Healthcare Staffing Report: Apr. 17, 2014

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Comment on Columbia study

Here are Cynthia Kinnas’ full comments on the study by Columbia University (for the full story, click here). Kinnas is executive vice president for Randstad Healthcare and president of the National Association of Traveling Healthcare Organizations:

“I can absolutely appreciate the study’s findings that nursing teams who work together for longer periods of time perform more effectively, leading to shorter lengths of stay for patients.  Having nursing teams that work seamlessly does not have to be mutually exclusive with a hospital using supplemental nursing staff, however. Quite the contrary — a smart supplemental staffing model will actually enhance the hospital's efforts in this regard.

“In fact, the traveling nurse model, whereby the supplemental nurses come on board for full-time, regularly scheduled minimum three to six month (or often longer) contracts helps support the hospitals’ goal of having a cohesive nursing team and providing continuity of care. This is because the traveling nurses are on board long enough to successfully integrate with the core nursing team and work seamlessly with them in delivering care, not only reducing stays, but also increasing patient satisfaction rates based on better nurse to patient ratios.

“There should be no fear of a supplemental nurse being ‘less qualified’; in fact based on the various work environments they have been exposed to, and the flexibility that is required in their role, they often come with great experience and are very self-reliant. The research backs this up. For example, Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, with the University of Pennsylvania has reported findings in her studies that supplemental nurses are slightly more likely to have a BSN, and are only slightly less experienced in terms of years of nursing experience (but it’s still over 10 years on average) than permanent nurses. This means a healthcare facility can safely augment its nursing staff without compromising on quality whatsoever.

“Let’s face it, there is a growing nursing shortage. Even if a facility was dead set on a goal of having all of its nursing staff work for them permanently, they would have to be very careful of not thwarting their retention efforts by burning out their core staff with mandatory overtime and difficulty obtaining weekends and holidays off. Utilizing a smart percentage of supplemental staff that can be flexed up or down during times of higher or lower patient census, can help support your core nursing team, and ultimately retain them longer. Healthcare facilities are facing great challenges on having to change how they operate due to ACA and would be wise to look at some of the workforce strategies used by other sectors, who count on using supplemental staff as a smart part of their business strategy to increase efficiency, quality and performance in a very positive way.

“I have been involved with supplemental staffing, particularly traveling nurses, for the better part of my career and we truly believe supplemental staffing keeps nurses working in the profession longer. This is both by supporting the efforts and increasing the morale of core teams, but also by providing a flexible work option for nurses (traveling or per diem) who are not in a position to work year round anymore, that otherwise would have exited the nursing profession altogether. In this day and age, we simply cannot afford to have any good nurses leave the profession, and being creative with enticing workforce models and options available to them only makes good sense … for the nurses, healthcare facilities and ultimately the patients.”