OR Manager August 2023 - 7

Staffing
of paid time off and the flexibility of
schedules as the top benefits that they
sought.
A desire for better work-life balance
plays out in the reality of early career
perioperative nurses who are unwilling
to " pay their dues " and take call
responsibility. This is a marked shift
from other generations such as Baby
Boomers, who took this responsibility
as part of the role of being a perioperative
nurse. The findings of the Incredible
Health survey tell us that nurses value
career advancement opportunities and
would consider leaving an employer if
these opportunities did not meet their
expectations.
Younger nurses, early in their career,
may quickly progress from BSN
level pre-licensure education to graduate
school and advanced practice roles.
The rapid growth in the numbers of
nurse practitioners (NPs) is testimony
to the career trajectories of nurses now
entering the profession, with the American
Association of Nurse Practitioners
(AANP) citing " more than 355,000 [NPs
now] licensed in the US. " Also according
to AANP, some 36,000 new NPs
reportedly completed their academic
programs between 2020 and 2021.
A rapidly expanding role for NPs is to
join a surgical practice and to function
as an assistant in surgery. This new
and rapid career trajectory subtracts
from the overall number of perioperative
nurses.
Where are the opportunities?
If necessity is truly " the mother of invention, "
then we are now blessed with
great prospects in devising new methods
for recruiting and retaining perioperative
nurses.
We have for decades followed a remarkably
familiar pattern. Perioperative
nurses were oriented to the profession
by their employer; usually in a hospital
setting, in a long resource intensive process
dependent on skilled, experienced
preceptors. This approach is currently
www.ormanager.com
not meeting all of our staffing needs.
Our greatest opportunity at present is
to try novel approaches to bring nurses
into the perioperative specialty. The
methods we have used for decades are
no longer sufficient, and we should be
open to new methods and partnerships.
ture. " That need is especially prominent
today in perioperative nursing. No one
entity has assumed responsibility for
gathering workforce data specific to the
specialty.
Nursing shortages
are cyclical and
many OR leaders
have been through
them before.
Programs under the Practice Transition
Accreditation Program®, for instance,
facilitate the transition to new
practice settings such as the OR. The
number of accredited programs has
grown rapidly; there are now 249 programs
in 886 healthcare sites, according
to the American Nurses Association.
These programs facilitate a hiring and
retention advantage; the investment
seems worthy of consideration.
A similar advantage may be possible
for facilities that can offer more flexibility
in scheduling. These examples
prioritize a more employee-centered relationship.
As Dean, in Becker's Hospital
Review, opines, facilities that can
transform their practices to meet the
needs and desires of the future nursing
workforce will have an advantage.
If we look back at the seminal Future
of Nursing Report published in 2011,
its " Key Message #4 " still resonates
today. As first stated in that report, " Effective
workforce planning and policy
making require better data collection
and an improved information infrastrucThere
are ample opportunities for
additional research on nursing workforce
issues. As stated earlier, the data
we now have come from a diversity of
sources to include private industry surveys.
The National Nursing Workforce
Survey is a rich source of data, but
there is a lack of data specific to the
perioperative nursing specialty. Other
current data that may be more detailed
is provided by a diversity of stakeholders
that include private industry sources
with an interest in nursing workforce
issues.
Research requires nurses educated
at the doctoral level, faculty with a perioperative
background, and more students
at our nursing schools. The American
nursing workforce is constrained
by the capacity of our nursing schools.
Continued faculty shortages do not
allow us to quickly add more graduate
nurses. There are opportunities for
experienced nurses to serve as faculty
and clinical instructors to increase capacity.
New partnerships such as collaborations
between hospitals and nursing
schools are also possible here.
Continued challenges
It may be easier for facilities to offer
higher wages than to restructure hiring
and scheduling processes to meet the
desires of younger nurses. Facilities
that can figure out how to offer more
flexibility may have a market advantage
in attracting early career nurses. However,
the OR has inherently less flexibility
in scheduling, which also contributes
to our recruiting issues.
Labor expenses will continue to rise.
As Evans notes in the Wall Street Journal,
facilities must offer more attractive
wages and benefits in this environment.
Nurses, especially those who can
travel, are very aware that they are in a
OR Manager | August 2023
7
http://www.ormanager.com
OR Manager August 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of OR Manager August 2023
