Too often, the first sign of an unhappy clinical staff is a resignation letter. Understanding the issues that cause lingering dissatisfaction can vastly help with clinician retention, but innovation and more involvement on the part of management are also critical.
In a recent episode of the MGMA Member Spotlight Podcast, host Daniel Williams spoke with Blake Hendrickson, MBA, FACMPE, PhD. Blake is an Assistant Professor at Tennessee’s Austin Peay State University, where he serves as the Program Director of the MHA Program.
Hendrickson shares his career journey in healthcare, from working in urgent care to consulting to becoming a professor. He discusses his research on nursing retention and patient satisfaction and offers insights on improving retention through empowering clinicians and embracing technology.
Eighty Percent of Your Staff Want to Leave
Hendrickson went back to school at 51, recognizing he probably needed a break from an overly busy healthcare consulting career to get his Ph.D – which he managed to complete on weekends, while still working his regular job.
One of his academic research projects highlighted a critical shortfall in modern healthcare: more than 80 percent of the RNs interviewed said they intended to leave their current organization in the next 18 months.
““I wanted to know what would keep them here, what would the employer need to provide them with for them to not consider leaving? The study involved RNs, LPNs, medical assistants, CNAs, anybody who is a clinician,” he explains.
“I sent out a few flyers to hospitals and medical groups that I knew real well. They’d put it up in their break room, and it went wild. We ended up talking to almost 500 people.”
Pay and Paperwork Emerge as Major Issues
Hendrickson says the results were perhaps not so surprising, as he drilled down on the issues behind healthcare employees’ dissatisfaction.
“The major issue was that they didn’t think they were being paid enough, especially in their market. Too much workload was not necessarily at the top, and retirement was a very small issue, because the survey had a lot of people who were 45 years old.”
Many highly trained and specialized staff also told Hendrickson that they still spend a vast amount of time bogged down by paperwork, even with the broad acceptance of EHR systems in most healthcare workplaces. That, he says, calls for an easy fix.
“The bottom line is to make sure that those employees are operating at the top of what they’ve actually been trained for. And yet most of them, about 62 percent, said they were doing the same or more work since the rollout of EHRs. So, they need to be pulled off of that and hire somebody who can do it.”
Innovation and Education are Important
Hendrickson says addressing clinicians’ issues also requires more innovation on the part of healthcare CEOs, whether that be better integration of telehealth or balancing the level of patient care that’s being gradually handed off to nursing staff. CEOs and practice administrators also need to be better kept up to date on what’s happening in healthcare
“There’s a big trend now with government insurance that we talk about patient safety and preventative measures, and a nurse is more likely to do that than the doctor, according to our study.”
Other respondents said they missed the family atmosphere once found in healthcare organizations where physicians were largely the leaders. With a revolving door of C-suite leaders that many have never met, Hendrickson says many clinicians he spoke to said it was harder to talk to anyone about organizational problems.
Higher Patient Expectations
Since the shortages and difficulties of care during COVID-19, Hendrickson says patients have much higher expectations for their providers, especially in terms of wait times.
“They do expect a doctor or a PA to come into their treatment room within seven minutes. That’s the goal. That’s tough, too, but it also helps physicians increase volume. Also, patient satisfaction did not necessarily equate with seeing an MD. If there was a situation where a nurse practitioner could get there quicker, that’s what we have to do. We have to be quick to respond.”
Cultivating Better Leadership
Hendrickson cites his own later-in-life education as something that could help any healthcare leader boost their own skills, and become more flexible in addressing the needs of staff.
“If I’m a CEO or a practice administrator, I would search for ways to help. It depends on the physician, whether you give them advanced articles or maybe education opportunities to keep them in the loop. Start communicating with them: ‘We sure want to make sure you stay with us and that you’re happy here, so we’d like to help refine your leadership skills for the future.’ Communication is key.”
Resources:
- Connect with Dr. Blake Hendrickson on LinkedIn
- Austin Peay State University Master of Healthcare Administration program page
- FACMPE Program: Learn More
