Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, among numerous other reasons that have heavily impacted the healthcare sector, healthcare facilities and hospitals are trying to fight against the wave of employee loss, with empty spaces that desperately need to be filled in facilities nationwide. For facilities in need, it can be incredibly stressful for higher-ups and workers alike; for some, the scramble for staffing solutions has most likely brought you to read this. Here you'll be able to view a few methods to retain healthcare employees to improve employee retention in facilities throughout the nursing shortage and healthcare staffing crisis.
The very first thing to remember when considering how to improve nurse and hospital employee retention is the primary factor of hiring new employees, which is being sure to hire those who seem to properly align with what the facility desires the most and stands for. It's crucial to consider an applicant's long-term goals and reasoning as to why they'd like to have the job; At the same time, employee retention partially falls onto the facilities themselves to keep long-term workers; it also falls onto the employee themself, as they must be able to handle the challenges that come along with their daily tasks. Thus, after finding and hiring the perfect applicants for your facility, it's important to focus heavily on the onboarding process in training them to become the best they can be. Insufficient training for new employees can leave them experiencing additional stress and possibly feeling lost on the job.
After obtaining the best employees for your facility and providing them the sufficient training so they can perform outstandingly on the job, perhaps there's still something missing in the employee retention aspects that you desire, or maybe something that's slowing down the hiring process, making it even more challenging to find new applicants promptly. A great way to combat employee loss and further strengthen retention is using an employee loyalty rewards program, providing benefits and bonuses to those who stay at the facility for extended amounts of time. Along with this, offering sign-on bonuses for new workers along with providing hazard pay are excellent methods in how hospitals can adequately recognize and appreciate their workers.
Addressing the Healthcare Staffing Crisis
While you're here reading this, you most likely have already recognized that there is a widespread issue that won't soon or easily be solved due to the incredible vastness of this decades-long crisis. All while learning about how to properly appreciate and accommodate facility staff while also retaining employees for the long-term, to proceed in doing so correctly, the elephant in the room has to be acknowledged and addressed to take the necessary actions in ensuring your facility is hiring the best of the best while also properly assessing a new employees needs. While this is fantastic for anyone, it never does harm to remind oneself about why you are partaking in this new hiring and employee retention process.
As we all know, there are countless roadblocks and challenges that nurses and healthcare employees alike will encounter on a day-to-day basis while at work; these may be typical challenges that can occur often or rare encounters; regardless, employees must be prepared to face these however it can be amplified by the employee shortage crisis as fewer employees result in those who are there facing an increased amount of work and challenges that come with the tasks at hand. The increase in stress for current employees could lead to them experiencing burnout. While burnout is not a medically recognized condition, it is detrimental to the body and mind, caused by prolonged and extreme stress; experiencing burnout can make the body more vulnerable to sickness while amplifying the symptoms in those with mental illnesses.
PRN Healthcare Staffing Solutions
Along with the solutions to retain full-time employees at facilities and hospitals in need, there are also methods to bring in temporary employees to fill in empty spaces for as long as they may be required. This is the act of hiring PRN healthcare workers. These employees work on an as-needed basis exclusively for facilities in need, and with the help of a PRN healthcare staffing app, it's possible to connect with these workers in minutes. At Nursa, we have precisely this; our goal is to promptly connect PRN workers and facilities with efficient communication. If you'd like to dive into the world of taking in PRN workers for your facility, sign up for an account with us today to begin posting job listings in minutes, you won't regret it!
