Providers, Can You Hear Us?
Nurses in healthcare continue to leave the workforce. Estimates are that some 750,000 or more nurses are expected to leave the workforce by 2027. There is no quiet quitting going on here. Lingering pandemic impacts that continue increased workloads and exhaustion, and include slow progress with comprehensive workforce solutions are fueling the very loud quitting of our nurses. Inadequate working conditions, insufficient salaries and benefits along with insufficient education and training are just some of the significant issues nursing (and other clinical staff) are facing at the workplace.
Pandemic labor shortages forced providers to increase their reliance on contract agencies to deal with their specific nursing shortage problems – at incredible cost. And, these related expenses along with thinning margins and negative economic impacts continue to cripple many LTC organizations.
More nurses not less will be needed for the future. Baby Boomers continue to flood the healthcare market and they are living longer thanks to advances in medicine. Boomers (some 75 million of them -yikes!) will be coming to LTC with increased chronic conditions such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease and more.
In long term care, MDS nurses are included in the healthcare labor shortage crisis. The Minimum Data Set or MDS is the backbone of reimbursement, compliance, and care quality in long term care facilities making MDS Coordinators/MDS Nurses the quintessential gatekeepers for overall organizational health and sustainability. Yet, MDS nurses as a group have experienced a mass exodus from facilities due to workload stressors often leaving providers to continue the use of high- priced agency staff. If fortunate, some providers have found a really experienced (or not) remote contract MDS person to help manage their MDS. Other providers have rolled the dice and elevated a loyal employee with less MDS experience to manage the MDS leaving organizations exposed to significant risk to the organization.
Healthcare workforce issues are nowhere close to being resolved. Bottom line- we do not and will not have enough nurses to provide the quality of care needed unless significant workforce improvements are made. Nurses did not enter the profession to quit. With no real relief in sight though, we are simply pushing nurses too hard, too much and over the proverbial cliff.
What can hospital systems and LTC organizations do right now to improve their specific nursing shortage headache? They can and should utilize a trusted, experienced healthcare consulting partner like Microscope.Microscope has the resource capability of introducing organizations to a true, customizable workforce solution that fills nurse positions and reduces agency labor spend. In addition to a direct staffing solution, our experienced financial and clinical professionals can also identify areas of opportunity and guide organizations towards proven solutions that that lead to improvements in many areas for revenue, compliance, care quality and more.
As a leader you can bury your head in the sand and think “things will be okay” or you can try to do everything on your own-even though you know you can’t. Or, you can understand the true gravity of the situation at hand and have a real, honest discussion and plan that involves seeking out a dedicated partner for your success. Leaders manage crisis. And the nursing shortage is nothing short of that.
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