Welcome to the ShiftMed blog where we discuss everything nursing, from professional insights to healthcare holidays to helpful hints for working with us.
I've experienced heat-related illnesses with patients on opposite ends of the spectrum. I worked as a critical care nurse in an intensive care unit (ICU) for 14 years. During the summer, we often admitted one or more heat stroke victims. Usually, these were young military men doing intensive training exercises during the heat of the day.
As healthcare continues to experience a labor shortage, wage inflation has become a significant issue. According to Premier Inc., the nurse base pay is up 9% since June 2021 and is likely to continue rising. Travel nursing agencies, which offer temporary nursing staff to fill in gaps in staffing, are expensive and exacerbate wage inflation. In fact, a recent 2022 report examined input from 272 hospitals in 32 states on registered nurse turnover, retention, vacancy rates, recruitment metrics and staffing strategies. The report revealed that for every 20 travel RNs eliminated, a hospital can save $4,203,000 on average. As a result, health systems and post-acute facilities are searching for alternative solutions.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities across the country are experiencing critical staffing issues in nursing. From recruitment and retention issues to mass resignations, the supply of skilled RNs decreased by more than 100,000 from 2020 to 2021. The shortage is pushing many healthcare facilities to ramp-up efforts to find alternatives to fill gaps in their healthcare staffing, including turning to gig workers like travel nurses or contract nurses.
Historically, floating shifts in healthcare involved moving – or “floating” – in-house nursing staff to other areas of the facility that were short staffed. These floating shifts were often viewed negatively and seen as disruptive to nursing teams and a nurse’s typical work schedule.
Healthcare systems and hospitals are constantly looking for ways to improve their operations and reduce costs. One important metric to track in these facilities is the nursing Hours Per Patient Day (HPPD) goal. In this article, we will discuss what HPPD is, the importance of managing your facility’s HPPD goals, and how to effectively manage your HPPD goal to maximize efficiency and reduce costs.
Traveling nurses have been around since the 1980s, historically filling gaps in healthcare staffing for things like maternity leave coverage and other staffing shortages. The idea is simple –nurses who want to earn more and experience different parts of the country sign on with a staffing agency to be a traveling nurse or contract nurse for short-term work at a facility. Contracts typically run from a few weeks to a few months.
The gig economy has been on the rise for the past decade, but its impact on healthcare has been especially notable in recent years. As the demand for healthcare services continues to grow, the gig economy has presented itself as a solution to address healthcare support staffing shortages in the industry. However, healthcare providers need to find the right partner that helps eliminate the risk that comes with leveraging the gig economy.
