The shortage of nurses is a well-known problem that plays a significant role in limiting a hospital’s ability to provide better workplace autonomy to its nurses.  When short-handed, hospitals have to lean on the staff to take more shifts that degrade the work/life balance of the nursing staff.  While this is true, there are creative solutions to the nursing shortage issue that should be considered in the meantime to help increase nurses’ job satisfaction and improve nurse retention.  One important solution revolves around scheduling, where research shows that “the more stable the schedule, the less work stress, the lower anticipated turnover, the higher group cohesion, and, the higher the work satisfaction” (K.E. Shrader).  Enabling nurses to provide their scheduling preferences early on in the nurse scheduling process allows for more stability and a better work/life balance.  Providing flexibility is another important aspect that should be considered.  With the need to account for unexpected absences and fill positions on the fly, hospitals can provide nurses with more autonomy by instituting programs such as shift swapping and shift bidding. 

It can be difficult to institute such solutions manually, so it is becoming increasingly important for hospitals to adopt or integrate more sophisticated technologies into their IT systems.  While the nursing shortage issue is still being hashed out, we believe now is the time to leverage existing software technologies such as Schedulist  to implement the creative solutions that can make a positive impact in improving the quality of life for nurses.

These are daunting issues for healthcare facilities.  High turnover will sock them with staggering expenses as they work to replace the nurses who depart.  In addition, a VHA study shows a direct correlation between nursing turnover and mortality so the effect on the insured could be grim as well.  Leading facilities will have a recruitment and retention process that will help them minimize turnover in their key staff.  The most effective will focus on appealing to the most important job satisfaction criteria of nurses:

Flexible work schedules and work/life balance

A positive work environment

Professional development

Compensation

These retention processes will be well rounded.  They will incorporate a variety of efforts, from management training to technology and communication.  Nurses are smart and driven and they’ll see a phony program coming a mile away, so the successful facilities will make a genuine effort to deliver effective programs that appeal to the job satisfaction criteria that nurses hold most dear.  Strong efforts can be found at hospitals with Magnet status, an award given by the American Nurses Credentialing Center, but solid homegrown programs exist as well.

In comparison, the laggards will bounce from initiative to initiative and labor under the cost and disruption of high turnover that will sap their ability to deliver quality care.