Is Your Hospital Ready for an Expanded Nursing Workforce?

For years, the conversation in healthcare has been dominated by one major challenge: the nursing shortage. But recent reports, like one from the World Health Organization featured in Becker's Hospital Review, signal a coming shift towards a growing nursing workforce.

Since 2022, the post-pandemic nursing workforce has largely stabilized, paving the way for global growth to an estimated 36 million by 2030. This marks a significant turnaround after years of shortages. 

For healthcare leaders overall, this shift brings new challenges. A larger workforce doesn’t automatically solve staffing issues.

How will you effectively onboard, schedule, and retain these new nurses? Are your current systems built to handle growth, or are they already stretched thin? Preparing for this influx requires a strategic shift from reactive problem-solving to proactive workforce management.

The Challenge of a Growing Workforce

For hospitals, a larger talent pool offers significant advantages, but it also brings added complexity to daily operations. Without the proper infrastructure in place, an increase in staff can quickly escalate into administrative chaos. Schedulers, who may already dedicate hours each day to filling unexpected gaps, will be tasked with managing an even higher volume of requests, preferences, and last-minute changes.

Here are the key issues hospitals will face:

• Increased Administrative Burden: Managing schedules, leave requests, and shift swaps for a larger team can quickly become overwhelming. Manual processes that are barely working now will not scale.
• Skill Mix Imbalance: With the youngest nursing workforce hospitals have ever seen, units need the right blend of experienced nurses and new grads on every shift. Too much of either creates knowledge gaps and can affect patient care. 
• Retention Risks: Today’s nurses expect modern, flexible tools that respect their time. If your systems are outdated and frustrating, you risk losing valuable talent to organizations that offer a better employee experience.

Simply having more nurses available doesn't guarantee your shifts will be filled. The core problem often isn't the number of available staff, but the process used to manage them.

How Automation Prepares You for Growth

A future with increased available nursing staff means that intelligent automation will become essential. Instead of making plans to add more administrative team members to handle the load, you can implement systems that streamline the entire process. 

Andgo’s solutions are designed to bridge the gap between your master schedule and the real-world demands of a dynamic healthcare environment.

Think of Andgo as the intelligent layer that supports your growing team. It doesn’t actually replace your existing scheduling system. Rather, it enhances your system by automating the time-consuming tasks that follow once the schedule is published.

For example, when a shift opens up, Andgo’s Smart Call automatically identifies all eligible and qualified staff based on your organization's specific rules. It then reaches out to them instantly through their preferred communication method, whether it’s text, mobile app, or call. Nursing staff can view and accept shifts in seconds, and the system handles the entire workflow from notification to confirmation.

This transforms your shift-filling process from a manual, one-to-one effort into an efficient, automated workflow that can easily scale to accommodate a larger workforce.

Building a Future-Ready Staffing Strategy

Manually calling employees to fill shifts is not a sustainable model for growth. It drains valuable time from nurse managers and schedulers, pulling them away from patient care and strategic planning. 

With Andgo, you empower your team with tools built for the future in the following ways:

• Streamline Operations: Reduce the time it takes to fill a shift from over 30 minutes to just three. This frees up your scheduling team to manage a larger workforce without becoming overwhelmed.
• Enhance Employee Engagement: Give your nurses the flexibility and control they want. With self-service tools, they can easily view and bid on open shifts, manage their availability, and communicate with schedulers, all from their own devices.
• Improve Fairness and Transparency: Automation ensures that all shift opportunities are offered consistently and according to pre-set rules. This reduces perceptions of favoritism and has been shown to lower scheduling-related grievances by up to 80%.

While the nursing workforce is projected to grow, retention strategies will be critical to maintaining your current staff and attracting the best talent.   

Whether you're navigating a shortage or preparing for an expanding workforce, intelligent automation is the key to staying ahead. It streamlines operations, reduces administrative burden, and gives your team the tools they need to scale efficiently. The hospitals that invest in automation now won't just be ready for growth. They'll have a competitive advantage in managing and retaining their employees.

The global shortage of nurses is projected to decrease from 5.8 million in 2023 to 4.1 million by 2030. Embracing intelligent automation will allow you to build a resilient, efficient, and supportive environment that not only attracts new talent but also retains the experienced nurses you depend on.

Ready to prepare your hospital for the future of healthcare staffing? 

Download one of our case studies to see how hospitals like yours are filling shifts faster and ensuring fully staffed floors.