One of healthcare’s major engines, nursing, has shifted into high gear working to develop new roles, responsibilities and processes that align with today’s quickly evolving care and reimbursement paradigms, not to mention that address a potential nursing shortage. One powerful mantra for the future is clear for CNOs: flexibility.
To meet population health goals and to lower hospital readmissions, tomorrow’s, no, today’s nurses need to be flexible, moving into roles that extend bedside care into the community, closer to the patient, and his/her family, at home. Getting families involved by listening to and incorporating feedback about their experiences will help inform organizational decisions, while having RNs participate in care coordination both in and out of the hospital is expected to result in better outcomes.
To respond to regional shortages of RNs who are leaving clinical care at the bedside, either to move into leadership positions or to retire, requires different recruitment and retention strategies. And to alleviate some of the stress nurses face and facilitate their overall well-being, some hospitals are implementing new onboarding and personal health programs.
All these changes mean that those in or entering the field of nursing must be able to adapt to new responsibilities and non-traditional career paths, which CNOs are fiercely forging for the good of the profession, the patients, and society.
Source: Healthleaders (2017, March). Nurse Leadership in 2017 CNOs tackle a new workforce vision.