The Power Of Strategic Healthcare Staffing Planning

As of the end of 2023, a huge 10.2% of all UK nursing posts remained unfilled. This is just one sobering statistic highlighting the reality of understaffing right across the NHS – affecting patient safety, speed of service and treatment and the wellbeing of healthcare team members.

To effectively tackle these chronically low staffing levels in healthcare, all care providers need to practise proper healthcare staffing planning – putting together high-quality healthcare workforce plans and seeking strong partnerships to reduce the risk of future understaffing heavily.

But what is involved in healthcare staffing planning of this kind? What exactly are its benefits, and what could be the risks if your organisation fails to implement one?

In this article, the healthcare staffing specialists at Cucumber will answer all of these questions and explore the most effective approach you may take to stave off costly staffing gaps within your facility, practice or team.

What is a strategic healthcare workforce plan?

A strategic healthcare workforce plan is a document – or a collection of documents – outlining the current staffing provision and the recruitment needs of your team.

It takes into account the ideal structure and range of specialisms that would represent a department at full strength and capacity, then reflects on areas that currently fall short, highlighting shortcomings and the resulting risks.

The plan should also contain a list of personnel, including stakeholders, members of the management team and the owners of the organisation in question, to improve the ease with which any future action may be communicated or requested.

Financial planning plays a key role in a document of this kind, too, with the planner creating an itinerary of all currently available resources, including funds. This enables their team to budget for new hires and other necessary expenditures related to staffing.

What should be included in a healthcare staffing plan?

The exact details that should be included in a staffing plan may vary between organisations. However, the key elements will almost invariably include:

• Information regarding the current workforce, including roles currently filled and specialisms for which there is sufficient provision
• Current staff turnover rate and data on how long it takes the organisation to fill a position, on average
• All immediate staff shortages – including the minimum and ideal number of new starters that would be required to achieve a full team and information about any training, qualifications or certificates that suitable candidates would be required to hold. It is best to list these in order of priority and urgency.
• An in-depth exploration of patient needs, areas in which you are aware that improvement is required and evidence for this
• An analysis of the current environment in which your team members are required to practice – with a focus on patient outcomes and staff wellbeing. This analysis should include details of the times when your department or facility is at its busiest and quietest and the level of staffing that corresponds with each.
• Information about the recruitment approaches presently employed by the organisation.
• Details of the budget and resources available for hiring
• Basic contact profiles of all relevant members of management, along with company owners, stakeholders and any other key decision-makers. This is to ensure that all individuals requiring communication regarding staffing – or who must be consulted on related decisions – can be kept “in the loop.”

Why strategic healthcare staffing planning will ensure compliance

Patient safety relies on proper staffing. Both the number of staff working at any one time and the skills and level of training held by each individual will make a significant difference to the level of risk.

The further your organisation is from optimal staffing numbers, the further you are from running a healthcare department that complies fully with regulations. This is why a healthcare compliance staffing plan should always form a part of your strategy.

To be entirely compliant, your team must include individuals with the correct skills, certificates and background checks. A healthcare compliance staff strategy will help you recognise potential gaps in these areas immediately and resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

How a healthcare staffing plan can help boost morale

Understaffing is one of the chief reasons behind low morale and high levels of stress within medical organisations.

Where there is insufficient personnel within a team – or where the available team members do not all hold suitable specialist qualifications – any shortfall or skills deficit must be absorbed and mitigated by additional work on the part of the individuals who are present and fully equipped.

This leads to overwork and burnout, which may result in mistakes, delays and other dangerous issues.

A well-developed staffing plan can enable an organisation to fill staffing gaps quickly with candidates who have full, relevant training, removing a great deal of pressure from other team members and managers.

Why a staffing plan will support a sustainable recruitment strategy

It is worth noting that healthcare staffing planning must be regularly revised. Depending on the nature of the organisation or department, this may need to be done quarterly, six-monthly, yearly or on a different chronological basis.

Undertaking a regular in-depth analysis of the current situation with staffing can help to prevent any issues from falling through the gaps. It can also help to maintain awareness of the resources available and serve as a reminder of the potential risks of understaffing.

It’s a good idea for your plan to include information about trusted healthcare staffing solutions that may connect short-staffed teams with their ideal candidates at extremely short notice. This means that any member of management examining the document(s) will be able to easily find a way to resolve any current staffing issues quickly and easily.

The risks of not having a strategic plan

If your healthcare organisation fails to implement a strong staffing strategy, you run the risk of:

• A significant drop in your patients’ quality of care
• Danger to patients’ wellbeing
• An increase in waiting times for diagnosis, prescriptions and procedures
• A higher chance of mistakes as processes are rushed
• More likelihood of legal action being taken against your company
• Heightened stress amongst your team or department and a major drop in staff morale
• Increased levels of sick leave
• Higher staff turnover – adding even greater pressure to colleagues tasked with staffing duties

Learn more

If you’d like to improve your healthcare assistant or nurse strategy easily and with minimal expense, contact the team at Cucumber Recruitment today.

We have a roster of more than 5000 highly trained healthcare specialists available across the UK. Our team provides training and manages background checks in-house to ensure that all of our clients receive the very best service every time.

Whether you’re looking for immediate healthcare staffing solutions or want to hear a little more about what we do, contact us today. We’ll be pleased to assist you.