According to a recent NurseGrid/Keener survey of over 12,000 nurses*, only 15% of nurses strongly agree that they are able to manage feelings of burnout. Fifty-eight percent strongly agree that their fellow nurses demonstrate signs of work-related burnout. Staffing issues and a perceived disconnect between nurses and leadership were named as common themes tied to these overall feelings of stress and exhaustion.
Increased autonomy in nurse scheduling is one way to address these unsustainable levels of burnout and stress. Under “normal” pre-pandemic operations, allowing nurses to have an active role in their schedules led to increased satisfaction and retention rates while also positively impacting the culture of the hospital. However, once the pandemic hit, it became clear that offering nurses self-scheduling, flexible shift lengths, and easy ways to swap shifts or pick up shifts that suit their in-the-moment needs was even more crucial in proactively addressing mental well-being and potential burnout.
With ShiftWizard, department leaders can easily pivot and implement more flexible workforce management strategies as they address the needs of their staff. From self-scheduling to creating varying shift lengths, department-level adjustments can be made while still ensuring optimal coverage across the enterprise. Staff, on the other hand, are empowered to choose the shifts that best fit their needs, swap the shifts they don’t want, and easily request time off.
Enabling nurses to have more control over the duration and frequency of their shifts not only helps nurses maintain a sustainable, realistic schedule long-term, but also gives them greater freedom to practice their own self-care–a key tool for stress reduction. Without the burden of an inflexible schedule, nurses will have more opportunities to find a balance between their career and their own mental and physical health. The flexibility that ShiftWizard provides can help staff build in time for family, rest, exercise, and other activities that contribute to their overall well-being–and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
For more information on how you can best use Shift Wizard for flexible staff scheduling, please reach out to us at hello@shiftwizard.com.
*From Nurse Wellbeing at Risk: A National Survey, September 2020
