Explore the latest healthcare workforce trends and strategies in our Knowledge Center. Each week, we provide actionable insights and expert tips to help industry professionals stay informed and enhance your workforce management with our up-to-date content.
The future of healthcare won’t wait—and neither should your workforce strategy. At the ShiftMed 2025 Workforce Innovation Summit in New York City, leaders from top health systems explored how technology, flexibility, and innovative workforce models are transforming care delivery. The decisions health systems make today will determine who thrives and who risks falling behind.
Workforce challenges are a daily reality for many health systems. At any time, nurse leaders may be juggling dozens of open shifts across hospitals and specialties, from ICU shortages to unexpected pediatric callouts to med-surg units stretched thin. Without a reliable solution, they must rely on expensive travel nurses or push full-time staff into overtime, driving up labor costs and fueling burnout. Sound familiar?
Effective hospital float pool management is a powerful lever for healthcare workforce efficiency. When float nurses are properly resourced and empowered to practice at the top of their scope, they deliver measurable cost savings, greater staffing flexibility, and improved operational performance. Yet without strategic oversight, float pools can quickly become underutilized, leading to higher turnover, staffing instability, and compromised care quality.
Today’s nursing workforce spans four generations, each with unique priorities—flexibility, stability, and purpose. From Baby Boomers easing into retirement to Gen Z seeking autonomy, a one-size-fits-all model no longer works.
With the demand for healthcare services at an all-time high, many hospitals are facing a critical shortage of nurses. While nursing education bottlenecks continue to limit the influx of new graduates, hospitals have a unique opportunity to address the issue by focusing on the nurses already on their teams.
Hospitals have long struggled to build and manage internal nurse float pools, often relying on manual processes and outdated tools. These practices hinder effective scheduling coordination, credential tracking, and real-time responses to staffing changes, resulting in costly, inefficient, and hard-to-scale float pool management. Sound familiar?
Does your hospital or health system rely too much on overtime and agency staffing to cover shift vacancies? If so, it’s time to rethink your healthcare staffing strategy. Here’s why making a change is essential—and how it’s easier than you might expect.
