The United States could soon be looking at a shortage of 200,000 to 450,000 nurses, according to McKinsey research. Adjusting how nurses spend their time has the potential to improve work experiences and narrow the workforce gap, note senior partner Gretchen Berlin and coauthors. For example, nurses we surveyed say that they want to spend more time caring for patients and coaching peers—and less time on documentation and support activities.
Image description:
A horizontal bar chart is split into 2 segments, with each representing 100% of a registered nurse’s time. The top segment displays the areas where nurses desire more time: direct patient care, growth and development, breaks, and RN-to-RN teaching. The bottom segment displays areas where nurses would like to reduce time: charting, hunting or gathering, support activities, and a category termed “other.”
Footnote 1: The activities listed are those with a delta greater or less than 10 minutes between current and ideal time allocation.
Footnote 2: The “other” category includes communicating with providers and nurse-to-nurse handoff.
End of image description.
To read the article, see “Reimagining the nursing workload: Finding time to close the workforce gap,” May 26, 2023.