Nurse turnover doubles since the pandemic and half report feelings of burnout
As patient volumes return to pre-pandemic levels, nurse turnover has doubled and half report feelings of burnout, according to a new report from Vizient, Inc. and Vaya Workforce. In addition, researchers found that while contract labor utilization continues to surge, the amount of time nurses are able to spend with patients dropped earlier this year to its lowest level since before the pandemic.
Employment data spanning April 2019-June 2022 from the Vizient Operational Data Base (ODB), which contains data from 650 healthcare facilities representing over 164,000 nurses show a 20% increase in nurse overtime hours. The ODB also shows overtime doubling during that same period from approximately 4% to 8% for licensed nursing staff. Taken together with a 2022 benchmark from Safe and Reliable Healthcare of more than 26,000 nurses finding 50% have feelings of burnout, the report serves as a wakeup call for healthcare leaders.
Many hospitals and health systems continue to rely on contract labor to fill vacancies. According to Vaya Workforce, a leader in contract labor staffing, approximately 28,000 travel nurse jobs are currently open compared to 8,700 openings on average in 2019. Vaya’s data is representative of close to 80% of the total market. Vaya also forecasts demand for travel nurses to remain at least 20% above pre-pandemic levels throughout 2023. These predictions are based on historical travel demand, economic variables, acute care hospital census, nursing core vacancies and other public and private data sets.
Cleveland Clinic receives $12M NIH grant for cancer treatment research
Cleveland Clinic’s Lerner Research Institute was awarded a five-year $12 million grant by the National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, to define how cytokines – proteins produced during immune response – regulate inflammation and interact with cells and molecules surrounding tumors.
Delivering cytokines in immunotherapy can signal an immune response that kills off cancer cells, but resulting inflammation also can create an environment that encourages cells to mutate and tumors to grow. Gathering detailed information on how cytokines function within specific types of cancer can help navigate the complex pathways tumors use to evade treatment and make strategies like immunotherapy more successful.
The NIH funding supports the next step in a decades-long research program at the Lerner Research Institute conducting groundbreaking research on cytokines, immune response and inflammation.
University of Utah Health starts digital health project to develop and test apps
University of Utah Health has launched a new initiative that seeks to better integrate digital health applications into daily medical care including prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer, heart disease, and other life-threatening conditions.
The Digital Health Initiative (DHI) aims to develop, evaluate, and distribute tools designed to improve mental health, home monitoring, self-care, and patient-centered clinical decision support. The goal is to create health apps that are more scientifically based and reliable than those that are currently available. DHI is supported by a substantial grant from the Office of Senior Vice President for Health Sciences at U of U Health.