Read the full Executive Brief: COPING WITH NURSE BURNOUT IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
Nurse burnout is no new challenge for nurse leaders. In recent years, nurse leaders have been faced with increases in attrition, nursing shortages, and difficulty managing the operational needs of an ever changing practice environment. When I transitioned into nursing administration, I recall the overwhelming feeling of wanting to do more even though resources were slim. I decided to focus my efforts on studying the nursing workforce so I could develop formidable solutions for my colleagues. Today, I am a PhD candidate whose entire body of research examines organizational variables that can affect how nursing care is delivered. In nursing, we talk a lot about nurse burnout while constantly implementing new processes to decrease the risk of attrition, but the problem still persists.
For decades, shift workers have been studied and companies have used risk adjustment strategies based on the effect fatigue has on their employees performance. This type of risk assessment has been historically underused in healthcare, even though nurses provide 24/7 care.
For the first time immediate solutions exist. CareThrough has worked tirelessly to adjust our in-person Care Team Assistant to a virtual platform. Our sister company, SoundLines, was able to support pop-up hospital tents in NYC during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their solution, Speke, offered providers the ability to care for many patients while maintaining high quality care and documentation. Today, the Speke tool not only helps providers get back to the bedside, but nurses as well. Nurses have expressed frustration because of high nurse-to-patient ratios and increased documentation burden. With Speke, nurses are able to focus on delivering high quality, patient-centered care without interruption.
Re-imagining the nursing care model has been a conversation many nurse leaders often discuss. Today, in the midst of a global pandemic, the time to implement change has become even more pressing. We have developed a toolkit to help our partners address the biggest challenges of 2020 – nurse turnover, overtime, and improving the quality of care our patients receive. We hope that you will continue to visit our Learning Center and encourage you to use these toolkits to assist in guiding your organization toward better efficiency and optimal patient care. We will unpack solutions to these challenges in future briefs as part of our Innovation & Excellence Series.
I welcome the opportunity to discuss potential solutions that may help your practice. You can reach me at suzanne.crincoli@carethrough.com.
