There are many factors that cause short staffing in nearly every department of every hospital, such as the aging population, workload, work environment, and nurse burnout. Even long-term care facilities, clinics, private home health in Texas, and stand-alone facilities are affected as well.
So, what can you do to manage this escalating nursing shortage? Here are different ways you can address staff shortages.
- Prioritize assignments
Categorize nursing activities as high, medium, and low priority. Then inform nurses, CNA, and other staff members to start working on high-priority cases. If possible, you can assign low-priority activities volunteers. - Delegate tasks evenly
Don’t let the situation overwhelm your decision-making process. You need to make sure that tasks are evenly distributed among your staff. If one of your registered nurses is caring for more patients than usual, make sure not to assign more cases to them. - Hire a hospital staffing agency
At Allied Health Services, we provide reliable supplemental staffing services for hospitals in our area. As a trusted nurse staffing agency in Houston, Texas, we pride ourselves on providing hospitals with well-trained and qualified nurses, surgical technicians, certified nurses aides, and patient sitters. Get in touch with us now!