There is a shift taking place in nursing and healthcare in the United States. The pandemic exposed a workforce staffing crisis that has been brewing for decades. On its current trajectory, it’s expected to get worse in the coming years because pay isn’t keeping up with the cost of living, healthcare workers are being asked to do more with fewer resources, and there aren’t incentives for nurses to enter the workforce.
Hospitals have spent an estimated $24 billion since 2020 to alleviate staffing shortages in healthcare by using expensive contract and travel nurses during the pandemic, and it’s clear that this isn’t a sustainable way forward. Workforce challenges are some of the biggest problems plaguing the healthcare industry, but the good news is that technology and smart solutions can help solve these dire challenges.
As a result of the current working environment, nurses are under more stress and struggle to provide their patients with the best possible care. ShiftMed surveyed 500 nurses for its 2022 State of Nursing Survey and found that 40% of nurses feel the nurse shortage has negatively impacted their mental health, and 49% say as a result, they’re concerned about patients receiving adequate care. It’s clear that the healthcare industry can no longer operate in siloes.
At ShiftMed, we’ve already started building the ecosystem that will help revolutionize our nation’s faltering healthcare system, but the healthcare crisis has escalated to a point where the brightest and most innovative people, organizations, and groups need to come together and forge new partnerships to solve these issues.
Empower Employees with Non-Wage Incentives
Research shows that wraparound support services, including equity and non-wage-based incentives, are critical to recruiting and retaining employees. ShiftMed has seen success in working with health systems to offer accessible education tools to help CNAs to become RNs, tuition in lieu of increased wages, and learning modules for continuing education to cross-train the workforce. Connecting healthcare professionals to family care services like childcare and eldercare are also important, as they are often primary caregivers at home.
With more than 30% of healthcare professionals indicating they’re challenged by transportation access, developing transportation services via technology can also relieve a huge stressor for the workforce. Many of these professionals are CNAs, who are in short supply nationwide. An example of this is ShiftMed’s relationship with Uber Health, which allows health systems to provide nurses with transportation benefits, including discounted rides to their shifts, relieving the stress associated with arranging travel to and from work.
New Ideas Needed For Better Outcomes
Join us in the fight against the healthcare staffing crisis. ShiftMed is at the forefront of revolutionizing the workforce ecosystem, and we need your help to continue making a difference. Our nation's healthcare heroes deserve meaningful solutions and incentives for their important work, and we're determined to provide just that.
We're calling on all innovators with unique and beneficial solutions to join us in correcting the course of this crisis. Are you building a product that can enrich and empower nurses? Do you have big ideas and problem-solving skills? ShiftMed wants to collaborate with you. Together, we can explore all possibilities and bring new ideas to the table to help fix healthcare's staffing crisis. Let's make a real difference for the people who devote their lives to caring for others.
Using ShiftMed, hospital systems are engaging and retaining their workforces by balancing full-time and flexible labor. Are you doing innovative, bleeding-edge work that will help support healthcare workers through technology solutions? Reach out – we’d certainly like to hear from you.