On September 17, 2024, healthcare professionals from across the country tuned in to McKnight’s webinar, Rethinking the workforce model to prevent burnout, featuring ShiftKey CRO Brandon Tappan. The session highlighted the urgent need for healthcare organizations to address the burnout epidemic and introduced practical strategies for rethinking workforce management.
The state of burnout in healthcare
Tappan began by framing the crisis: over 600,000 nurses plan to leave the workforce by 2027 due to burnout, stress and retirement. This alarming figure underscores the ongoing struggle of healthcare professionals as they face emotionally exhausting work environments and the continuing pressure of workforce shortages.
The statistics are sobering. With around one-fifth of registered nurses expected to leave their positions by 2027, more than 193,000 new nurses need to be trained and hired annually to fill the gap. Tappan emphasized that this issue is not just a workforce challenge, but a threat to patient care outcomes as well.
The cost of burnout to healthcare organizations
Burnout doesn’t only impact individual workers — it creates a significant financial burden for healthcare facilities. High turnover, frequent call-offs and decreased care quality are direct results of burnout. ShiftKey’s 2024 Empowered Workforce Survey found that 34% of healthcare workers left the profession, with 28% leaving the workforce altogether due to overwhelming stress.
This turnover directly translates into higher costs for recruiting, hiring and training, along with other indirect costs like reduced census and operational inefficiencies. Addressing burnout is not only a moral imperative, but a financial necessity for the healthcare sector, Tappan reiterated.
Three dimensions of burnout
To fully grasp burnout, Tappan walked through three key dimensions:
1. Emotional exhaustion: Prolonged exposure to suffering and trauma leaves healthcare workers emotionally drained. Nearly 95% of workers say that people outside the profession don’t understand their emotional challenges.
2. Depersonalization: Over time, healthcare workers may start viewing patients as tasks rather than individuals. This detachment, while a defense mechanism, further exacerbates burnout.
3. Reduced personal accomplishment: Feeling ineffective despite their efforts, many healthcare workers struggle with a lack of recognition. Constantly striving to meet high demands, they often feel inadequate.
Understanding these dimensions is essential to crafting solutions that address the root causes of burnout.
The solution: A dynamic workforce model
Tappan introduced the concept of a “dynamic workforce model” as a solution to burnout. This model hinges on three core components: flexible scheduling, the use of on-demand professionals and embracing the total workforce, from full-time employees to independent professionals.
1. Flexible scheduling: Shifting away from rigid, 12-hour shifts to more adaptable schedules gives workers the flexibility they need to manage their personal lives. Offering part-time, PRN (as-needed) shifts and staggered schedules can make a significant impact on work-life balance.
2. On-demand workforce: Technology now allows healthcare organizations to access licensed professionals on-demand, filling in for last-minute absences or surges in patient needs. Tappan emphasized that leveraging this resource allows facilities to scale their workforce based on real-time demands without overburdening full-time employees.
3. Embrace the entire workforce: Tappan called for facilities to rethink their workforce as an integrated unit, one that includes full-time, part-time and independent professionals. This approach prevents overworking any one group and ensures smooth operations during workforce shortages and peak times.
The role of technology and social media
Tappan underscored the importance of technology in creating a flexible, dynamic workforce. This increased flexibility boosts employee engagement and ultimately enhances patient care outcomes.
Additionally, social media is a powerful tool for attracting and retaining healthcare talent. According to ShiftKey’s Gen Z and the Future of Nursing survey, 66% of Gen Z nurses use platforms like TikTok for career research. An analysis of nursing-related content on TikTok, conducted from November 2023 to May 2024, found approximately 749,000 posts. Of these, 64% of the content portrayed the nursing profession negatively, while only 36% was positive.
The skewed ratio can significantly shape career perceptions. TikTok’s algorithm favors high-engagement posts, so emotionally charged content like burnout and workforce shortages are more likely to trend. As a result, these narratives can overshadow positive stories, potentially deterring candidates. In fact, 43% of Gen Z healthcare candidates reported feeling shocked by the content they encountered, 25% felt scared, and 23% felt confused, creating a disconnect between the profession’s realities and what aspiring nurses hope to find.
Tappan encouraged healthcare organizations to showcase success stories and the flexibility they offer via social media channels to build their brand and appeal to the next generation of healthcare workers.
Conclusion: Building a resilient workforce
To wrap up, Tappan left the audience with a key takeaway: rethinking workforce management is about building a sustainable future for healthcare. By focusing on flexibility, accessing on-demand talent and integrating the entire workforce into one cohesive strategy, healthcare organizations can reduce turnover, improve care outcomes and ensure long-term success.
In an era where burnout threatens the core of the healthcare workforce, the strategies shared in this webinar offer a hopeful path forward — one that emphasizes employee well-being, flexibility and the power of technology to create a more resilient, engaged team.
ShiftKey and OnShift empower healthcare facilities with scheduling flexibility and access to a marketplace of licensed professionals, ensuring a workforce safety net and reduced burnout. OnShift offers control through scheduling tools that streamline shift management, while ShiftKey provides access to a vast marketplace of independent professionals ready to fill in gaps. Together, they help facilities maintain optimal workforce levels, improve employee work-life balance and deliver high-quality patient care.
If you want to learn more, register to watch the full webinar. To find out more about how you can build a dynamic workforce at your facility, try a demo today.
