Questions concerning facility needs, staff shift demands, compensation access, and other challenges occur as healthcare delivery models expand, and digital platforms are striving to integrate this highly complex combination of patient, professional, and institutional requirements.
For the J.P. Morgan Chase “Tech Voices” Series, Clipboard Health CEO and Founder Wei Deng explained the challenges, as a nursing shortage, rampant burnout, and seismic changes in the healthcare sector create a delicate balancing act for everyone involved.
Deng recognized that the pandemic brought these concerns to light, but stated that “there has always been this issue, for decades” with nurses of varying ability and certification levels desiring more responsibility over shifts. It is presently aggravated by changes in labor requirements
COVID-19 upended the long-standing practice of hospitals and facilities using staffing agencies, creating a market opportunity for new methods of acquiring and retaining people. This creates new issues.
The two forces are inherently antagonistic. Facilities want to use their own nurses to cover shifts as needed, but post-COVID nursing patients prefer scheduling and budgetary flexibility.
Deng responded, “The fast answer is yes and no,” when asked if nurses want full-time work. Nurses and other healthcare workers want enough work to support themselves, but “they don’t necessarily want people telling them what hours to work.”
Platforms like Clipboard Health are concentrating their innovation efforts on closing this gap.
“We’re developing tools to help them not only supplement their staff with outside help, but also retain and hire full-time employees.” Deng stated, “A lot of facilities have expressed interest in that.”
