While juggling workforce challenges and burnout among their teams, nursing leaders remain focused on the ultimate goal: providing patient-centric experiences.
The key to getting around some of the stressors, three nurses told Becker's, is a focus on daily organization to manage administrative burdens, keeping lines of communication open with executive leadership and celebrating the wins on days when things go more right than wrong.
Editor's note: These responses have been edited for clarity and brevity.
Question: What's the biggest challenge you are facing right now besides the nurse shortage?
Alquietta Brown, PhD, RN. Chief Nursing Officer at Inova Mount Vernon Hospital (Alexandria, Va.): While working tirelessly to stabilize the workforce, we are faced with creating new models of care that support the evolution in workforce dynamics and community health needs.
Nurse leaders now must diligently, with a concentrated effort, empower innovation and create novel care solutions that allow flexible schedules for team members to deliver care with excellence that is cost effective. We have to keep in mind the importance workplace satisfaction plays in the ability of nurses to work at the top of their license and deliver optimal care.
Kay Carolin, BSN, RN. Chief Nursing Officer at Karmanos Cancer Hospital (Detroit): What I am seeing is being felt by so many healthcare organizations across the country. For the first time in my more than 40 years as a nurse, I have felt and witnessed sadness from nurses struggling with exhaustion and resiliency. In treating cancer, we are intimately connected to our patients over a long period, so we continue to experience great joy in our work as well, which helps balance some of those struggles.
Jacqueline Pester-Babcock, MSN, RN. Regional Chief Nursing Officer-Region II, Prime Healthcare (Ontario, Calif.): In the healthcare industry, we are seeing a trend of new graduates seeking other opportunities within healthcare and leaving to further their education.
Q. How can hospital leaders help each other deal with stress and overwhelming situations?
AB: We can build authentic relationships that foster trust, collaboration and communication. You never know what another person is experiencing unless you have a conversation and develop a rapport. I have found that leaders who display empathy, vulnerability and humility can easily navigate challenges with finesse while building relationships. With my colleagues, we were intentional to get to that level of relationship. This does not happen without trial and error.
JPB: To deal with the stress and burnout, it helps to connect and network with other leaders or peers for social support and validating similar challenges.
Q: What are you doing to reduce your administrative burden?
AB: Being organized is critical to success. Also, as leaders, we need to know when to say "no," and to delegate when appropriate. We have administrative fellows looking to solve problems in healthcare to advance their learning. Students can be instrumental in helping to find evidence-based practices and creative work solutions. Advancing use of technology is also a great resource to reduce the administrative burden.
KC: I make sure to be as inclusive as possible when discussing policy or practice issues and tap into the expertise of my colleagues. Healthcare is complex, and the phrase "it takes a village" has been a constant reminder for us to ensure we keep moving forward and provide safe, quality care.
JPB: I am reducing redundancy and consolidating when possible, focusing on communication and creating meaningful conversations with leaders and employees. Communication is a great way to learn more about your employees and uncover any issues or barriers to care.
Q: What do you want non-clinical hospital C-suite leaders to know about how it really is in the trenches?
AB: The challenge of staffing is around the clock. Innovative models of care involve and depend upon the support of nonclinical leaders and their teams. Often, there is limited visibility to the scope of work that is done behind the scenes clinically to keep operations flowing. Having an atmosphere where we are transparent and sharing our challenges and wins is a recipe for success.
KC: I am lucky because my colleagues understand. Most of us have been touched by cancer. We know what good care looks like and what we want for ourselves, our families and our patients.
I conduct clinical rounds weekly with our CEO and we talk with staff during our visits. Our CEO and I discuss daily the struggles that we are experiencing with staffing, but what keeps us motivated are stories like the following one.
Recently, we had one of our senior system executives as a patient. He related how he had always seen and thought about physicians as the most important component to providing quality healthcare. After being treated at our hospital for an extended period, he still thought the impact of world-class physicians was a key factor in quality care, but realized that when you are sick and struggling, or it is nighttime and you are afraid, that nurse at your bedside is the most important factor.
It's through this story and dozens more like it that our executives understand what happens at the bedside and chairside when it comes to meeting the needs of our patients through the intercession of caring and highly-skilled nurses.
JPB: Being in the trenches of healthcare, in general, has always affirmed the need to prepare for the unexpected, be flexible and pivot as the need arises.