THE GREAT RESIGNATION: MITIGATE WITH CONTINUING EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

THE GREAT RESIGNATION:

MITIGATE WITH CONTINUING EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

Cate Brennan, MBA, CAE, Chief Executive Officer of AVA

THE GREAT RESIGNATION, COUPLED WITH STAFFING DISRUPTIONS CAUSED BY COVID-19 SICK DAYS AND PRE-PANDEMIC SHORTAGES,

Continue to surge through healthcare systems and every type of health care setting and profession. The impact on patients across the continuum of care is significant. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the overall healthcare workforce is down 2.7 percent from February 2020.

The impact on patients across the Nursing homes and other “beyond acute care” settings have been hit the hardest. The hospital workforce is down 1.8 percent from February 2020. The current conditions in hospital systems could be called The Big Shift because lower-skilled healthcare workers are moving from traditionally low-wage jobs to new job categories that can offer better career growth and salaries. These transformations are good for the individuals but leave yet another gap to fill. Healthcare leaders also are contending with growing gaps for specialists, like vascular access specialists. It’s an understatement to say staff recruitment and retention is stressed.

According to a 2021 Nursing Solutions Inc. National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN is $40,038. The turnover rate for staff RNs was 18.7 percent in 2020, a 2.8 percent increase from 2019. Also in 2020, the average turnover rate for an APRN was 8.9 percent, PA was 9.2 percent, respiratory therapist was 18.6 percent, radiologic technologist was 18.8 percent and certified nursing assistant was 27.5 percent. The Association for Vascular Access (AVA) is concerned with the turnover rates because it delivers specialty continuing education, and other member benefits, to all of these providers, in addition to physicians and infection prevention specialists. AVA is a non-profit multi-disciplinary professional society.

So how do the chief administrators and leaders at hospitals, nursing homes and health systems combat these cemented trends to improve provider retention and satisfaction? There is no single answer because it all depends on local conditions. But experts agree that parts of the retention matrix are improved working conditions, higher wages, financial support for improving skills and knowledge, and a commitment to team-based and patientcentered care.

VASCULAR ACCESS IS THE MOST COMMON INVASIVE PROCEDURE PERFORMED IN HEALTHCARE, WITH MORE THAN 380 MILLION PLACEMENTS OF PERIPHERAL INTRAVENOUS CATHETERS (PIVCS) PLACED IN PATIENTS ANNUALLY IN THE US.

But how many providers are learning vascular access and other procedures from non-experts? What is the cost to a new provider’s confidence and a patient’s safety and satisfaction? What is the cost to the healthcare system in staff retention and satisfaction?1

Like other professional societies, AVA can help chief administrators and clinical educators provide expert, research-based continuing education that will improve the skills and knowledge of providers. Effective, targeted CE can have an immediate impact on the staff retention matrix and hospital quality measures. But to do this, healthcare systems must reverse the decades-long steady decline of financial support for continuing education and professional memberships that benefit the staff provider. Most providers want choices in their continuing education, choices that directly benefit them and fill their knowledge gaps.

Continuing education is more than an employer-provided online course or virtual webinar, though there is certainly a place for those platforms. CE is also the peer-based community that membership provides. This irreplaceable community provides needed context and ongoing support long after the CE is completed. In almost all cases, the cost of a professional membership more than pays for itself in free CEs. The benefit to the hospital or healthcare system includes improved provider satisfaction because they have a choice in their CE and a support system. This is true of AVA and our other non-profit colleagues like APIC, AANP, AARC, ASRT, AMT and NAHCA, to name a few.

The retirement trend is impacting vascular access teams, and there is a growing gap of VA specialists in the workforce. To address this growing shortage, AVA developed and offers its Fundamentals of Peripheral Intravenous Vascular Access™, a free 3-course curriculum to pre-licensure nursing, medical and allied health academic programs. The goal of the curriculum is to prepare new providers and make them competent and confident at the start of their career. A shorter Fundamentals course for practicing providers will be released in late 2022.

Provider competency in vascular access is critical, given its status as the most common invasive procedure healthcare. ACE by AVA is an innovative education, skills development and competency verification method. Its goal is to provide improved training and competency that may result in higher provider satisfaction and retention, and improved patient satisfaction and outcomes. AVA Academy has more than 100 on-demand CE courses and holds monthly live CE events, which are free to members. The AVA Annual Scientific Meeting provides both face-to-face and virtual learning.

While the Magnet Recognition Program® specifically pertains to nursing, the fourth component of New Knowledge, Innovation & Improvements applies to continuing education. It states, “Strong leadership, empowered professionals, and exemplary practice are essential building blocks for Magnet-recognized organizations, but they are not the final goals. Magnet organizations have an ethical and professional responsibility to contribute to patient care, the organization, and the profession in terms of new knowledge, innovations, and improvements. Our current systems and practices need to be redesigned and redefined if we are to be successful in the future. This Component includes new models of care, application of existing evidence, new evidence, and visible contributions to the science of nursing.”

There are many areas for improvement and progress in the US healthcare system. When the system supports its providers’ desire for self-directed continuing education and a supportive peer community, the likely result will be improved provider satisfaction and retention.

Cate Brennan joined AVA in January 2021 at its CEO. She has more than 20 years experience of successfully leading non-profit healthcare organizations and additional years with national and international professional and trade non-profit organizations. She specializes in developing strategies to deliver high-impact, results-driven member programs and services. Her interests include U.S. public policy and advocacy, strategic planning and execution, and delivering great results.

1 Tripathi S, Gladfelter T. Peripheral intravenous catheters in hospitalized patients: Practice, Dwell times, and factors impacting the dwell times: A single center retrospective study. J Vasc Access. 2021 Mar 30:11297298211000874. doi: 10.1177/11297298211000874. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33784876.