The increased focus on the patient experience has caused hospitals and the healthcare industry at large to reassess nurse satisfaction. With the growing number of patients admitted to hospitals and a growing gap in the RN workforce, improving nurse satisfaction has become a major priority. Now, teleprofessionals and integrated technologies are transforming the RN staffing model and improving nurse satisfaction in the process.
Less Overtime
Teleprofessionals, such as a virtual nurse, reduce overtime for RNs and allow for schedules that provide nurses with a better work-life balance. Virtual nurses can handle admissions and discharges, communication between teams and patients, bed monitoring, and they can assist with onboarding new RNs. The tasks a virtual nurse can accomplish and coordinate frees up time for RNs, so overtime becomes a thing of the past, which not only improves nurse satisfaction but eases budgetary pressures as well.
Higher Retention
Extended schedules and workloads take their toll on RNs. Decreased nurse satisfaction leads to a high burnout rate and lower staff retention. Additionally, younger nurses are less likely to stay at facilities that do not make full use of available technologies to more efficiently handle tasks. This situation is made more difficult by the gap in RNs entering the workforce. By implementing teleprofessionals and virtual nurses, hospitals can ease the burden on existing nursing staff, and allow nurses to have more manageable workloads. Virtual nurses improve nurse satisfaction because the new workflow allows RNs to focus their attention on patients, increasing satisfaction ratings across the board.
Fewer Travelers
Travel nursing has become a stop-gap response to staffing shortages at hospitals, and has kept many RNs as independent contractors instead of settling on a career as full-time employees. Teleprofessionals, virtual nurses, patients monitoring stations, and more can improve nurse satisfaction to a level where there aren’t nursing shortages and the quality of care results in fewer readmissions. Teleprofessionals transform the RN staffing model so there are no shortages, no need for travelers, and more new nurses will seek long-term career opportunities at hospitals with integrated technologies to handle the workflow for decades to come.
At BANYAN, we are leaders in teleprofessionals and integrated technologies used by hospitals to improve nurse satisfaction, improve quality care, and reduce budgetary pressures in the hospital setting. Contact BANYAN today to learn how we are transforming hospitals.