How Technology Can Solve the Nurse Staffing Shortage
The healthcare industry is facing an ongoing nurse staffing shortage - and the COVID-19 pandemic has only made matters worse, forcing many nursing professionals to the sidelines. But for the nurses that remained in the workforce, the gig economy, enabled by technology, has opened new, non-traditional opportunities to earn.
Nursing shortages have long troubled the nursing and healthcare industry. The aging US population means more people with comorbidities and requires more acute and chronic care management than ever before. Due to the ever-aging population, nursing professionals are in higher demand than ever before. However, these nursing professionals are spread thin, working longer hours in an increasingly demanding work environment. And because of this, one million nurses are expected to retire by 2030. In addition, nursing programs across the country struggle to expand their capacity to train the increasing number of nursing professionals needed to provide quality care to our communities. These factors contribute to an inefficient marketplace for nurses, the effects of which are especially pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even after the worst of the pandemic is over, the demand for nursing professionals is here to stay. And in a constantly evolving industry, nursing work isn’t getting any easier. During the pandemic nurses needed to get trained quickly and effectively on how to stop the spread of COVID-19. Training like this will only be increasingly needed to meet patient’s needs in the ever-changing nursing field. All of this extra stress and lack of sufficient staffing can lead to burnout - which not only has negative implications on an individual nurse’s health, but can also harm patient care: studies show that nurse burnout can negatively impact patient infection rates, patient satisfaction, and the overall quality of care found in healthcare facilities.
At the height of the pandemic, many nursing professionals took time off, out of fear of exposing themselves, or their families, to the virus. This sidelined workforce only further exacerbated the nursing shortage. And while the COVID-19 outbreak placed an intense strain on the entire healthcare industry, by far one of the most impacted were skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. These post-acute facilities, which care for populations most vulnerable to COVID-19, lacked the funding and resources necessary to meet the heightened demand for full-time staff. However, for many nursing professionals looking for side hustles to earn more during the pandemic or temporarily coming out of retirement to fight the virus, new and endless opportunities presented themselves, especially at long-term care facilities where the demand for temporary work surged. Enter gig work.
Nurses and nursing facilities need new, better ways to work.
According to an NPR report, the pandemic has intensified the country’s nursing shortage but “created opportunities for nurses willing to take on the riskiest work. The booming gig economy has given some a chance to double their pay.” So smart staffing and scheduling solutions don’t just help facilities, it helps the nursing professionals. While traditional nursing gigs often have set schedules and little flexibility, gig and per diem nursing jobs give nursing professionals a greater work-life balance. So they can choose when they want to work, and take time off when they need it, whether it’s to further their education or spend time with family, without sacrificing job security.
But it doesn’t just provide nurses with a better work/life balance - it’s integral to solving staffing shortages at nursing facilities. With advanced data science, gig nursing has emerged as an efficient way for nursing facilities to staff on-demand shifts. Gig nursing has historically been inefficient due to pen and paper processes that often lead to games of phone tag. However, the adoption of cutting-edge technologies now enables facilities to predict when they need to optimize their schedule and dynamically fill their gaps in care with local nurses. So predictive algorithms take the busy work out of staffing and automate an outdated process.
The gig economy hasn’t just helped fill shifts more quickly during the pandemic, it’s provided a substantial avenue for nurses to explore new and desirable employment models they may not have considered before. While the pandemic will hopefully soon be a thing of the past, the nursing shortage will continue to loom large for years to come if we don’t embrace new ways to work. To eradicate big problems like burnout, staffing shortages, and retention, the tech-enabled gig economy proves to be the future of work.
While nursing colleges across the country need to broaden their programs to a wider audience, empowering the next generation of nursing professionals is a start. At IntelyCare, we've launched a $5,000 scholarship aimed at helping the next generation of healthcare heroes get into the workforce.
How about we take care of the nurses who are are still struggling in the workforce before we say we have a critical shortage and always try to get more into the field?
I realize we are only a commodity/liability/cattle to our employer, nothing more or less. But I tell you what, when the young ones who have been at it a year or less are already screaming to leave the bedside or nursing altogether, I don't think we need more efficient or better nursing schools (except to prepare them for the reality of nursing today).
We have an" employer does not give a damn problem!!"
We are churning out plenty of nurses but increasingly they feel like cannon fodder when the enter the work place, realizing it's not at all what they would expect and never will be.
And then there are those of us who have been at it a while, who envisioned doing it much longer when we started out, who are looking at any way to retire sooner including selling what we have, to get the hell out.
It's not a shortage of "stock". It's a shortage of nurses who want to stay. Someone please take care of those of us who are here already!
I absolutely couldn't agree more.
Why is allnurses promoting this company that wants to sell its product? It seems to be a free ad. Surely that violates TOS?
The only way for this to work is for hospitals, nursing homes and other health care employers to be actually willing to PAY to have more nurses at work.
It doesn't matter if the nurse is 1099, W2 or WD40. We don't work for free and the hospital doesn't want to pay us. Until you can pry the purse strings out of the bean counters' hands it's not happening.
Dana doesn't know her Bible. There will be no giving back of wings and harps.
And no one, even her deeply beloved, is worth going to Hell.
Other than that, she sounds like a wonderful person, although I wish she had learned long ago to say no to her lazy, lousy coworkers.
I agree with others who have commented. We don't need a tech-y staffing agency, which by the way, is not new. Shiftboard, and perhaps other self-scheduling methods, has been around already for a while.
We need to be treated right by current employers. And that aint gonna happen unless we stand up for ourselves. Most nurses won't join the battle, so things will pretty much remain status quo.
I do think there is some merit to teaching principles and practices of Management in a formal classroom setting. Not just there though. A lot of skill comes with seeing how someone else does it and then having hands-on doing for oneself while the teacher watches and intervenes if needed. Demo and return demo. We learned that in our old diploma schools.
We need to limit the number of NP's. There aren't enough jobs to go around now.
We need schools to encourage students to stay at the bedside, not get in a year and then move to advanced practice.
The diploma schools worked just fine. We need to bring them back. They taught students how to actually do dressings, insert Foley's, give shots, pass meds, start and maintain IV's, do enemas, assess lungs, abdomens, basic circulation and neuro status, and so on. Graduate nurses were pretty much ready to fly on their own when they received their diplomas. And they mostly went to work for the hospital where they trained, so they knew the particulars of that facility, which gave them a real head start to becoming competent and confident.
When Head Nurses were able to discipline lazy or mouthy or otherwise evil staff, without regard to race, religion, gender, and any other factors not germane to work, it was so much better than how we must tiptoe around today so we don't offend anyone and get sued.
I recall an assistant head nurse who would take a good 45 to 60 minutes for breakfast every day. She and all 4 of the nurses' aides would leave the ward early in the morning and go hang out in the cafeteria. Of course they all also took lunch later. Why were they allowed to do this? Race.
There was also an aide to whom you could not say, "Susie, would you please get a UA on Mrs. Smith in 23". You had to say, "Susie, Mrs. Smith in 23 needs a UA". She would never reply except with a scowl and a glare. She would eventually get the UA but you could feel her hate boring into you. And you had better thank her. It was racial and resentment of younger new nurses now being her boss. As if it was the nurses' fault that she was older and of a different race and had been on the job longer.
I know all about the struggle to be recognized as professionals and how that led to making the BSN pretty much required today to enter the work place. But new isn't always better.
How about we take care of the nurses who are are still struggling in the workforce before we say we have a critical shortage and always try to get more into the field?
I realize we are only a commodity/liability/cattle to our employer, nothing more or less. But I tell you what, when the young ones who have been at it a year or less are already screaming to leave the bedside or nursing altogether, I don't think we need more efficient or better nursing schools (except to prepare them for the reality of nursing today).
We have an" employer does not give a damn problem!!"
We are churning out plenty of nurses but increasingly they feel like cannon fodder when the enter the work place, realizing it's not at all what they would expect and never will be.
And then there are those of us who have been at it a while, who envisioned doing it much longer when we started out, who are looking at any way to retire sooner including selling what we have, to get the hell out.
It's not a shortage of "stock". It's a shortage of nurses who want to stay. Someone please take care of those of us who are here already!
Couldn’t have said it better. Work conditions need to be better to keep trained nurses at the bedside. No one enjoys waking up everyday to go into a shift that lasts forever and is a complete crap show running around like a chicken with their head cut off trying to get the job done and not kill anyone during the process...burnt out of bedside TWICE-and no desire to come back.
A better staffing system and everyone is deliriously happy? Will there be health care benefits with the new gig economy? If it was just money the gig economy works fine as it is.
Is there really a nursing shortage? That tends to wax and wane and there is a geographical component.
SmilingBluEyes summed it up pretty well. Treating us like fresh meat is a much bigger factor than spiffy scheduling software.
And nurses didn't need to be specially "trained" to deal with covid. Infection control practices (for anything contagious) is part of basic nursing education.
On 5/12/2021 at 12:42 AM, TriciaJ said:
Hi there TriciaJ,
Our co-founder, Chris Caulfield, RN, NP-C, experienced nurse burnout first hand as a nurse working at an understaffed nursing facility. He found himself struggling when he was so often mandated to work overtime or stuck on a short-staffed floor. At IntelyCare, it’s our mission to empower nursing professionals to transform the way they work. That means not only offering competitive pay rates but giving them the power to choose when they work and where they work. If they don’t like a facility, they don’t have to go back. And if they don’t love working weekends, they never have to. When nurses have the freedom to choose where they work every day and can switch facilities whenever they want without pay or job-security repercussions, it gives them greater control over their work.
For these reasons, nurses tend to love IntelyCare and often make the choice to work full-time. They have the option to pick up more shifts with us and take advantage of all the benefits we have to offer. And, they have the freedom to stay with their current employer, and test us out, if they’re not 100% sure about making the switch to IntelyCare. If you would like to learn more about how IntelyCare gives nurses access to a better work/life balance, you can find more resources here.
Also, to touch on your interesting point on infection control...when COVID-19 first emerged in early 2020, many nursing facilities and their staff found themselves ill-equipped with the PPE and training they needed to properly mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within the facility. Unlike many hospitals, which have better funding, nursing facilities felt left behind. We rolled out a free COVID-19 Best Practices Training in March of 2020 to empower our partnered facilities and staff to prepare for COVID-19 at scale. For more information on our best practices training, click here.
Dana doesn't know her Bible. There will be no giving back of wings and harps.
And no one, even her deeply beloved, is worth going to Hell.
Other than that, she sounds like a wonderful person, although I wish she had learned long ago to say no to her lazy, lousy coworkers.
I agree with others who have commented. We don't need a tech-y staffing agency, which by the way, is not new. Shiftboard, and perhaps other self-scheduling methods, has been around already for a while.
We need to be treated right by current employers. And that aint gonna happen unless we stand up for ourselves. Most nurses won't join the battle, so things will pretty much remain status quo.
I do think there is some merit to teaching principles and practices of Management in a formal classroom setting. Not just there though. A lot of skill comes with seeing how someone else does it and then having hands-on doing for oneself while the teacher watches and intervenes if needed. Demo and return demo. We learned that in our old diploma schools.
We need to limit the number of NP's. There aren't enough jobs to go around now.
We need schools to encourage students to stay at the bedside, not get in a year and then move to advanced practice.
The diploma schools worked just fine. We need to bring them back. They taught students how to actually do dressings, insert Foley's, give shots, pass meds, start and maintain IV's, do enemas, assess lungs, abdomens, basic circulation and neuro status, and so on. Graduate nurses were pretty much ready to fly on their own when they received their diplomas. And they mostly went to work for the hospital where they trained, so they knew the particulars of that facility, which gave them a real head start to becoming competent and confident.
When Head Nurses were able to discipline lazy or mouthy or otherwise evil staff, without regard to race, religion, gender, and any other factors not germane to work, it was so much better than how we must tiptoe around today so we don't offend anyone and get sued.
I recall an assistant head nurse who would take a good 45 to 60 minutes for breakfast every day. She and all 4 of the nurses' aides would leave the ward early in the morning and go hang out in the cafeteria. Of course they all also took lunch later. Why were they allowed to do this? Race.
There was also an aide to whom you could not say, "Susie, would you please get a UA on Mrs. Smith in 23". You had to say, "Susie, Mrs. Smith in 23 needs a UA". She would never reply except with a scowl and a glare. She would eventually get the UA but you could feel her hate boring into you. And you had better thank her. It was racial and resentment of younger new nurses now being her boss. As if it was the nurses' fault that she was older and of a different race and had been on the job longer.
I know all about the struggle to be recognized as professionals and how that led to making the BSN pretty much required today to enter the work place. But new isn't always better.
Hi there,
We know that safe, friendly, accommodative, and productive nursing environments are few and far between these days. Many nursing facilities and hospitals do not have an effective system to maintain staffing standards and overall workplace environment without overburdening their staff. So by empowering nursing professionals to choose where they work without sacrificing benefits, job security, and competitive pay, we allow nursing professionals to choose where and when they practice, without sacrificing their livelihood. We know that technology doesn’t solve the problem alone. That’s why we use it to empower you, the nursing professional, to only work at the facilities where you feel you are fairly compensated and supported. IntelyCare wouldn’t exist if we didn’t understand the problem you speak to. Our foundational goal, as championed by RN, NP-C, and Chief Nursing Officer, Chris Caufield, is to help solve this problem.
Bottom line is this does not help an iota if employers will not pay for safe levels of staffing.
You need to create an app that makes the employers do that and then you would have my respect.
We totally agree that the more support nurses have on the floor, the safer, the care. Unfortunately, the individual nurse doesn’t have much control over that. But what they can control is who they work for. That’s why IntelyCare is empowering nursing professionals to choose where they work without sacrificing benefits, job security, and competitive pay, we allow nursing professionals to choose where they work. Don't like a facility? You don't have to go back. We also aim to help facilities get more staff on the floor, so patients get the care they deserve, and full-time staff gets the support they desperately need.
On 5/12/2021 at 12:48 AM, Curious1997 said:
I think if more floor nurses were involved in management, instead of degree quality nurses, nursing concerns and needs would be better addressed with subsequent satisfaction, enabling current nurses to feel better and want to stay on.
When you have bean counters and degree nurses who haven't got the confidence to stand up for nurses in general, it's when the imbalance of power occurs. Too often I have seen Degree nurses get rolled over by physicians and management. They are so insecure that they gave up their rights of being nurses to join management and suffer lay offs for downsizing for 'supposed fiscal reasons', while CEOs and board members are rewarded lucratively instead of hiring more staff.
I have yet to be convinced that degree nurse administers better care than a diploma or a well trained nurse. I know who I would rather work with. Charting doesn't equate to quality care, experience does!
I believe that nursing schools have spun a tale to make money, because the level of care doesn't differ. Management is a people skill and not a college course. The old system of training pre college ala diploma nurses would solve the shortage problem and then allow those nurses to choose if they want to pursue management by additional courses.
The apprenticeship system in Northern Europe works absolutely fine in many job environments and produces excellent results. It's essentially the old diploma system. I didn't spend $60k on my degree to be doing the same thing that a good LPN or a Diploma nurse does when assignments are handed out. And I get paid marginally more for with the increased responsibility.
Hi there,
We hear you loud and clear. There are many changes to the nursing industry that could help put an end to improving overall patient care, nurse working environments, and improve the industry overall. But we can’t do it when we can’t work together to solve a common goal. Although the nursing school pipeline may need some tweaking, we play a key part in empowering nursing professionals to hold facilities accountable by allowing them to not only leave facility reviews that impact their public rating, but switch the facilities they work at without risking job security, access to benefits, and competitive pay rates. We don’t claim to solve the nursing industry issues in one swoop, but we strive every day to play a key role in tackling the daunting issue.
Safe Staffing legislation is the only thing that’s going to save our patients and ourselves. In Pennsylvania alone there at least 20,000 nurse is not working as nurses because of the way we were treated and healthcare facilities. Safe Staffing saves lives. Get involved Safe Staffing legislation in your state and “Nurses Take DC “ and “The Last Pizza Party “. Those of us that are doing the bedside nursing need to fight for ourselves and our patients. If we don’t get noisy invisible, nothing will change and more people will die.
As a team founded by nurses and made for nurses, we feel your pain. And we believe the more support nurses have, the better equipped they will be to provide compassionate, quality care. Unfortunately, the individual nurse doesn’t have much control over that. But what they can control is who they work for. That’s why we’re empowering nursing professionals to choose where they work without sacrificing benefits, job security, and competitive pay, we allow nursing professionals to choose where they work. We also aim to help facilities get more staff on the floor, so patients get the care they deserve, and full-time staff gets the support they desperately need.
IF all this is absolutely true and it can truly happen maybe it's not too late for future nurses. But it's FAR too late for many of us. And the experience being wasted losing nurses by attrition (nurses running away from horrendous condition let's just be real)----- is unacceptable.
Thank you.
We completely agree. It’s a tragic truth that many nurses have been permanently burned out and may never return to nursing. And one company may never be able to tackle all of the issues happening within the healthcare industry. However, we can do our best to strive for a better future of nursing. So by empowering nursing professionals to choose where they work, they can practice nursing without sacrificing benefits, job security, and competitive pay. IntelyCare wouldn’t exist if the problem you speak to didn’t exist. Our foundational goal, as championed by RN, NP-C, and Chief Nursing Officer, Chris Caufield, is to help solve this exact problem.
We totally agree that the more support nurses have on the floor, the safer, the care. Unfortunately, the individual nurse doesn’t have much control over that. But what they can control is who they work for. That’s why IntelyCare is empowering nursing professionals to choose where they work without sacrificing benefits, job security, and competitive pay, we allow nursing professionals to choose where they work. Don't like a facility? You don't have to go back. We also aim to help facilities get more staff on the floor, so patients get the care they deserve, and full-time staff gets the support they desperately need.
Hi there,
We hear you loud and clear. There are many changes to the nursing industry that could help put an end to improving overall patient care, nurse working environments, and improve the industry overall. But we can’t do it when we can’t work together to solve a common goal. Although the nursing school pipeline may need some tweaking, we play a key part in empowering nursing professionals to hold facilities accountable by allowing them to not only leave facility reviews that impact their public rating, but switch the facilities they work at without risking job security, access to benefits, and competitive pay rates. We don’t claim to solve the nursing industry issues in one swoop, but we strive every day to play a key role in tackling the daunting issue.
Well as an RN, I am firstly concerned with not losing my license. Management might get sacked but they haven't got a license to lose and can simply reframe their job loss.
There are numerous ways to lose my license and therefore my livelihood and staffing shortages are right up there. I want bodies on the floor with experience and not some jumped up twit who thinks that their degree absolve them from actual work.
My way would be to sack all of the bean counters and most of the managers and subcontract their jobs. Use the savings to employ more nurses with experience and let the nurses dictate staffing requirements.
Kooky Korky, BSN, RN
5,216 Posts
I absolutely couldn't agree more.
Why is allnurses promoting this company that wants to sell its product? It seems to be a free ad. Surely that violates TOS?