Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

22 NURSING SPOTLIGHT 3 years of flexible nurse schedules — how it's going at Bon Secours Hampton Roads By Mariah Taylor B on Secours Hampton Roads (Va.) market has embraced flexible nursing with autonomous scheduling and float shis between hospitals for years. e system's prioritization of flexibility has helped keep nurses in the system and reduced the need for agency nurses. ACE Bon Secours Hampton Roads has built a strong pipeline of new nurses through its Accelerated Clinical Experience program, which supports newly graduated nurses through their first year on the job and comes directly aer the nurse residency program. e ACE program helps new nurses gain confidence in general skills while improving their specialized learning, Leanne Shelton, BSN, director of nursing practice at Bon Secours Hampton Roads, told Becker's. ACE nurses meet with leadership on a regular basis to discuss what they need and what areas they struggle with. e nurses then get additional training in those areas. In three years, only one nurse opted not to stay with the system. Float schedules Like many hospitals, Bon Secours Hampton Road allows for float schedules. But unlike other systems, these staff members — who act like internal travelers — are regular, full-time employees with no contracts. Float schedules are set up on a tiered basis. In tier one, nurses can float between units at a single facility. In tier two, the nurses can float between hospitals within the market. And tier three nurses can float between any of Bon Secour Mercy Health's 49 hospitals, Robin Baldauf, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer at Bon Secours Hampton Roads, told Becker's. e program allows any nurse with at least one to two years of experience to participate, starting in tier one and moving up as they gain more experience. Autonomous scheduling For three years, the system has offered completely autonomous scheduling. Nurses approve their own time cards and schedules, and they can switch schedules without involving a manager. "If you don't want to work 12-hour shis on a nursing unit, we have opportunities and shared services where nurses could work an eight- hour shis or only weekends or maybe only early morning shis," Ms. Baldauf said. e schedules are overseen by a staffing optimization center. e schedulers, who work from home, create new schedules every month. For a two-week period, nurses sign up for the shis they want. e schedulers then take those shis and overlay them with the float nurses from tiers three, then two, then one. en, working with managers in each unit, they balance the schedules to ensure there is a mix of new and experienced nurses in each unit and that staffing levels are met. Any remaining shis are sent out for nurses who would like to pick up additional work. e final schedule is completed a month before the start date. "is reduces open shis that we need to pay overtime and incentive on," Ms. Baldauf said. "It reduces agency and a lot of times replaces agency." n Nursing doesn't look so glamorous on TikTok, GenZ is noticing By Ashleigh Hollowell N ot only does the nursing profession have a shortage, but according to Gen Z social media users, the career path also has an image problem, a June 4 report from ShiftKey, a digital healthcare platform for providers, found. Around 1,000 healthcare workforce hopefuls were surveyed for the report, who are between the ages of 18 and 26. A majority — 66% — said they use TikTok for information about career research, and another 16% say it is the most influential platform to find work information on. Given that, when it comes to nursing, an analysis of 749,000 nursing career-released posts on TikTok, ShiftKey found 64% to be negative while only 36% of posts spoke positively of or highlighted benefits of the nursing profession. "If the perception of nursing on these platforms doesn't change, the number of new nursing students will continue to decline," Mike Vitek, CEO of ShiftKey said of its analysis. "Nursing has a branding problem, and it's clear from our survey results that giving young people a realistic view — both the good and the bad — of this profession on social media is what will attract them to enter the healthcare field." Gen Zers who have opted not to go into nursing noted they recall "being fed negative social media content at a higher rate than those who did — including issues with patients (50% vs. 44%) and mental health issues from working in the field (45% vs. 39%)," according to the news release. Of those who are interested in going into nursing — despite the career field's woes as seen on TikTok — 91% reported it is because they want to make a difference in people's lives. Gen Zers who do want to go into nursing are 12% more likely to have a family member in the field, and if they do, their career choice is often heavily influenced by that family member more than it is by TikTok, the study found. n

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