• Longstanding nationwide staffing shortages have only grown during the COVID-19 pandemic, straining healthcare institutions to the breaking point.
• Financial incentives have not been filling the gaps in staffing, endangering patient care.
• Gaining visibility into nursing students attending clinical rotations will uncover best candidates to fit a hospital’s open positions for the long-term.

February 8, 2022

WILMINGTON, NC—The nursing profession is under duress, with staffing shortages exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. A solution to this generational challenge may now be in reach, as examined in the recent webinar Nursing in Crisis: Rebuilding the Talent Supply Chain from Within and Reversing the Nursing Shortage.

Approximately 600 healthcare professionals registered for the live webinar hosted by Becker’s Hospital Review and featuring Nicole Bradford, vice president of research and development at CastleBranch. The presentation examined the sophisticated pipelines for nursing education and employment and how financial incentives have not been filling the gaps in healthcare staffing, endangering patient care.

“The healthcare industry is saying our country needs an additional 1.1 million nurses this year, as well as 194,000 new RNs each year through 2030,” Bradford said, adding, “Conversations with our hospital partners, as well as feedback gathered from across 70 percent of healthcare education programs CastleBranch supports points to strengthening the ecosystem between higher education and hospitals to increase the supply.”

Bradford said problems like dropout and turnover are continuing to bog down the comprehensive pipeline between education and healthcare for new nurses during their journey to and through professional life. To address the problem of supply and efficiency, she posited focusing on gaining more visibility into the individual prior to being hired, beyond just grades and anecdotal stories passed between faculty and preceptors. Bradford discussed how this can be achieved through a collaboration platform connecting programs, hospitals, and students for the collection and review of meaningful student data early and often to find the best match between an individual and their professional home.

As an example, Bradford discussed developing a managed solution that automates collection and management of student data throughout their journey from when they enter nursing education programs, through clinical rotations until they obtain their first jobs, creating an at-a-glance dashboard for healthcare facilities to visualize their pipeline of newly licensed nurses and make informed hiring decisions.

“On the surface, a faculty favorite with outstanding grades may be a popular recruiting target for most healthcare organizations, but the best offers are not always the most lucrative ones, leading to turnover and coming at a huge cost to hospitals and, ultimately, their patients,” Bradford explained.

A link to the recorded webinar can be found here.
 

CastleBranch has been supporting nursing students, healthcare educational programs, and hospitals for over two decades with the collection, review, and storage of highly sensitive medical and personal data. The company’s 400-plus team members engage with over 15 thousand college health professions programs — representing 70 percent of such programs across the country – with a focus on the administration of essential clinical experiences for nursing students. CastleBranch has tracked, reviewed, and/or stored over 35 million medical documents – including complex vaccination and immunization documentation – for a majority of healthcare education programs in every state across the nation.

For more information visit discover.castlebranch.com/nursing-in-crisis.