Proposal for the Renfrey Memorial Hospital Board of Directors Essay

Proposal for the Renfrey Memorial Hospital Board of Directors - Essay Example Quality of service is impacted because the nurse response time to patients increases. The patients also feel that they are not being cared for appropriately. With reduced nursing staff, the workload of the physicians increases further. The hospital’s capacity is impacted because with reduced nursing staff, there is delay is discharge of patients leading to reduction in number of beds available. Many patient care programs also need to be closed down (Buerhaus et.al, 2007). Hospital’s response to nursing staff shortages Most of the hospitals have been implementing two types of solutions for nursing staff shortages – long term and short term solutions. Short-term solutions include increasing their salaries, increasing the bonuses of the nursing staff or filling the vacant positions with temporary staff (May, Bazzoli and Gerland, 2006). Long-term strategies of hospitals include creating favorable working environment and providing opportunities for them to enhance the ir skills (May, Bazzoli and Gerland, 2006). We will discuss both these strategies used by hospitals in greater detail in the ensuing sections. Short-term strategies These include using temporary staffing which involves recruiting nurses on a per day basis on short contracts. These also include using nurses on the move to cover a particular shift (May, Bazzoli and Gerland, 2006). The major problem with these types of recruiting solutions is that they turn out to be very expensive. It also encourages the normal staff to take up more assignments of this type rather than for the permanent job as the former pays better. Another problem with this kind of recruitment practice is the lack of staff quality. This kind of temporary staff cannot be relied for good service quality. Using â€Å"Internal staffing† or â€Å"float pool† is another way of fulfilling temporary staffing needs (May, Bazzoli and Gerland, 2006). Internal staffing solutions are less expensive than staffing th rough external agencies despite the fact that some premium needs to be paid even for recruitment through internal channels. However, this premium is far less than what needs to be paid to external agencies for recruitment. Spartanburg Regional Medical Centre in South Carolina has utilized internal staffing channel very effectively (May, Bazzoli and Gerland, 2006). They allow the internal nursing staff who wish to apply for vacant shifts (to increase their earnings) to apply online at bid rates that are set below the external agency rates but at a premium to the general rates prevailing within the hospital. This helps them to utilize staff that is willing to work extra without compromising on quality as they are all trained and tested employees. At the same time the hospital does not have to force the employees to work extra and then deal with repercussions of overstressed staff. Technology is used very effectively to create an online internet based platform where the employees can a pply and get immediate response. Another short term strategy for fulfilling temporary staffing is by providing higher salaries. This is done not only for the new workforce but also for all previous employees by providing competent increment at all current levels. This has a retaining impact in the short run as external employers may not immediately adjust their