ShiftMed Knowledge Center

Is your hospital's overreliance on travel nurses disrupting budgeting and forecasting, threatening financial stability and patient access? It may be time to move away from costly reactive contract labor and embrace a proactive healthcare workforce planning strategy driven by data.

In today’s healthcare environment, nurse leaders must navigate a multi-generational nursing workforce, balancing the needs of experienced professionals with those of early-career nurses. Implementing targeted nursing leadership strategies allows leaders to harness the strengths of every generation and create a collaborative, high-performing team.

Healthcare facilities lose millions annually to inefficient staffing practices. While many organizations view workforce management solely as a scheduling tool, this limited perspective overlooks powerful capabilities that can transform operations, reduce costs, and improve care quality.   

The rising costs of workplace injuries, increasing turnover rates, and growing concerns about workplace violence have pushed nurse safety to the forefront of healthcare leadership priorities. In fact, according to a recent student by the NNU, 6 in 10 RNs have reported changing or leaving their job as a result of workplace violence. As staffing challenges persist industry-wide, innovative safety programs are emerging as powerful drivers of both risk mitigation and financial performance.  

Picture this: It's 2021, and your health system is hemorrhaging money on travel nurses at $175 per hour. Fast forward to 2024, and while those peak rates have subsided, a new crisis looms. Industry analysts project travel nurse rates to surge again, driven by a perfect storm of increasing healthcare demand and a shrinking pool of travel-ready nurses. For healthcare financial leaders, this isn't just another market fluctuation—it's a call to action.  

Is your hospital's healthcare workforce strategy resilient enough to meet tomorrow's demands? According to the National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, the projected demand for registered nurses outpaces supply through 2036, underscoring the urgent need for sustainable healthcare staffing solutions to bridge this gap.