Beating Healthcare Growth Challenges Depends on a New Nurse Staffing Approach

Health systems must grow — whether in size, services or volume — for revenue to keep up with inflation. But how can they do that when they struggle to overcome nursing workforce challenges, limiting their ability to put new services into play? 

This is just one of the burning questions healthcare leaders face as they stare down the statistics: 

1. Approximately 900,0000 nurses plan to leave the profession by 2027, according to an April 2023 report by NCSBN. 
2. As many as 75% of healthcare CFOs anticipate nursing shortages will remain a challenge for the next two years, according to an HFMA and Eliciting Insights survey.
3. About 193,100 openings for registered nurses are projected each year, on average, over the next decade, according to projections by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

These pain points have intensified pressure on hospital margins, limiting their ability to invest in new services and meet the growing needs of their communities. In fact, with hospital labor costs rising $42.5 billion from 2021 to 2023, “The costs of providing care often outstrip levels of reimbursement … by a lot,” American Hospital Association CEO Rick Pollack wrote in a recent blog.

What these data tell us: Health systems can no longer wait to “stop the bleeding,” so to speak. They need to leverage new approaches to healthcare staffing, including the use of tech-enabled solutions for filling positions and alternative staffing models, to make sure patients receive the care they need, when and where they need it.

The demand for greater flexibility in staffing

Clinical burnout is a well-documented culprit that is driving nurses to flee their profession. Yet, there’s less discussion as to what causes nurse burnout.

What pushes nurses to the edge — and out of medicine altogether? 

Of course, it’s well understood that administrative workloads (driven by EHRs and steep compliance requirements) have become more taxing and cumbersome. That, paired with factors such as increases in workplace violence in some parts of the country, also plays a role.

But one of the biggest drivers of post-pandemic burnout for nurses is the healthcare profession’s historic lack of flexibility in scheduling. 

With more Americans spending their “off” hours as caregivers of children and elderly family members, committing to three 12-hour shifts per week at a hospital is not always possible. Covid-19 exacerbated this reality, especially when a family member’s unexpected infection may have required extra support at home. 

In the years since the pandemic emerged, little has changed. Even as Covid-19-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations have dropped to less than 1% of admissions, there are signs that nurse satisfaction hasn’t rebounded. In fact, the average national staff RN turnover rate in 2023 was 18%.

What nurses really want is the ability to choose which shifts they work, where they work them, and even who they work them with. For instance, when a hospital has a need for outside support over a 13-week period, contract nurses crave the ability to select open shifts according to their preferences, with other nurses picking up the remaining shifts, rather than signing on for the full 13 weeks of openings. Unfortunately, many clinical staffing agencies have not caught up with the reality that having rigid part-time or full-time schedules won’t work for everyone — and that there is a growing demand for flexible hours among nurses. 

Nursing isn’t the only profession where workers are seeking greater flexibility. Upwork’s 2022 survey noted that 60 million Americans performed freelance work over the course of that year, representing 39% of the U.S. workforce — an all-time high. 

Loyalty — for both nurses and consumers — is at stake

Today, consumer-centric care is an essential component for healthcare growth, strengthening a health system’s ability to attract and retain patients. Without a nurse staffing model that protects a health system’s ability to deliver care that resonates with consumers, health systems will struggle to close care experience gaps, putting patient loyalty and their ability to invest in needed services and solutions at risk.

While there’s no magic cure for nurse staffing challenges, healthcare leaders can ease the crunch for nurse talent by reframing their thinking around ways to fill shifts. Specifically, it’s time for us to embrace a new model of flexible staffing. Americans in all professions, not just healthcare, want more of it. 

I’ll never forget a nurse I met years ago who said she left her full-time nursing job of 10 years to care for her dying father at home. Her need to be present meant she could not commit to a full-time or part-time schedule. She ended up finding flexible work in another industry entirely and left the bedside for more than a year.

With the availability of smartphones, mobile apps, and advanced scheduling platforms, it has never been easier to make money on one’s own terms. Many talented nursing professionals, including that nurse I met several years ago, want to use technology to craft their own schedule — whether one shift per week or five. 

Rethinking the current staffing approach has a multitude of benefits for health systems.

For one, they won’t have to rely as heavily on travel nurses and traditional staffing agencies, which are focused on filling long-term vacancies for a steep cost. They also would not have to burden existing nurses with requests to work overtime. It’s no secret that nursing costs have put significant pressure on health systems’ bottom lines, so this could be a huge gain. A digital platform that connects nurses with flexible work opportunities quickly and helps users list, match and fill shifts within 24 hours of a shift start time could make a significant impact in closing short-term staffing gaps.

Leveraging technology to optimize nurse staffing — whether by pairing the right nurses with the right opportunities or automating administrative tasks — could make a significant difference in health systems’ ability to attract and retain nurses. Even better, it could help keep more nurses from leaving the healthcare industry altogether by giving them the freedom to work when and where they choose, without consequence or reproach for not working enough.  

It’s a playbook for satisfaction and, ultimately, growth.

Photo: FS Productions, Getty Images

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