Short staffing incentive ideas???

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We are experiencing our typical summer baby boom at work and consequently are extremely short staffed on the large OB unit I work on. Usually a robocall will go out (similar to the one schools use to call off school) to alert staff that extra help is needed. All staff are called at one time. Typically they will first offer on call (time and a half pay) and single bonus (extra $10/hour). If they get no takers, the offer is increased to on call and double bonus (time and a half plus an extra $20/hour). Even though that is a lot of money, staff are tired of coming in extra and coming in and working very short staffed and therefor the response is dwindling. Does anyone have any other unique or innovative staffing incentives for times like these? I appreciate any ideas you may have. Tired in STL

Specializes in ICU, trauma.
Yes, but these are only short term solutions.

One would think it would be more cost effective (and safe for the patient) to give raises, bonuses, and hire more staff so that they are never put in the situation where they can't even get anyone to come in.

Don't get me wrong i LOVED getting triple incentive, but i took advantage of how desperate staffing was. :uhoh3:

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Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.
From experience I can tell you that call in incentives are a terrible idea (financially for the hospital) I was a prn staff and would frequently get alerts for short staffing. First it would just ask for volunteers at regular incentive, then it would progress to like 200 dollar bonus, as far as triple incentive plus a bonus. And my thought process literally started to become "wow only a $200 bonus? I'm not going in unless they offer triple". I mean I would go in often without any incentive, but once you have a policy like this it creates a new set of problems

Yup. I worked at a facility that would offer $500/shift incentives for extra shifts (plus OT pay) during flu season. Then it started extending into summer because the short staffing never let up. So when the next flu season rolled around they upped it to a $1000/shift bonus!

Well....the next flu season, guess how many people were willing to pick up for "just" a $500 bonus?

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Consider yourselves lucky to get incentives. My hospital schedules each person 4 12 hour shifts a week because we are always short handed in a small town. They can't even get travelers to come here.

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We were offered bonuses as well. Ours were 1 exta shift a week for 4 weeks. The 1 extra shift got you an extra 200$ each week and after completion of all 4 weeks you got $500 extra.

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Sometimes money is the most expensive way to motivate people.

  • Your staff gets acclimated to the bonus and will continually leverage the hospital to increase funds.
  • The staff will be receiving more money at decreased levels of productivity; we all know productivity drops when you work more than 40 hrs in a week.

Solutions I've seen work:

  • Hiring travelers, while expensive individually, is more appropriate than creating an environment where staff may fail (job wise)
  • From a general standpoint, hire an appropriate number of part time staff to offset anticipated pregnancy employee losses in a female dominated profession.

Finally, if the employer doesn't care enough to make an effort. Do you best to find a new employer. The best staff naturally gravitate towards the best employer.

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

Our manager sent a mass email to every RN working in every unit (with their manager's permission) where the staff could possibly expected to have the skills to cover our patients. The email offered "Premium Pay", which I believe was as high as double time and a half on weekday daylight shifts with extra pay for nights and weekends. We got a number of takers with varying skill sets, but most of them could take our "ready to be transferred but no bed available in step down" patients, and some who couldn't independently manage an assignment could be extra hands to help turn, clean up, transfuse, etc. It worked really well and as a bonus, a couple of nurses liked our unit so well they transferred to us.

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Specializes in Critical Care, Float Pool.

Hire people instead of offering paltry incentives.

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Specializes in SICU, trauma, neuro.
For that matter, many per diem employees are doing so as a second job, or work per diem at multiple facilities. They should be up-front about their availability, but it's unrealistic to expect per diem employees to have totally open availability.

Or, have multiple kids and work per diem for the sole purpose of working when was convenient for me -- yes to Saturdays, no to nights/major holidays/weekdays when my husband was at work. On the flip side they couldn't guarantee me any hours, and didn't offer me bennies.

No way would I take a per diem position for their needs only.

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The last place I worked offered $20 extra per hour and for every extra hour worked you bank it in vacation time, even for per diems.

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Hire more PRN staff. Hire staff that is part time/ flex time ( I will work 5 4 hour shifts a week, for instance)

Get more float nurses who have OB/PP experience. Offer to train and certify nurses who want to transfer to OB.

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Specializes in NICU, PICU, educator.

You need a good PRN pool. Our hospital won't cross train to LD due to the length of orientation and classes needed. Ours finally built up a good PRN pool and it has helped. Travelers are out of the question due to cost. You can't make it more appealing if they aren't buying those incentives. Our unit would kill for those dollar amounts!

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Specializes in Nurse Scientist-Research.
Hire more PRN staff. Hire staff that is part time/ flex time ( I will work 5 4 hour shifts a week, for instance)

Get more float nurses who have OB/PP experience. Offer to train and certify nurses who want to transfer to OB.

Our hospital system went to a staffing pool system. It's mostly a good deal. Our former PRN staff were all transitioned to it. They can increasingly higher rates of pay if they sign up to go to more facilities (we have a couple dozen facilities in the general area).

They are generally very functional. And they can pick up shifts for regular staff if it doesn't take them into OT.

Only big issue is they really aren't there for weekends, holidays. Also, about 80% of them work days. And I don't blame them btw!

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