Can Technology Help You Be a Better Leader?

Nurse Leaders struggle to create a nearly impossible environment of improved quality of care and patient outcomes while fostering a desirable and healthy work setting that retains and recruits experienced nurses. Incorporating technology to assist with the advancement of these goals is an absolute must for a successful nurse leader. Although there are many such examples that support this claim, in this post we will look at staff scheduling and how technology can impact staff satisfaction, quality of care, and patient outcomes. Scheduling failures lead to decreased nursing and patient satisfaction, compromised quality of care and increased turnover; nurse leaders must find ways to meet these challenges and maintain a budget while increasing staff and patient satisfaction in the setting of quality care (Wright & Mahar, 2013).   

The Challenges of Scheduling

Effective and efficient personnel management is crucial to improving working conditions and quality of care (Maenhout & Vanhoucke, 2013). It is well known there remains a nursing shortage but implications for inadequate staffing on units is discussed much less frequently. With the nursing shortage Nurse Leaders not only have the challenge of scheduling enough nursing bodies on the unit but also struggle with scheduling the right mix of skill sets and competencies. The night shift on a unit will not be a safe place with a 8:1 ratio and all nurses with less than 18 months experience, nor will it foster an environment where nurses feel supported and engaged. Utilizing technology to gain insight into scheduling failures can address the issues of unattractive schedules for nursing staff, a poor practice environment, and increased workload (Maenhout & Vanhoucke, 2013).

Maenhout and Vanhoucke discuss how current scheduling is typically done on a unit by unit basis and in a multi-sequential approach; staffing is established, routine shift scheduling is accomplished, and then nurses are allocated to different roles, areas, or shifts. Each phase restricts the following phase; scheduling is restricted by staffing and allocation is restricted by scheduling. Ideally Nurse Leaders would be able consider cost, schedule, and quality through use of a formula that can be automated and adjusted in real time. Par level unit staffing needs, personal satisfaction and shift preferences, as well as competency and skill sets should be considered in concert.

The Roster

The dynamic nature of healthcare and nursing leads to frequent changes of the roster, the list of staff allocation for a day or a shift. Often times these changes come after the roster is approved by leadership due to acuity, volume, or unexpected shift vacancies such as a call-in. Even worse is when the roster is approved and does not meet minimal staffing needs. Electronic rostering provides an increase in flexibility, tracking, and interpretation (Drake, 2014). An electronic roster will alert the user if minimum staffing needs are not met such as lack of a charge nurse. They can also be utilized to analyze post-shift efficacy of the roster; if it was fair, safe, and if there were changes. This information can be used to help track staff and unit performance, influence future scheduling needs and allocation choices. For instance maybe there is a high call-in rate certain times of the year or on summer weekends. Noting these trends Nurse Leaders can help anticipate previously unrealized needs and possibly create policies that help ensure fair staffing, quality staffing, and safe patient care. 

What to Do...

Drake recommends an electronic roster as a means to streamline scheduling and extract data for future use, while Wright and Mahar agree noting the importance of ability to make real time scheduling decision such as access to a float pool and information on staffing qualifications to reallocate staff each shift as necessary.
There are a plethora of programs, web-based and otherwise, that market to the medical field. Each institution or unit needs to determine what exactly there needs are from a scheduling system and how it coincides with current or intended policy.

Tracksmart is a web-based program that allows for mobile schedule access; time-off requests and management; and the ability to swap, drop, or add shifts. Set schedules, repeating shifts slots, payroll reports, shift cost management, instantaneous views of scheduling gaps, automatic error notification, and staff ability to enter favorite shifts, conflicts, or availability coupled with an option for automatic scheduling would make this program a viable option for many organizations or units. Just watch this program demo video:




Giving staff the ability to express their preferred shifts and take that into account would be a huge satisfier and a potential safety boost. Utilizing a software that considers complimentary preferences will minimize your night owls coming in at 7am after sleeping 3 hours and your early birds to avoid working until the sun is rising after being up for 24.

Software that also allows for swing shifts, 4, 8, 10, and 12 hour shifts,  and on call in valuable in the healthcare setting.

ePro Scheduler and the eCore suite of management software is popular with EMS crews and the hospital setting. Typically this software is used by staff to schedule availability and the assigned scheduler allocates shifts or utilizes the automatic scheduling option.

Snap Schedule looks to have similar functionality to Tracksmart, and has similar features as the previously mentioned programs like automatic scheduling, mobile access, interoperability, and report generators.

All three of these systems also allow for communication with staff to seek shift coverage minimizing the need to contact multiple nurses by phone.


Is you current scheduling process efficient?

Does it meet your unit needs?

What are some current staffing challenges you currently face that could be addressed with technology?

What is your current method and do you have a software you can recommend?


Comment below and let us know!

 

References

 

Drake, R. G. (2014). The ‘Robust’roster: exploring the nurse rostering process. Journal of advanced nursing, 70(9), 2095-2106.

Maenhout, B., & Vanhoucke, M. (2013). An integrated nurse staffing and scheduling analysis for longer-term nursing staff allocation problems. Omega, 41(2), 485-499.

Wright, P. D., & Mahar, S. (2013). Centralized nurse scheduling to simultaneously improve schedule cost and nurse satisfaction. Omega, 41(6), 1042-1052.