Episode #7: What you’ll want to know about solving the staffing problem
What you’ll want to know about solving the staffing problem
Introduction:
Is there ever a time when “staffing” is not being addressed?
Having adequate staff is a critical component of healthcare. It is more significant than in any other industry probably. In other industries when someone doesn’t show up for work or you have a few vacancies you may be able to shift things and it’s not that big of a deal or you are able to make things work. In healthcare, when there are staffing issues, the potential for harm to others increases and satisfaction is challenged both for patients and for clinicians.
There is no one solution or silver bullet to addressing staffing problems! There is a “short game” and a “long game”. In the short game you are finding solutions to the problem of not having enough staff and in the long game you are managing the polarities that are beneath the staffing problem as a proactive strategy to avoid experiencing the problem.
During this episode Tracy and Michelle talk about the recruitment and retention polarity that lies beneath the staffing problem. Managing and leveraging this polarity is the “long game” approach to staffing challenges.
Episode Summary Points:
· Staffing challenges are both a problem and a polarity
· National influencing factors include workforce challenges, burnout, financial constraints, shifting
priorities and location of services
· Multiple polarities underlying the challenge of staffing
Patient Needs and Staff Needs
Mission and Margin
Proactive and Reactive approaches
Recruitment and Retention
Local needs and Global needs
· Great leaders and clinicians concerned about the safety of patients and clinicians
· Risks of over focusing on retention when feeling tensions and stress
· Positive outcomes of recruitment and retention
· Negative consequences of over focusing on recruitment or retention
· Simultaneous action steps to gain or maintain positive outcomes of both recruitment and retention
· Early warning signs indicating you may be over focusing on one pole to the neglect of the other
Teaching Points:
· Staffing is a problem and polarity
· There are multiple additional polarities that can be managed when addressing staffing
o Patient Needs and Staff Needs
o Mission and Margin
o Local and Global Needs
o Proactive and Reactive approach
· Managing the Recruitment and Retention Polarity is a long-term strategy to managing staffing issues
· Measure the outcomes of this interdependent relationship not just the independent outcome
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