelers as a valued part of your healthcare staff

By Bret on Oct 28, 2008 in Featured

A recent article at HealthLeaders Media discussed the importance of treating travelling healthcare staff members the same as permanent staff. Glendive Medical Center in Montana has bought in to this philosophy and are seeing results.

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?

The 9 hidden values of travel nurses

By Patrick Fuerstenau on Oct 07, 2008 in Featured

I’m sure you are aware of the areas that using travel nurse staff can benefit your hospital from a financial aspect: Workers’ Compensation, Vacations and Sick Days, Accounting Costs and Wages, Training Time, Payroll Taxes, Pension Costs, Termination Expenses & Unemployment.

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.

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