Workforce Transformation: Key Insights from the Aya Ideas Retreat 

In the past several years, healthcare leaders faced significant challenges, from navigating the pandemic and Great Resignation to right-sizing contingent labor usage and budgets. To overcome these challenges, healthcare leaders have developed creative solutions to meet patient and workforce needs. Recently, Aya Healthcare hosted the Aya Ideas Retreat, where leaders shared innovative solutions that are making a positive impact across their systems. 

 

Incorporating AI 

Dani Bowie, DNP, RN, NE-BC, senior vice president of solutions design for Workforce AI at Aya Healthcare, and Rudy Jackson, DNP, MHA, RN, CENP, senior vice president and chief nurse executive at University of Wisconsin Health, kicked off the retreat discussing the potential of AI in healthcare. Drawing from her doctoral studies and experience managing system-wide resource pools at Bon Secours Mercy Health and Legacy Health, Bowie highlighted how AI can be used to manage the complexities of nurse staffing and scheduling, which consumes 60% of a nurse manager’s time. Jackson described how UW Health uses AI to reduce administrative burdens, such as generating clinic notes based on patient messages and creating end-of-shift notes for inpatient nurses. Both Bowie and Jackson emphasized that AI is a tool to enhance efficiency, not a replacement for human workers in nursing care. 

Modernizing Workforce Strategies 

The evolving workforce demands new approaches to recruitment and retention. Jason Snow, vice president of human resources at Saint Francis Healthcare System, discussed the results of an employer brand audit conducted by the Aya Advisory Solutions team, which provided recommendations to enhance the Saint Francis Healthcare employer brand and improve candidate engagement.

Melissa Nicholson, division vice president of program management & international solutions at Aya Healthcare, and David Rutherford, MSN, RN, senior advisor of workforce planning and analytics at OhioHealth, also shared their success in partnering to fill 30 vacancies with internationally-educated clinicians. The team interviewed 169 candidates and extended 61 offers, demonstrating their strong sourcing network.

Hussein M. Tahan, PhD, RN, FAAN, FCM, system vice president of nursing professional development & workforce management at MedStar Health, CNO of MedStar Ambulatory Services and MedStar Medical Group, spoke about creating a talent pipeline to address hard-to-fill specialties and upskill entry level roles through the Academy at Medstar.  

Increasing the Usage of Technology 

Many workforce innovations are driven by technology. Our care delivery panelists Amanda Nye, MSN, RN, NE-BC, senior director of system nursing operations at WellSpan Health; Hussein M. Tahan; and Melissa Winfield, MBA, BSN, RN, director of nursing systems at BayCare, highlighted the expansion of virtual care models, including virtual hospital-at-home and virtual observers. Snow discussed how Shifts, an app-based open shift management platform, integrates with their scheduling system to enable core staff to easily view and pick up extra shifts from their mobile devices. Aya’s product team also highlighted the capabilities of the LotusOne platform, the best contingent labor management software on the market, which supports sourcing, deployment, workforce optimization and AI-powered planning tools, designed to help organizations solve for today and whatever the future holds.  

Developing Proper Change Management 

Mark Smith, group vice president of insights, optimization, & staffing at Providence, and Julie Hilsenbeck DNS, RN, CNRN, associate vice president of nursing clinical operations at Providence; and Mariam Price, MSN, RN, director of staffing at University of New Mexico Hospital, shared their journey of consolidating continent labor management with the Aya Healthcare platform. They outlined challenges and strategies for overcoming challenges and for gaining organizational buy-in.

Smith stated, “The Aya platform allows us to create trust through visibility [while also] making sure that we can create simplicity. Because of that, we’re doing more in the platform so that it’s simple to staff. Ultimately at the end of the day, we’ve made a 170-year promise to be there for the communities that we serve, and the platform helps us keep that promise.”  

Transforming Ideas into Action 

While the retreat featured many ideas on innovative workforce strategies and technology, the next step is implementing these ideas to drive meaningful change. In her keynote speech, Angela A. Shippy, MD, MHA, FACP, FHM, senior physician executive and clinical innovation lead at Amazon Web Services provided an insightful summary when she said, “We’re going to have to get better at how we take care of people. There’s a lot that has to be done and emerging technology is a way to get there.”