Exploring nurse workforce flexibility as a solution towards higher patient throughput and resilience
Author
Term
4. term
Publication year
2022
Submitted on
2022-06-30
Pages
43
Abstract
Purpose: The report seeks to explore if flexibility in operation theater nurses can create higher patient throughput and resilience Method: This is done qualitatively by interviewing both perioperative nurses and certified registered nurse anesthetists from four surgical specialisms to estimate procedures considered capable of using crosstrained nurses and which factors prohibit this Results: Factors such as procedure frequency, knowing the team, experience, and undefined skills impact which procedures can use cross-trained nurses. On average could, 48% of surgeries historically have used a cross-trained certified registered nurse anesthetist and 36% of surgeries with the crosstrained preoperative nurse, though the number varies significantly between surgical specialism Proposal: Considering the identified crosstraining factors, a road map is proposed. The road map contains four steps towards a more flexible workforce. These steps are 1) data foundation, 2) visualization of competencies and availability, 3) quality assurance on team composition, and 4) balancing competencies with procedural demands. Discussion: It is projected that the proposal can improve patient throughput and resilience, but this is only considered feasible if ICT can be integrated due to an increase in organizational complexity.
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