To address nurse burnout, a little tech help can go a long way

The statistics on nurse burnout in healthcare are stark. A late 2023 survey from the American Nurses Foundation found 64% of nurses feel “a great deal of stress,” 56% experience burnout, and 40% say their day-to-day workload is intense.

Numerous factors drive burnout, from inefficient EHR systems to the documentation demands of value-based care to the anxiety of practicing through the pandemic. Similarly, numerous solutions has been proposed, including mentorship programs and a compassionate approach to leadership. Increasingly, evidence suggests pragmatic adoption of technology may be able to help.

A small study from the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine found clinicians using a smartphone application designed to build resilience reported lower “emotional exhaustion” and improved mindfulness over a 12-week period. “We hope that our study encourages a greater use of experimental design in evaluating interventions to reduce burnout among a multidisciplinary population,” the authors concluded.

One such experiment is taking place in the Sunshine State. The Florida Center for Nursing at the University of South Florida launched a pilot to deliver short videos to nurses via text messages, once a week for six months, to provide strategies to support well-being. Program leaders will assess participants’ satisfaction with the program, along with the effectiveness of the messages. The program hopes to reduce burnout and nurse attrition, as the state is projected to face a shortage of nearly 60,000 nurses within a decade.

Beyond using technology to build resilience, organizations can also consider how tech helps managers better support nursing teams through their day-to-day work.

A recent report from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), sponsored by Laudio Insights, outlined how automating administrative tasks such as filling out timesheets and documenting certification updates can save nurse managers time and give them a more complete picture of nurse performance. Accomplishing this requires coordination between HR and IT departments, along with the integration of disparate systems for timekeeping, scheduling, and clinical documentation.

Though this can pose a challenge, bringing these workflows and data sources together reduces the “hunting and pecking” that nurse managers often do to find the information they need, said Joel Ray, chief clinical advisor at Laudio. This proves beneficial to managers in three key scenarios.

• Annual reviews. Nurse managers must evaluate and meet with dozens of direct reports in a short timeframe. The right technology can auto-populate many fields of the review, from attendance to quality scores to peer feedback. Managers can focus more attention on qualitative evaluations. “That’s a great place for technology to support front-line managers by pulling data, providing clarity, and enabling concrete communication,” Ray said.
• Check-ins. AONL found an average of just one “purposeful interaction” between nurses and their managers per month increased the likelihood of retention by 68%. The ability for managers to quickly see how a nurse is doing – whether it’s frequently clocking out late or taking on additional responsibility – is what makes check-ins purposeful, Ray said. “This not only brings it to the manager’s attention. It also allows the conversation to happen.”
• Recognition. Retention is further boosted when nurse managers offer meaningful recognition of personal and professional achievements, AONL noted. Here, the longitudinal view of direct reports’ files helps managers mention milestones, whether privately or in a team setting. “If an automated birthday card gets emailed to you, but your manager forgets to say something,” Ray said, “then there’s nothing authentic about the interaction.”