When running a private health business, you will likely spend a huge amount of time ensuring that the patient experience at your practice is as good as it can be. This focus is, of course, essential, but there is another experience worth considering, too: the experience of your staff.
Focusing on the staff experience may sound a little strange given that, culturally at least, medical staff always seem to be rushed, overloaded, and busy. In fact, medical and nursing students are warned that they should expect a never-ending to-do list, little sleep, and a skewed work-life balance for, at the very least, the early years of their career. As a result, improving the staff experience can seem a little unnecessary; medicine will never be easy, so perhaps it’s best just to do what you can and hope your staff can handle the task.
However, the approach mentioned above may be fairly common, but it’s far from ideal. If you want to ensure that you can retain the best staff for your practice, it may well be worth improving the staff experience by introducing the following ideas…
No. 1 Schedule rotas as far in advance as possible.
Most medical staff will be aware that their schedules are subject to change, but you can remove some of this discomfiting uncertainty by scheduling your rotas as far in advance as you possibly can. Even if you later have to make changes, the advance notice will help staff to better manage both their working hours and their home life, which should help to ensure a beneficial work-life balance.
No. 2 Encourage your staff to learn, and use, time management techniques.
Time management is crucial for all medical staff, but proper techniques in this regard can often be forgotten due to the sheer volume of other information staff need to retain during their working day. As a result, regularly reminding staff of valuable time management techniques can be a helpful refresher that encourages the use of such methods, helping staff to lower workday stress and ensure their time is used effectively.
No. 3 Reduce reliance on static locations.
If staff are constantly having to move between different static locations of your practice – from patient to pharmacy, then to another patient, then back to the pharmacy, and so on… valuable time is being lost. For staff who are already busy, this loss of time can be hugely frustrating.
Thankfully, there are a number of innovations that allow for a far more flexible working pattern. Computer workstations can help to ensure that doctors are able to access records without retreating to a centralized point, while products such as a medicine cart can help to prevent nurses needing to repeat trips to and from a pharmacy or supply room. By using this kind of product, staff will be able to enjoy a more flexible way of working, while also facilitating quick, efficient procedures that help staff to feel calm and in control throughout the day.
While the very nature of the work will always challenge your staff, you can significantly ease their experience by considering introducing the ideas above to your business.
Photo by NORTHFOLK
Milo Senalle
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