Prevent Nurse Burnout with Improved Hospital Workflows
Hospital workflows are the formal and informal methods and processes that keep the organization productive. Some workflows are intentional, but many evolve over time. The problem is that when these workflows are less efficient, they can contribute to burnout of critical care teams. Today, this is happening to nurses at an unprecedented rate. How can hospitals improve and streamline their clinical workflows while also enhancing their staff’s health, well-being, and job satisfaction?
Nurse burnout: A different kind of epidemic
As COVID-19 raged across the country, a different kind of epidemic ensued. Quietly, behind the scenes, our nursing teams were experiencing burnout symptoms. And while nursing shortages and burnout were already happening before COVID, the pandemic exacerbated the stress, alarm fatigue, and frustration felt by many of our most critical, frontline healthcare workers.
Nurses make up the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and are critically important to patient care. As the demands on healthcare workers accelerated during COVID-19, the impact on these critical care providers was intense. A 2021 JAMA article cited some of the issues in healthcare facilities contributing to the added pressure our nation’s nurses experience:
Poor staffing ratios
Lack of communication between nurses and physicians
Lack of organizational leadership around the issue of nurse burnout
The study looked at a nationwide sample of nurses and found that of the ones who recently left their positions, 31.5% cited burnout as a contributing factor. Another 34.4% cited a stressful work environment. Yet another 30% cited inadequate staffing. The clinical setting contributed significantly to burnout; 80% of those working in hospitals were at greater risk. The study determined that “despite this evidence, little has changed in healthcare delivery and the role of registered nurses.”
How do workflows affect burnout in nursing?
Hospitals have long felt the pressure to redesign workflows. Technology has increased the complexity of our delivery systems while also streamlining workflows. Some of the changes in healthcare today that impact workflow design include:
The increasing need for interoperability between alarm systems
The challenges of care coordination
The cost, efficiencies, and health outcomes related to patient care
Patient safety initiatives
Many of the reasons for burnout discussed in the JAMA article could be positively impacted or mitigated by using technology to improve communication between providers and create better staffing ratios. The issue isn’t just about improving efficiency. Workflows are the maps that direct how the care team accomplishes a goal.
Better workflows reduce redundant tasks, cut down on frustration caused by inefficiencies in care delivery, and even reduce the endless miles walked by our nation’s nurses up and down hospital corridors every day. Technology is the driver for improved workflows. When leveraged effectively, health information technology (HIT) can help improve workflows and reduce burnout in our nursing teams.
How can integrated, next-generation nurse call systems reduce burnout by improving workflows?
When nurses are equipped with technologies that improve workflow efficiency, their performance is enhanced, busywork is reduced, and simpler, streamlined processes replace inefficiencies. That’s why next-generation integrated nurse call systems can help cut nurse fatigue. These communication systems have three key benefits to help lighten the load that nurses carry:
They can reduce alarm fatigue. Most hospital units are plagued by hundreds, if not thousands, of alarms each day, resulting in total sensory overload for many nurses. Integrated call platforms can filter out unnecessary alarms, allowing specific notifications to reach the right provider in a carefully controlled, orchestrated effort to provide better patient care — and a better on-the-job nursing experience.
Valuable data can be captured and analyzed by these systems. Data can do more than improve patient outcomes; it can also identify staffing and workflow issues that lead to nurse burnout.
Today’s new nurse call platforms are backed by powerful analytics that can help departmental managers redistribute tasks. Data analytics can adjust tasks so that more midlevel team members could shoulder the burdens carried by the nursing teams. Instead of sending all patient alarms or requests to the nurse, many of these mundane (not critical) requests could go to a licensed practical nurse (LPN) or a certified nursing assistant (CNA). This helps redistribute the load more appropriately and saves the nurses time and effort.
Nurses bear enormous workloads, but much of it can be better managed. Technology can help by allowing nurses to work on the tasks requiring their expertise; more routine tasks can filter to LPNs and CNAs. The result will be greater nurse satisfaction and a reduction in the crippling burnout that so many of our valuable employees face.
TRL Systems is Southern California’s leading provider of sophisticated integrated nurse call communication tools. Talk with our team today about how our technology can improve the lives of your nursing staff. Call us at (855) 266-6596 or email healthcare@trlsystems.com