Give nurses flexible schedules
Give nurses flexible schedules
Do you want the competitive edge when it comes to retaining nursing staff? Instead of sign-on bonuses or other incentives, offer nurses a flexible schedule, recommends Cindy Asche, RN, BSN, nurse manager of the ED at Medical City Dallas Hospital.
"If we want to retain nurses, we need to try and be more accommodating," Asche says. "This makes nurses want to stay at your institution, as opposed to going somewhere else or doing something else."
Medical City’s ED managers work with every nurse to develop a schedule that’s tailored for him or her, she says. "This is a real management headache, but we are committed to keeping our staff satisfied."
Some nurses are parents with child-care needs, and others are in school and need to plan around their classes. "We give them schedules that work for them," she says.
Recently, a nurse who had worked in the ED for several years had a baby and needed a specific schedule, Asche recalls. "She works opposite the days and times her husband does, so they don’t have to put the child in day care," she says.
Another nurse works only evenings and no Wednesdays, she says, and "another nurse is trying to start a consulting business and wanted to be available during the week. So she only works 12-hour shifts on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday."
The trick is to try to meet as many of your nurses’ individual needs as possible and work to fit all the employee schedules together, says Asche.
About a third of the nursing staff works special schedules to meet individual needs, she explains. "Although we still have some staff vacancies, we have fewer than most EDs our size. I attribute that to our flexible scheduling policy." Flexible scheduling has given the ED a competitive edge over other facilities in the area, Asche reports. "When nurses go to interview at another hospital, I always encourage them to ask about their work schedule," she says. "For example, one hospital requires ED nurses to work shifts three days on, three days off, two days on, two days off. It doesn’t matter what is going on, that’s the shift you work."
Some ED nurses are PRN employees on staff who don’t work a regular schedule, she says. "They pick up shifts as they want to. We try to have a lot of them and give them first crack at any available shifts so we can fill holes as needed."
ED has vacancy under 3%
At Pinnacle Health Hospitals in Harrisburg, PA, several scheduling options are offered to retain current ED employees, says Nancy Bonalumi, RN, MS, CEN, director of emergency services.
"We offer a 64-hour or 72-hour every-weekend schedule per two-week period that pays a 25% bonus," she explains. "This means nearly full-time pay for part-time work."
Current employees filled those slots. Weekend staffing coverage also was increased, which has boosted staff satisfaction, Bonalumi says.
Managers offer increased per diem rates to compete with salaries offered by staffing agencies, she says. "We are also offering premium pay to employees if they pick up prescheduled extra shifts to fill staffing needs."
Partly as a result of giving nurses scheduling options, the system’s three EDs have a vacancy rate under 3% and have been successful in recruiting new nurses, Bonalumi reports. They have had 18 nurses start in the past three months in the three EDs, she says. "I consider that to be exceptional at a time when many facilities have vacancies open for months."
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