Nurse offers solutions for addressing nursing shortage

Team-based nursing should be utilized to combat the nursing shortage, according to Nat’e Guyton, MSN, RN, an advisor to Emeritus Healthcare, a workforce development solutions company. “With widespread adoption, systems could bring in more specialists to join a care team, adding bandwidth and building a bench for the future,” she wrote. She urged health care leaders to create career paths enabling specialists to build additional skill sets with appropriate compensation. Guyton also encouraged health care leaders to permit nurses to select 4-, 8-, or 12-hour shifts that fit their family commitments and make on-site wellness coaches available. Nurses also should be included in the discussion, design and integration of technology that can aid them in delivering care, she said. As U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations rise, hospitals nationwide are struggling to hire and retain enough nurses, according to a New York Times article. (MedPage Today opinion, 7/17/22)