For hospitals, there are a number of challenges in nurse satisfaction and staffing. Many hospitals have stretched their RN staff to handle increased patient admissions, but at a cost to quality of care. Additionally, advances in healthcare mean there is a gap in the skills required from the existing nursing workforce and the increasing complexity of care. Training, hiring, and staffing increases costs for hospitals, but so do pressures leading to burnout and high turnover. Fortunately, there is a solution to improving nurse satisfaction in the hospital setting.
Pressures on Nurses
The pressures impacting nurse satisfaction are both internal and external. Advances in treatment result in higher care complexity. Existing nurses have to be reskilled to keep up with those changes, but there is very little time or money available to do that. New RNs are staying away from facilities that aren’t making full use of the technology available to make quality care more thorough and efficient. Many nurses also feel that communication can also be improved between teams and shifts, and the ratio of nurses to patients leading to a higher burnout and churn rate in hospitals across the country. Hospitals need to find a way to improve nurse satisfaction, place a greater focus on patients, improve responsiveness, and utilize the latest methods, all without breaking the bank.
Teleprofessionals Improve Nurse Satisfaction
Integrated teleprofessionals, such as virtual nurses, can help hospitals improve nurse satisfaction and overcome staffing challenges. Virtual nurses can provide surveillance of at-risk patients and monitor patient beds. Virtual nurses can help hospitals organize more specialized teams so nurses can give better coverage with higher quality of care. Communication between nurses and doctors is improved greatly with a virtual nurse, and overall expenses are lowered. By using teleprofessionals, hospitals can prevent burnout among RNs, get better ratings for quality of care, reduce gaps in both skills and staffing, and reduce readmissions.
BANYAN is a leader in telenursing and innovation to help hospitals overcome staffing and nurse satisfaction challenges. To learn more about how we transform hospitals to improve the quality of care for patients, increase nurse satisfaction, and reduce budget costs, contact BANYAN today.