Nurse Leader Priorities for 2016 - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, RN, EdD, FAAN

Leadership planning in today’s healthcare environment can be extremely challenging. As one nurse executive recently told me, “it is like trying to solve a puzzle without all the pieces in place.” Yet, deciding on what strategies to implement is important in leadership. This week, Nursing Advisory Board released From our experts_ What you need to know about health care in 2016 The Advisory six priorities that nurse leaders should consider based on their research of the healthcare environment. They include the following

Ensure every patient receives the known standard of care in every setting every time.

As healthcare organizations grow to encompass more settings across the continuum of care, it is critically important that the standards of care for nursing remain the same. While this sounds like something that should be straightforward, my own experience in leadership taught me that it is not always that easy especially as more care and procedures are done in ambulatory and urgent care settings. Nurse executives can easily make assumptions that the same procedures are being followed and then have unpleasant discoveries when care discrepancies occur.

2. Prepare for a potential nursing shortage.

Most experts now agree that the pace of unfilled vacancies in nursing continues to climb year after year. Sign on bonuses and use of per diem and travel staff are on the increase. These are early warnings of what is expected to be the next national nursing shortage.

3. Make early bets about reshaping the clinical workforce.

The advisory board makes an excellent point in discussing this priority. Where healthcare is being delivered and how is changing. Since many nurses stay with employers for long periods of time, nurse executives must insure that when hiring staff – they are considering not only the skill set needed today but also in the future. You need to hire staff who have the capability to be agile and work across the continuum of care.

4. Seek greater consensus on the right way to staff clinics.

While most acute care settings have well established staffing guidelines, this is not true in ambulatory care settings. Staffing in these areas has historically been done by the modalities of care delivered but this is an old model as we realize that staff nurses are capable of doing much more in primary care settings. Deciding on the right way to staff a clinic should be done with the goal of having every registered nurse work at the highest scope of their practice.

5. Continue to control costs but not by cutting labor.

Advisory board points out that while labor continues to represent a sizeable portion of a hospital budget, the room for reduction is rarely in excess of 15%. Greater opportunities for cost reduction are in outmoded care protocols, supply waste and unfavorable contracts for equipment and contract staff.

6. Expand frontline nurses’ focus from discharge planning to continuity.

At this point in time, there is a big focus on preventing 30 day readmissions by more effective discharge planning. This is an old paradigm according to advisory board. We must shift the thinking of nurses to look at providing continuous, coordinated care across multiple settings.

Given the changes in our healthcare environment, these are six priority areas that are worth paying attention to. The healthcare climate is continually shifting and nurse leaders need to watch the signposts and recommendations given by nurse experts who have a more global view of the changes.