Top 3 Healthcare Holiday Staffing Challenges You Can Solve

Top 3 Healthcare Holiday Staffing Challenges You Can Solve

Every healthcare professional feels the pressure as the holiday season approaches. While most people are dreaming of sugar plums and sparkly wrapping paper, those in management in the healthcare sector are wracking their brains to find answers to key questions they ask year after year:

• How can we keep up with the demand?

• How can we offer adequate time-off to as many employees as possible?

• How do we maintain employee satisfaction when there are such high demands on our time?

The issues we all see this time of year can be broken down into three basic challenges. And lucky for you, each of these challenges has a simple, cost-effective solution.

Challenge #1: Higher Demand for Services

There are a number of reasons why demand shoots upward this time of year. For one, it’s cold and flue season. For two, there’s a higher instance of injuries from ski and other winter sport accidents. If you’re located in a mountain state this is huge problem, while the warmer states may see an increase simply from an influx of visitors escaping the cold weather. Then, of course, many who have met their insurance deductibles are squeezing in procedures and appointments before the year is up. Put these three instances together, and you’re looking at a pretty significant upturn in healthcare visits while most of your employees are fighting to get time off. Which brings us to challenge number two.

Challenge #2: Everyone Wants Time Off

Everyone wants to spend time with family over the holidays. Holiday commercials are splattered with families gathered around the Christmas tree, cuddled up by the fire sipping cocoa, and ringing in the New Year together. We don’t see the reality of ER nurses and Urgent Care staff working overtime to ensure the health and safety of the community. It can be a demanding time, leaving management and HR to determine how to balance employee time-off with overtime.

Challenge #3: Increased Burnout

The first two challenges naturally lead to the third challenge: burnout. If management is too liberal with holiday vacation, employees working to make up the difference can find themselves stressed and exhausted. This affects their quality of life as well as the quality of care they can provide. 

The Solution

Likely all three of these holiday stressors are familiar to you, but don’t worry, there is a solution: you can let us carry the burden. Quality Care Options is an industry-leading, Joint Commission Certified healthcare staffing agency that is committed to providing clients with nursing staff, direct care workers and other highly well-qualified, trained and prepared healthcare professionals for every staffing situation. We can enable you to deal with the increased demand, offer more time-off to your dedicated employees, and decrease the burnout you experience this time of year.