What’s Trending Now for Nurse Leaders

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

As we approach the end of 2024, the trending topics that nurse leaders are talking about right now include the following:

1. The work of nurses, especially in acute care environments, is increasingly complex due to higher patient acuity, sustained patient volumes, and documentation requirements to achieve full reimbursement.
2. Nurse leaders hope that technology solutions such as virtual nursing and generative AI will help reduce the scope of nurses’ work but worry about the costs and staff acceptance.
3. There continues to be a misalignment between patient expectations and healthcare system capabilities, leading to significant amounts of leader time spent in service recovery.
4. The use of unplanned PTO and FMLA has skyrocketed as nurse leaders balance meeting patient care needs with maintaining staff health and well-being.
5. Many hospitals’ fiscal situations remain precarious as care costs increase and payer mixes include more Medicare Advantage patients with lower reimbursement levels and patients with higher deductibles who are having problems paying their bills.
6. Although organizational turnover is decreasing, nurses continue to request internal transfers, and unit/department turnover remains higher than historical levels.
7. Nurse managers report high levels of exhaustion and burnout as their role scope expands and their control span remains high.
8. The use of travel and agency nurses has declined, but many managers report that their units are rarely fully staffed and that they increasingly take assignments.
9. Younger staff continue to demand flexible schedules and resist working nights and weekends and taking call.
10. Nurse leaders struggle with communication with staff as generational preferences around communication methods shift, and staff are in cognitive overload.
11. Holding staff professionally accountable continues to be problematic as staff push back on feedback about their practice.
12. The relationships between leaders and staff have grown more tense in unionized environments as union representatives often work to erode leadership trust and convince nurses that they are their only advocates.
13. Shorter staff tenures continue to make team building very challenging.
14. Significantly more time is now spent orienting new graduates who are not work-ready for the complexity of the current work environment.
15. Redesign of care delivery systems is a top strategic priority for organizations, but implementing new models has proved challenging.

Nurse leaders are cautiously optimistic about 2025. Some turbulence in healthcare environments has subsided, but many wicked problems remain.

© emergingrnleader.com 2024

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