.png?sfvrsn=5b788ac9_0)
HealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsDeliver custom or industry designed product training directly to patient and resident care environments to reinforce proper use.
View All ProductsTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsFinally, a comprehensive resource to support collecting, storing, and sharing credentialing data with ease.
View All ProductsHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All ProductsMitigate risk and elevate your quality of care. Improving both clinical and business outcomes starts with a smarter, more integrated approach to regulatory training, continuing education and quality management.
Learn MoreThis blog is taken from a recent HealthStream webinar entitled “Floating Employees During Flu Season – How to Let ShiftWizard Guide Your Scheduling Decisions.” The webinar was moderated by Sarah Enders, HealthStream’s Senior Product Marketing Manager and featured Gia Milo-Slagle, Senior Product Director and Richie Hernandez, Senior Solution Advisor.
The webinar addressed critical aspects of managing float pools during the annual scheduling nightmare known as flu season. The composition of the flu vaccine has been updated and vaccine manufacturers are currently estimating that they will be able to supply the U.S. with as many as 170 million doses of the vaccine, but the onset of flu season and the severity of the flu is unpredictable. This leaves healthcare leaders with a significant staffing challenge – a challenge made even more difficult due to the ongoing nursing shortage. So, what can leaders do to ensure safe coverage?
Milo-Slagle began by addressing some of the areas on which HealthStream customers have been focused as the nursing shortage continues to change how organizations build their staffing strategies. Leaders are looking for solutions that can be efficiently implemented enterprise-wide, allowing them to prepare for high and fluctuating patient demand, allowing credentialed staff to be floated effectively while still ensuring seamless care, and preserving nursing satisfaction. Creating a solution that can address each of these concerns is a tall order, and can best be addressed with the help of technology.
Accomplishing these objectives requires careful planning if healthcare leaders want to remain compliant with the American Nursing Association (ANA) and Joint Commission guidelines on floating. First, Milo-Slagle shared the ANA’s definition of floating. “The reassignment of staff from one nursing unit to another based upon the patient census and acuities.” When floating is possible, it does have the potential to save money, particularly over the more expensive options of agency and per diem staffing.
Both the ANA and the Joint Commission have guidelines that inform how healthcare organizations manage their floating practices. The ANA has the following guideline. “Registered Nurses must have the professional right to accept, reject, or object in writing to any assignment that puts patients or themselves at serious risk for harm.” The Joint Commission’s policy on floating is that “when an employee is asked to float to a different unit, that unit must be similar to his or her own and that the nurse must demonstrate competencies specific to that unit”.
Floating can certainly have an impact on patient care, and their perceptions of care, but it can also significantly impact nursing satisfaction. Milo-Slagle shared a pre-pandemic study conducted in 2019 by the Nursing and Health Sciences Research Journal. The study reported that 44% of nurses were unhappy working in acute care hospitals that required them to float. In order to build a better float pool process, they recommended the following strategies to improve nurse comfort with floating.
Float Pools can be inherently problematic. Milo-Slagle shared that access to float pool staff can be uneven across the organization in terms of knowing which staff are available and/or qualified to work in a particular unit. Manual processes can be disjointed, inefficient, and very labor-intensive. Traditional methods for floating staff make it very difficult to float staff across multiple campuses. In addition, float pools typically don’t mature along with organizational goals and initiatives, and fail to grow in ways that will support the organization as it changes and grows to meet patient and staff needs.
While there are many floating options in healthcare today, there is one option that is emerging as a better, technology-enabled solution for healthcare organizations – flex pools. Milo-Slagle shared that a float pool is defined as a pool of in-house staff that may be shared across departments. A flex pool is defined as an internal pool consisting of staff that specifically wish to flex across all departments and may be compensated for their ability to work in multiple areas. She pointed out that flex pools allow organizations to use trained, internal staff that have autonomy over their schedules, but that this solution requires a solid technological foundation to be effective.
Hernandez demonstrated how ShiftWizard can help streamline employee scheduling for healthcare leaders while empowering nurses to take control of their own schedules. He began with the user-friendly dashboard that helps managers quickly establish whether a unit is properly staffed, and reassign staff members as needed. Hernandez also shared that employees are able to use ShiftWizard (including a user-friendly mobile app) to let managers know when they are available for a shift.
Because ShiftWizard can be integrated with an organization’s electronic medical record (EMR), it can also be used as a predictive census tool to help realign staffing and scheduling to the data found in the EMR at 30, 60, 90 or even 120 days into the future. In addition, ShiftWizard provides productivity reporting to help leaders easily see units that are over or under-staffed. There is also a communication feature that allows leaders to quickly communicate with staff by text, voice mail or email when there is an open shift.
HealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All Learning & PerformanceHealthStream offers performance learning management solutions to help develop your healthcare staff into leaders and reduce turnover.
View All ProductsHealthStream works with healthcare organizations to create engaging and high-quality training videos for your staff and management.
View All ProductsImprove care quality and save money by making informed decisions about your healthcare facility and staff with HealthStream's reporting analytics solution.
View All ProductsHealthStream's proven methods for the improvement and overall engagement of your healthcare staff foster a positive workplace and increase retention rates.
View All ProductsThe leadership development program from HealthStream helps mold your high-potential healthcare employees into proven leaders.
View All ProductsWhen you enact HealthStream's quality compliance solutions, you can do so with the confidence your healthcare organization will meet all standards of care.
View All Quality & ComplianceFulfill compliance requirements with a variety of programs and courseware designed to address critical regulatory requirements as well as educate staff to recognize and mitigate risks.
View All ProductsBy increasing your healthcare staff's focus on quality and safety with HealthStream, they can help to reduce medical errors and readmission rates.
View All ProductsLearn about what HealthStream's healthcare policy management software and how it can help aid your organization efforts.
View All ProductsHealthStream's education helps address diversity, equity, and inclusion within your organization, as well as promoting health equity in the communities you serve.
View All ProductsHealthStream offers professional training and education on how to best optimize your reimbursement process within your healthcare organization.
View All ReimbursementTeach your healthcare staff about the revenue cycle and claim management through targeted training and video tools from HealthStream.
View All ProductsLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ResuscitationIn all areas of resuscitation, from neonatal to elderly care, clinical deterioration is a risk that can be avoided with the help of HealthStream's training programs.
View All ProductsHealthStream's EMS Program offers a comprehensive, CAPCE accredited EMS course library that meets National Registry annual recertification.
View All ProductsNurture the skills of your nurses and medical staff to help mold them into effective leaders with development training from HealthStream.
View All ProductsExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentMake sure your clinicians have the support they need to provide competent care with clinical competency training and development from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s learning management system and comprehensive suite of competency management tools empower your healthcare workforce to deliver the best patient care.
View All ProductsThe suite of healthcare onboarding solutions available from HealthStream aids in nurse retention and improved patient outcomes.
View All ProductsGive your healthcare staff the decision support and skills training they need with the online products available from HealthStream.
View All ProductsHealthStream leverages medical professional development in healthcare by providing staff training programs
View All ProductsLearn more about HealthStream's Provider Credentialing, privileging, & enrollment solutions.
View All CredentialingExperience standardized and centralized healthcare credentialing, privileging, and enrollment that is smarter and faster than ever before.
View All ProductsAutomated, web-based provider credentialing and enrollment software for growing medical groups.
View All ProductsNCQA-certified CVO verification services for initial and re-credentialing files in an overflow or full-service capacity for healthcare organizations.
View All ProductsSearch, review, and add providers into the Epic provider master file with our Epic app integration, Provider Validate.
View All ProductsMake sure your healthcare staff can schedule out appointments and work schedules with ease using HealthStream's line of software solutions.
View All SchedulingHealthcare scheduling software designed to optimize staffing requirements & elevate patient care
View All ProductsPrecisely align staffing and needed resources to enable efficient patient flow and high-quality, cost-effective patient care.
View All ProductsHealthStream’s free nurse schedule app, NurseGrid™, is built to help you care for your staff and engage with their specific needs.
View All Products