Artikel
Tomorrow’s vital workforce in the German-Dutch cross-border region: how hospitals deal with the shortage of nurses?
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Autoren
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Helge Schnack
- Division for Organizational Health Services Research, Department of Health Services Research, School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
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Astrid Tuinman
- Division for Nursing Science and Education, Department of Health Science, Faculty of Medical Science, University Medical Centre from the University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Sandra Brouwer
- Professorship in Community and Occupational Medicine, Department of Health Science, Faculty of Medical Science, University Medical Centre from the University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Evelyn Finnema
- Professorship in Nursing Science and Education, Department of Health Science, Faculty of Medical Science, University Medical Centre from the University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
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Lena Ansmann
- Professorship in Medical Sociology, Institute of Medical Sociology, Health Services Research and Rehabilitation Science, University of Cologne, Köln, Germany
| Veröffentlicht: | 2. Oktober 2023 |
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Gliederung
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Background: In many countries, hospitals and patient care have been affected by nurse shortages even before the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also the case for hospitals in Germany and the Netherlands as neighboring countries. Due to nurse shortages, patients on both sides of the German-Dutch border are confronted with longer waiting times and hospital staff experiences high workloads and stress. At the same time, competition for nurses between hospitals is high, and hospitals are looking for measures to attract and retain nurses. So far, no studies have compared nurse shortages and efforts to attract nurses in German and Dutch hospitals.
Research aim and question: In this context, the study examines how hospitals in the Northern German-Dutch border region deal with nurse shortages. The aim is to assess the current state of nurse shortages in hospitals in the area and identify strategies to better deal with them. As a theoretical framework, the resource dependency theory is used.
Method: In a sequential mixed-methods design, (n=55) key informants (e.g., nursing directors or human resources managers) from hospitals in the Northern German-Dutch border region are surveyed by questionnaire and interviewed qualitatively in the period from April to August 2023. The data will be analyzed descriptively via content analysis, and joint displays will be used to integrate qualitative and quantitative results. The quantitative results and preliminary results of the qualitative analysis will be presented at the conference.
(Expected) Results: The hospitals in the study are expected to be under tremendous pressure to find and retain nurses. Likewise, this is assumed to affect patient care and the working situation of nurses and presents organizational and financial challenges to the hospital management. Differences are expected to result from the size and location of hospitals. Therefore, small as well as rural hospitals will have greater difficulties in finding nurses (compared to large urban hospitals). It is expected that hospitals offer a wide range of measures to address nurse shortages such as recruiting nurses from abroad, recruiting through personal contacts, or the use of temporary agency nurses to cover short-term staff shortages.
Discussion: Considering the resource dependency theory, nurse shortages will result in uncertainties for hospitals. To minimize these uncertainties, hospitals diversify their recruitment and retention measures.
Practical implication: The study intends to share best practices for decision-makers from German and Dutch hospitals on how to deal with the nurse shortage in an employee-centered way.
Funding: Individual funding (BMG, DRV, BMBF, DFG, etc); ZN383
