New initiatives seek to transform nursing experience
Nursing shortages are affecting every state in the U.S., and it’s a problem the pandemic has exacerbated. For a variety of reasons — from an aging population with increased health care needs to a shortage of nursing educators to increased burnout — the supply of registered nurses (RNs) cannot keep pace with demand.
At MultiCare, nurses at all levels — from executive to bedside — have been working together to find ways to mitigate this shortage while also improving the experience and culture of nursing at our organization.
As part of this initiative, Moxi robots began supporting nurses and clinical teams at select MultiCare hospitals in January 2023. These autonomous mobile robots perform routine non-patient-facing tasks that normally take nurses away from the bedside.
“Nurses and other clinicians spend significant time during their shifts gathering and delivering supplies, including personal protective equipment (PPE), patient medications, lab specimens and other items,” says Jennifer Graham, MN, RN, CNEP, chief nursing officer at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital. “With Moxi in place, it will ease that burden, allowing our team to do what they do best — take care of our community.”
In 2023, Moxi made 41,543 deliveries at Deaconess, MultiCare Mary Bridge Children’s, MultiCare Tacoma General and MultiCare Good Samaritan hospitals, saving staff millions of steps and freeing up their time for more direct patient care.
In addition to Moxi, MultiCare is introducing a model of care that changes the makeup of the nursing team. Bedside nurses will have more support staff, including licensed practical nurses (LPNs), certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and in some cases virtual nurses. Virtual RNs are experienced nurses who can provide behind-the-scenes support such as managing the discharge process, providing patient education and assisting with documentation.
Registered nurses will never be replaced at the bedside — the goal of these initiatives is to remove barriers that prevent nurses from leveraging their depth of knowledge as clinical professionals and create more time for them to do what they love: care for patients.