Massachusetts will vote on nurse staffing limits in November
Editor's Note Massachusetts voters will decide in November whether to mandate nurse staffing limits in hospitals, the July 9 Boston Business Journal reports. The nurse staffing question, which is being spearheaded by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, will ask voters to establish patient-to-nurse limits in different areas of the hospital. Hospitals…
ECRI Institute white paper on staffing and scheduling
Editor's Note The ECRI Institute has issued a white paper titled, “Responsive staffing and scheduling in aging services: A systems rethinking approach.” Problems in staffing and scheduling can lead to potentially dangerous conditions, which can cause performance gaps in delivery of care and services. To better address these problems, providers…
More anesthesiology residency positions may help with staffing costs, workforce shortages
Editor's Note Adding more anesthesiology residency positions, even without federal funding, may help hospitals save staffing costs and address shortages of anesthesia personnel, finds a study presented January 27 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2023, in Orlando, Florida. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center compared the…
Survey finds staffing gap has widened at ASCs since 2018
Staffing remains a significant challenge for many leaders of ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), according to the 2019 annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. Nearly a third (32%) of respondents reported more open RN positions, significantly higher than the 26% in 2018; over the past 5 years, only 2016 had a higher…
Refreshed outlook for addressing healthcare’s staffing crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing personnel shortages in hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASC), which are anticipated to persist. Before the pandemic, nursing supply and demand were already affected negatively by several factors, including approximately 70,000 Baby Boomer RNs retiring per year. As the remaining Baby Boomer RNs retire over…
AHA report urges healthcare systems to be creative with staffing solutions
Editor's Note Healthcare systems need to find innovative solutions to address the nursing shortage, according to a 2023 report from American Hospital Association (AHA), reports December 9 Becker’s Hospital Review. The report noted that the US nursing workforce lost over 100,000 people within the last 3 years, which is the…
Nurse staffing expert, Linda Aiken, PhD, testifies on her research at NYS hospitals
Editor's Note Nurse staffing expert Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FAAN, testified at the New York State (NYS) Health Committee budget hearing on February 25 about her research on staffing levels in New York State. Among her research findings: Each patient reduction in nurses’ workloads was associated with a 13% decrease…
Reducing OR time for elective procedures helps address staffing shortages
Editor's Note Reducing OR time availability at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital, Pittsburgh, by 15% helped address a 30% staffing shortage caused by COVID-19, according to a study presented January 29 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2022, the Anesthesiology Business Event in Dallas. A five-phase approach was used, which included:…
Effect of nurse staffing level, length of work experience on HAIs
Editor's Note This study from Finland examines the associations between nurse understaffing and limited work experience on the risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). Patient and staff data from 40 care units and 261,067 admissions in one hospital district in Finland were analyzed. The researchers found that 1- or 2-day exposure…
Innovation Spot: Leveraging technology to address gaps in staffing
Is technology part of the answer for nursing staff woes? As COVID-19 patients continue to fill hospital beds, caregivers are feeling exhausted, burned out, and unappreciated. OR nurses have been especially hit hard, as shifts in surgeries and overflowing patient wards stretch OR nurses beyond their limits and comfort zones.…