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.
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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 ProductsBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
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View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
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View All ProductsHealthcare workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
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 MoreHaving an effective and healthcare-specific workforce scheduling system is an essential component to helping nurse leaders foster a fair and inclusive environment for their staff.
Research indicates that favoritism exists within the nursing profession between supervisors and their nurses. Some managers knowingly play favorites with the nurse staff, while some do so inadvertently. Regardless of the intent, favoritism in a healthcare environment should be avoided because of its negative impact on an organization’s culture and, ultimately, on patient care.
“It can be problematic in leadership when the nurse leader is perceived by staff as treating some people better than others, especially in giving assignments and shift scheduling,” wrote Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN, in a 2021 Emerging Nurse Leader article. “The implications of favoritism are far-reaching in their influence to promote a toxic culture that destroys engagement, commitment, and integrity.”
Nurse leaders who are supportive and promote fairness in the workplace help create an environment where all staff feel safe and engaged in their roles. It cannot be overstated how much of an influence a nurse leader’s actions have on staff morale and patient outcomes.
Have you ever noticed that certain nurses always seem to be allocated the best shifts, have their pick of the most desirable annual leave slots or have a less demanding workload than the rest of the team? Or have you observed that certain nurses always get called in for overtime (and incentive pay)? Do you know if your scheduling practices are causing your healthcare team to feel the burden of picking up last-minute shifts?
Now is the perfect time to ask yourself these questions and evaluate whether the processes used to schedule the staff in your facility can be improved.
One thing to consider is that the nurses who are called most often for overtime might feel burnt out and irritated. A study published in JAMA Network Open in 2021 discovered that burnout is highly prevalent among U.S. nurses who leave or who are considering leaving the profession. Their data showed that nurses who worked more than 40 hours per week had a greater likelihood of identifying burnout as a reason they left their job compared with those who worked less than 20 hours per week.
“Health systems should focus on implementing known strategies to alleviate burnout, including adequate nurse staffing and limiting the number of hours worked per shift,” they recommended.
Meanwhile, resentment and frustration can be building among staff whose schedule requests are rarely granted, as these practices can be perceived as favoritism and, in some cases, even be deemed as discrimination.
“Hospitals need to take both long- and short-term measures to address critical workforce issues so they can continue to provide safe, high-quality care now and in the future,” Deborah J. Bowen, FACHE, CAE, president and CEO of American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), said in a
Workforce challenges are considered the top issue on the list of hospital CEOs’ top concerns in 2022, the ACHE said. One key concern is the healthcare personnel shortage. In 2021, the turnover rate for staff RNs increased by 8.4 percent, resulting in a national average of 27.1 percent, according to the 2022 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report.
“The nurse scheduling problem (NSP) has received a great amount of attention in recent years,” researchers wrote in a Journal of Industrial Engineering International study.
Favoritism, whether it’s perceived or actually happening, is one factor contributing to nursing turnover and the more it exists within an organization, the more often nurses leave. It should also be noted that favoritism can sometimes exist in the eye of the beholder. So even the appearance of preferential treatment can create tension among staff members.
“Higher levels of favoritism within the organization are strongly linked with nurses' turnover intention,” according to a 2020 study published in the Nursing Forum journal. “Improving the channels of communication among the healthcare team is vital to promote inclusivity among healthcare workers and enhance organizational viability.”
As healthcare facilities make an effort to curb favoritism in scheduling, they will recognize the benefits of having a healthcare-specific scheduling system.
It’s not uncommon for healthcare organizations to utilize scheduling systems that are not specific to the industry. If your facility relies on those tools, it could create more complications than you might have expected. Non-healthcare systems often do not have the sophistication needed to handle the complex scheduling needs of healthcare workers.
ShiftWizard(™), by HealthStream, is created specifically for healthcare and has an easy-to-use messaging center designed to improve work-life balance and streamline communication. Additionally, because ShiftWizard was developed by healthcare professionals, it has been carefully designed to help leaders quickly and easily identify who has the ideal credentials for each shift, how many hours each staff member has worked, and who is available to pick up last-minute shifts. These features combined allow the tool to help managers create a fair scheduling process.
And with mobile access and user-friendly apps, ShiftWizard gives team members access to their schedules anytime, anywhere and allows staff to swap or pick up shifts conveniently.
ShiftWizard’s tool fosters an environment of fairness and transparency:
When it comes to scheduling, supporting your staff is critical to maintaining team morale. That’s why ShiftWizard has been crafted to improve the scheduling process for you and your team. Whether your facility is a smaller healthcare setup, a single department, a team of nurses, or an entire hospital system, we’re ready to show you exactly how ShiftWizard can streamline scheduling, improve staff satisfaction, and increase fairness.
HealthStream’s learning management system and healthcare training solutions support medical training initiatives and allow for 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 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 & ComplianceBe confident in your staff’s ability to reduce risk by providing compliance training that changes behavior.
View All ProductsDevelop next-level people for next-level care by prioritizing quality and safety improvements.
View All ProductsEstablish a culture of belonging with education supporting DEI, wellness, engagement, and leadership development.
View All ProductsUtilize patient access solutions and advanced reimbursement solutions to manage clinical denials and improve your organization’s reimbursement strategy.
View All ReimbursementExpand the decision-making skills and effectiveness of your healthcare workforce with HealthStream's clinical development programs and services.
View All Clinical DevelopmentLearn about our advanced resuscitation training solutions. Our solutions are designed to help improve patient outcomes.
View All ProductsOur competency development solutions personalize learning for clinicians to bridge the gap between theory and practice for your nurse residents.
View All ProductsEnhance maternal & child nursing care with solutions focused on improving the quality of care for mothers, infants, and children.
View All ProductsAddress staffing orientation challenges to easily achieve and maintain certification with our emergency and acute care training solutions.
View All ProductsAs a premier provider of healthcare education, we are committed to promoting safer, more successful surgical and sedation outcomes for each and every patient.
View All ProductsOur solutions are designed to cater to the needs of patients, healthcare professionals, and organizations dealing with illnesses or chronic conditions.
View All ProductsOnline clinical placement software allows schools, healthcare organizations, and students to seamlessly manage clinical and nursing rotations.
View All ProductsComprehensive, industry-leading provider onboarding and credentialing software that validates health outcomes and supports provider assessment.
View All CredentialingOur affordable CVO credentialing services establish patient safety by enabling primary source verification for your healthcare organization.
View All ProductsIntegrate with Epic to validate and add new providers directly to your provider master file.
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 workforce management is essential. We provide advanced scheduling solutions for organizations to solve issues such as nurse retention
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