Ethically and otherwise, healthcare facilities have to have enough nurse staff on hand, so they can adequately care for the medical needs of all patients without overworking their nurses.
The problem with many healthcare facilities is that they often don’t know when they need to hire more nurses until it’s too late.
Here are 5 signs you may be understaffed in your healthcare facility:
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1. Nurses are overworked, and they’re feeling stressed or burnt out.
2. Patients are waiting too long for a nurse to help or attend to them.
3. Your nurse turnover rate is too high.
4. Errors throughout the facility are getting more frequent.
5. You’re getting frequent complaints from family members.
1. Nurses are overworked, and they’re feeling stressed or burnt out.
Excessive workloads can lead to nurses feeling stressed or burnt out. If you notice that your nurse staff is overworked and they’re complaining about not getting enough time off, it may be a sign of an impending nurse shortage for your healthcare facility!
To ease the workload on nurses, work with a nurse staffing agency to help bring in more qualified nurses swiftly!
2. Patients are waiting too long for a nurse to help or attend to them.
If patients are waiting too long for a nurse to help or attend to them, this could be due to your facility having too few nurses on staff.
To avoid this problem, consider working with HealthOPM, a nurse staffing agency to bring in more nurses before this problem arises!
3. Your nurse turnover rate is too high.
If your nurse turnover rate is too high, this may be another sign of your facility being understaffed. This could mean that nurses are overworked and burnt out. Or they don’t enjoy working at your healthcare facility anymore.
Lower your turnover rate by making sure your nurses are not being overworked or burnt out!
4. Errors throughout the facility are getting more frequent.
If you notice that errors are happening more often than usual, this could be time to partner with a healthcare staffing agency. If the nurse staff is overworked, they may not have enough time to go through each patient’s chart thoroughly before assisting them with something or answering their questions about care.
This can lead to errors such as giving the wrong medication or forgetting to give a patient their scheduled dose!
5. You’re getting frequent complaints.
Receiving frequent complaints can be another sign of being understaffed and nurses being overworked.
If you notice that patients are complaining a lot about how long it takes to get help or nurse care, this may be because your facility is understaffed.
Not only residents and their families may complain, but nurses can also complain when they feel they’re overworking and not having the time they used to have.
When this starts to happen, it’s a telltale sign that you need more nurses at your facility!
The Solution For Your Healthcare Facility.
Staff shortage is a common issue within healthcare facilities. While identifying the problem in time can be one issue, solving it promptly can be another.
By partnering with a nurse staffing agency, you can avoid a nurse shortage before it comes up!
Nurse staffing agencies, also known as a healthcare staffing agency, provide a group of highly qualified and trained nurses that are a good fit for your specific healthcare facility and your needs.
Whether it’s a long-term solution or temporary, agency nurses can make a major contribution to your residence.
In Conclusion
Understaffing is and always has been a major issue for most healthcare facilities.
Here are five signs your healthcare facility is understaffed:
- Nurses are overworked, and they’re feeling stressed or burnt out.
- Patients are waiting too long for a nurse to help or attend to them.
- Your nurse turnover rate is too high.
- Errors throughout the facility are getting more frequent.
- You’re getting frequent complaints.
If you’re starting to see these signs within your facility, it’s time to work with a nurse staffing agency to help solve these issues.
Get in touch with our team at HealthOPM today, a reliable nurse staffing agency you can trust to be a true partner.