Hospitals across the country are combatting significant labor shortages. This is especially true in nursing, where shortages are expected to continue intensifying over the next decade. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration, we should anticipate a national shortage of nearly 64,000 nurses by 2032. Some states will feel the impacts of this shortage more than others – including North Carolina, which is expected to be short nearly 13,000 nurses by 2033.
Nurses are increasingly citing burnout, stress, and a desire to reduce the number of hours they’re working as reasons for leaving the field. And while the healthcare industry has been warned of a “great nurse exodus” for the past four years, nothing of the sort has manifested. The threat of a collective resignation, however, is enough to signal a need for change. Hospitals and health systems across the country are responding to mounting pressure to adapt to changing workforce dynamics in order to overcome and thrive. Some, like FirstHealth of the Carolinas, have developed modern workforce strategies that rely on the support of on-demand, per-diem nursing talent.
The modern nurse wants flexibility, independence, and control over their careers. They want the ability to pick up shifts whenever they want, wherever they want, and to enjoy the same degree of choice over their personal time. Flexible workforce models offer nurses these benefits, while giving hospitals an additional pool of nursing talent that can be accessed on-demand to support and relieve their core, full-time nursing staff.
Traditionally, hospitals have sought to fill unexpected gaps in staff with travel contracts. The rigidity and costliness of travel contracts, however, are not optimal for short-term, spontaneous staffing needs – needs that have become much more prevalent post-pandemic. On-demand workforce models, offered by marketplace solutions like CareRev, propose a much more flexible and cost-effective alternative.
In the following Q&A, FirstHealth's Chief Nursing Officer Jacklynn Lesniak, DNP, M.S., R.N., NEA-BC sits down with CareRev CEO Brandon Atkinson to discuss FirstHealth's nursing workforce strategy, the importance of flexible workforce models, the challenges of mobilizing nurses in acute care settings, and more.
As hospitals and health systems enter a new age of work, Lesniak says they must make the concept of workforce resilience a core tenet of their labor strategies. FirstHealth, she says, has developed a number of initiatives aimed at building resilience within the health system’s workforce. These initiatives are designed to support overall well-being among their staff through the health system’s Center for Well-being, and include resources for improving emotional, financial, physical, and spiritual health. CareRev’s on-demand workforce, she said, will play a critical role in this strategy.
“If members of our staff are having a tough day,” Lesniak said, “we have the ability to lower the intensity of their work and backfill their role until they’ve recovered.”
Innovative workforce strategies like those underway at FirstHealth will be vital to ensuring health systems have the ability to thrive in the coming years – and, in turn, provide higher quality care for the communities they serve.