This article is sponsored by Enclara. In this Voices interview, Hospice News sits down with Karen Bergenholtz, Senior Director, Implementation & Education at Enclara Pharmacia, to learn about the top challenges facing hospice leaders and nurses in the year ahead and what facilities are doing to overcome them. She also discusses the impact of the staffing crisis on hospice today and what owners are doing to navigate that crisis in 2022.
Hospice News: What career experiences do you most draw from in your role today?
Karen Bergenholtz: My early experience working in traditional health care areas like hospitals and home care has given me a broad understanding of the entire health care continuum. In addition, I’ve worked for a few smaller health care companies where I had the opportunity to wear multiple hats and develop different skill sets which I still use today.
From business development and training to onboarding clinicians, I love to work with leaders and their teams to help them meet their goals. I feel that my managerial and clinical expertise provide me with a unique skillset.
What do you believe are the top three challenges facing hospice nurses in the year ahead, regardless of their experience level?
Bergenholtz: The number one challenge today is the insufficient staffing levels. The pandemic has accelerated expected attrition in the entire nursing profession, including hospice. Supporting patient care with inadequate staffing puts even more pressure on the remaining nurses. Second, when hospices are able to bring on new staff, it’s often nurses who are new to hospice and often the nursing profession in general. This has burdened experienced staff with additional mentoring and onboarding while maintaining their current responsibilities and more.
Finally, all of us hospice nurses are continuing to deal with the personal demands and needs unearthed by the pandemic, especially caring for our families and our own wellbeing.
What are the top challenges facing hospice owners with respect to onboarding new talent?
Bergenholtz: The overall nursing shortages, coupled with the high retirement and burnout rates of our current hospice nurses, make it increasingly difficult to train staff. In hospice, preceptorships, training and support are critical to support new nurses in their roles, but this is a timely and costly endeavor for a hospice that is already trying to minimize cost. Additionally, more than ever a hospice’s onboarding process really needs to include retention efforts from day one. A big part of that is support to help new hospice nurses deal with the unique emotional toll of hospice care.
What are the most significant ways in which the health care labor shortage has impacted the nursing experience?
Bergenholtz: I believe new and less experienced nurses are often in situations where they are unable to grow clinically. It takes a nurse to train a nurse. It’s tough for nurses to learn to make clinical decisions without the mentorship and support of seasoned hospice nurses.
What is Enclara doing in 2022 to help hospice agencies with their nursing transitions and onboarding?
Bergenholtz: We have made a purposeful effort to focus on what Enclara can do to positively impact the overall experience of each nurse and their day-to-day job responsibilities. We are trying to simplify the experience for nurses by optimizing their workflow, creating more time to concentrate on patient care instead of administrative tasks. For example, the technology used to order and refill medications quickly, such as our new E3 Pro web and mobile tool, not only drives operational efficiency but also makes medication ordering less stressful.
We have also expanded and optimized our educational offerings for nurses to be more on-demand and concise. We have “At Your Pace” educational offerings available 24/7 online from any device. This is included in Enclara’s service model with no additional cost. Most importantly, we complement the on-demand training with live clinical support for our hospice nurses. Pharmacists have always played a large role on the hospice interdisciplinary care team and that’s more important than ever when nurses are new to the unique goals and pharmacology of hospice care.
For lack of a better term, if there is a silver lining to today’s hospice talent shortage, what is it? In other words, where do you find hope?
Bergenholtz: Historically, the nursing field has been a pendulum of supply and demand. In the mid-90s, there was a surplus of nurses and jobs were difficult to obtain, especially for inexperienced nurses. When there are shortages in an industry, it forces employers to increase pay and benefits, improve working conditions and cultivate the next generation of professionals. To attract and retain the talent they need to grow, hospice leadership will have to facilitate open dialogue with their nursing colleagues and be responsive to their needs.
Finish this sentence: “The hospice industry in 2022 will be the year of…”
Bergenholtz: Accelerated change.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Enclara Pharmacia offers support and convenience to hospice care providers and patients through the most comprehensive service and technology solutions in hospice. To learn more, visit enclarapharmacia.com.
The Voices Series is a sponsored content program featuring leading executives discussing trends, topics and more shaping their industry in a question-and-answer format. For more information on Voices, please contact [email protected].
