3 Ways to Avoid Nurse Layoffs at Your Facility

Workforce reductions in healthcare facilities often involve support staff and administrators, while nurses who provide direct patient care are spared. However, nursing positions may also be eliminated, especially when a hospital or facility is experiencing acute financial strain.

Are there ways to avoid nurse layoffs at your facility? Let’s go over three strategies that may help facility leaders and nurse managers prevent downsizing of their nursing teams.

The Prevalence of Nursing Layoffs

Significant workforce reduction efforts have occurred at multiple hospitals and healthcare systems across the U.S. in recent years, making some nurses and healthcare leaders wonder if their facility will be next. Even organizations like the University of Vermont Health Network (Burlington, Vt.), MetroHealth (Cleveland, Oh.), and Sharp Healthcare (San Diego, Ca.) have reduced their workforce with layoffs.

These are just a few examples of facilities containing operations costs via layoffs. For some organizations, the cutbacks affect nonclinical roles such as researchers, educators, and administrative support personnel. However, recent nationwide nurse layoffs have proved that bedside nurses are not immune.

Common Factors That Lead to Nursing Staff Layoffs

Unfortunately, sometimes layoffs in the healthcare sector are difficult to avoid. Economic trends, government policies, and changing reimbursement rates impact healthcare facilities and can trigger consequences. Some common reasons organizations may terminate healthcare employees include financial constraints and reduced patient volumes.

Nursing roles, specifically, may be vulnerable to layoffs if:

• A facility plans to consolidate units.
• A change in a facility’s business strategy affects nursing staff’s workflow. (For example, a facility may cease to offer joint replacement rehabilitation.)
• A facility’s budget becomes unsustainable and multiple nonclinical positions have already been cut.
• A facility merges with a healthcare system that has a history of high nurse-to-patient ratios.

3 Strategies for Avoiding Nursing Staff Layoffs Within Your Healthcare Organization

The nursing shortage already affects many hospitals and clinics, and is predicted to continue. The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) predicts a 10% shortage of RNs and a 20% shortage of LPNs by 2027. How does the shortage fit in with nationwide nurse layoffs? Taken together, the trends in nurse staffing highlight threats to patient outcomes and the financial stability of institutions. Let’s discuss the ways you can use knowledge of these trends to avoid nursing team downsizing at your facility.

1. Discern the Relationship Between Staffing Ratios and Patient Care

It’s crucial that you know exactly how reduced nurse staffing can affect patient outcomes within your type of care environment, whether that’s an emergency department, outpatient clinic, or long-term care facility. Understanding these pain points will help you make informed contributions to leadership-level debates regarding your facility’s business strategy.

While downsizing bedside nurses may seem like a quick fix to budgetary concerns, it comes with a cost. Understaffing can lead to increases in patient-related complications and errors, leading to surges in operational spending. For example, one study of 87 acute-care hospitals in Illinois found that if the hospitals used improved nurse-to-patient ratios, nearly 1,600 deaths could have been avoided and the hospitals could have collectively saved over $117 million in excess care costs.

2. Stay Informed About Healthcare Legislation and Policies

It’s important to stay abreast of changes in legislation and policies, which can impact your facility in complex ways. This will help you advocate for healthcare policies that support patient safety and nurse wellbeing.

The way that you influence policy will be unique, determined mainly by your strengths and leadership style. Whether it’s through public speaking, joining a nursing organization, or simply modeling responsibility, your experience in healthcare makes you a powerful agent for federal- and state-level changes that impact your staff.

3. Facilitate Cross-Departmental Collaboration

Despite your efforts to influence facility policies and the healthcare system on a broader scale to protect your staff, you still may be faced with reducing the number of full-time nursing positions on your unit. If this happens at your hospital, nurse layoffs may be avoided if you have a contingency plan for reallocating nursing staff to a different area of the hospital.

Network with other nursing leaders in your healthcare system to gain awareness of the staffing needs across departments. Nurses in positions vulnerable to layoffs may already possess the core competencies required to fulfill nursing jobs within the organization, and an inter-facility transfer would offer an opportunity for career growth. Notice about layoffs can happen quickly, so it may be a good idea to open this dialogue when you first spot red flags that cuts are on the horizon.

Get More Healthcare Leadership Insights

Nationwide nurse layoffs are concerning. As a leader in your facility, you may be in a position to protect your staff nurses. We understand that your position comes with a lot of responsibility, and we’re here to support you with our latest healthcare insights and guides.