Overview
This healthcare leadership article examines how strategic investment in continuing education improves patient outcomes, reduces staff turnover, and addresses skills shortages. Covering professional development, nursing advancement, and practical implementation strategies, it is relevant to hospital administrators, healthcare managers, and workforce planning professionals.
Introduction
Information is power in the world of healthcare. It is for this reason that continuing education is a legal requirement for most health-related jobs.
In fulfilling this obligation, healthcare systems have an opportunity to prioritise high-leverage skills that strengthen their existing teams and establish a strong foundation for the future.
There are many ways that establishing educational opportunities can contribute to better patient outcomes.
In this article, we take a look at why this investment matters and how hospitals can make it strategically.
Continuous Professional Development
It is obvious enough to say that the more a doctor, nurse, or healthcare administrator knows, the better equipped they will be to handle the responsibilities of their job.
It is for this reason that continuing education is a requirement in all of those positions. Healthcare information changes.
Even very good doctors, nurses, and administrators need to continually refresh their understanding of it to ensure that their information is up to date.
- A doctor who was licensed before the year 2000 came up in an educational environment that lacked widespread electronic health records.
- A doctor who was licensed in 2010 was educated in an environment that lacked modern notions of big data.
- A doctor who was licensed in 2020 was educated in an environment completely absent of generative AI.
All of these things have real ramifications for how care is administered. Without regular re-education, they would be lost.
That’s all great. It’s also only part of the reason why investing in education is a valuable asset that modern healthcare systems can’t ignore.
Investing in Education Can Improve Retention
It’s probably not new information to you that shortages in healthcare are a major national problem. It’s an issue that has had major ramifications in both rural and urban environments.
Much could be said about why people leave healthcare jobs. To cover all of the reasons would require a series of articles dedicated only to that. However, there are a few general employment retention factors that bear consideration:
- Work-related stress– Obviously, stressful positions produce more turnover than cushier jobs. Stress and healthcare are, unfortunately, hopelessly and forever intertwined. There’s not much that can be done about that one.
- Compensation– This one’s a little trickier because nurses do make a solidly middle-class income. However, the amount of money they earn is typically harder won than it needs to be. In other words, there are less stressful ways to make an upper five-figure salary, ones that don’t involve human waste.
- Autonomy, or the ability to act with independence- This is another factor for which nurses are often left wanting. Though RNs have lots of knowledge, they can typically only execute on it under close supervision.
- Advancement opportunities– People are more likely to stay within a career path when they visualise the trajectory of their career. Unfortunately, in nursing, it’s a relatively limited trajectory. Nurses do get raises, but they’re usually scheduled, and while there are minor opportunities for promotions, it’s generally not a career path that involves a corporate ladder.
Healthcare Jobs Are Hard
Education can’t do much about the stress of the work. Healthcare jobs are hard. Doctors and nurses go in knowing this.
Some of them burn out after experiencing that stress every day. Others are more willing to tolerate it, provided that other criteria can be met.
Education offers a solution for all of the other factors described. A graduate degree in nursing, for example, can increase an RN’s salary into the early six-figure range.
It can give them significantly more autonomy, including the ability to make diagnoses and write prescriptions.
It also provides a wider promotional trajectory. There are newer, more exciting roles for people wispecialisedlised certification or graduate degree.
Education Can Also Reduce Bottlenecks
Shortages contribute partially to healthcare bottlenecks, but there’s also a skill gap that is arguably an even more significant factor.
A fully staffed department with many nurses and only a single doctor will ultimately be less effective and less responsive than a hospital that has nurse practitioners. These specialised nurses can see patients at a higher level, freeing doctors up for more complicated cases.
Modern healthcare is very focused on quality and speed. A more diversified healthcare ecosystem can produce both.
How Hospitals Can Leverage Education
We’ve described the value of ongoing education. How can hospitals leverage it effectively? There are a few implementation methods that can drive the results you’re looking for:
- Advertise tuition assistance specifically for programs that produce the skills you’re looking for. For example, if you want more FNPs, advertise MSN programs. If you want more informatics nurses, advertise informatics programs. This doesn’t necessarily mean that tuition coverage can only be applied to those programs, but it can.
- Help staff clearly understand the hospital’s goals and decide if their personal objectives are in alignment.
- Develop mentorship programs. Mentorship programs, particularly when carefully designed, can radically improve retention and funnel nurses toward advanced positions. A good RN who never considered graduate school might do so if they’re paired with a nurse practitioner they admire.
- Develop a clear career trajectory. Going to graduate school is a large undertaking, even with tuition assistance. If you’re serious about guiding nurses tospecialisedlised certifications and degrees, help make it as clear as possible what they can do with those credentials. What roles are you trying to fill in your hospital? What is awaiting them on the other side of the degree? If staff have clear answers to these questions, they’ll be more likely to pursue the credential.
Education programs are ultimately an exercise in patience. Even if you develop an excellent incentive program tomorrow, it could be several years before any material results are witnessed.
It’s still worth the effort. Healthcare needs more and better-qualified professionals. Education is the best path forward.
