Question

Analyze potential or actual innovative strategies to reduce nursing and non-nursing labor costs. Explain how you would use one potential and one actual strategy while maintaining quality care in your clinical practice setting.

Answer 1

The most expensive expenditure of the hospital is labor cost. Most of the labor cost is unnecessary due to heavy staffing, improper management, poor leadership, and many other factors. The administrator has to analyze the various credentials and staff data to create effective strategies in the reduction of nursing and non-nursing labor cost. One of the most important strategy is minimizing nurse turnover and improving nurses satisfaction. Increased nursing turnover leads to understaffing, increased compensation, challenges in meeting the demands. The ultimate reason for nursing turnover is dissatisfaction. Understaffing increases stress on nurses and over workload results in a turnover. A lot of turnover increases labor cost.

These can be rectified by increasing the efficiency of the workflow system. Nurses must be provided with enough time to make effective communication and well-rounded care. Make nurses spend time on the bedside to increase coordination of care Which improve the overall satisfaction of the patient and nurses. It reduces unnecessary wasting of time in carrying out of physician orders, spending equal time with every patient, avoiding repeated procedures, and thereby it reduces nurse fatigue, overtime of work. Thereby nurses satisfaction improves the quality of care in clinical practice.