There was a nursing shortage in the US long before the pandemic hit, but it was nowhere near as widespread as it is now. As a result of the pandemic, nurse burnout, stress, and work overload collided with true nursing passion. Over the past few years, nurses have had a difficult time finding a good balance between work and life. With its innovative technology platform, Overture is aiming to reduce the disparity of nursing shortages by bringing healthcare providers and nurses together under a new paradigm.
To avoid nursing shortages by 2022, the U.S Bureau of Labor projected the need for 1.1 million new RNs prior to the pandemic.
As a result, the US is still far from meeting the original forecasted need for nurses, and there is a larger shortfall than originally anticipated. Today’s shortfall is close to double that projected due to burnout, stress, work overload, and a lack of college-level educators.
Several US hospitals are now suffering from a shortage of nursing staff, which prevents them from filling their beds. A nursing shortage has also negatively impacted hospital revenues. Healthcare providers are being taken advantage of by third-party temporary and per diem agencies by charging extremely high hourly rates.
Revenues are declining, costs are rising, and patient care is being compromised due to a dramatic decline in nurses. Neither effective nor scalable solutions have been found to date.
As an organization with a slogan “balance your lifestyle and your work style” and a mission to optimize shift coverage while reducing operating costs, Overture is ready to resolve many of these issues.
Rich Rosenzweig, Founder of Overture, says, “We must address the root causes of the current nursing shortage first. We have to greatly reduce what is causing burnout, reduce stress, and give our nurses a much better lifestyle and work style balance. We need to adopt this paradigm and introduce it into every aspect of a nurse’s career starting as early as our nursing school and college education system.”
“From there, we need to work with our healthcare providers to ensure that there can be enough nurses to cover their shift requirements if they are willing to embrace the new reality of a lifestyle and work style balance, and the flexibility nurses are looking for. A signing bonus as a solution is a nice thing, but it doesn’t address the root cause of the problem,” says Rosenzweig, “a signing bonus is a band-aid with a short-term effect.”
Rosenzweig says “In Baltimore, Chicago, Atlanta, and five major cities in Texas, we already have hundreds of qualified candidates with profiles created in the Overture system who are ready to start working under the umbrella of a lifestyle and workstyle balance. By participating in our program, employers gain a significant advantage: By joining us, healthcare employers can confidently fill their shifts well into the future with exceptionally qualified nurses who are passionate about patient care but need a better work-life balance.”
Overture’s nurse group is currently growing by 4,000 people each month. The Overture process allows healthcare employers to express interest and arrange interviews through this group, resulting in the nurse receiving an ’employer authorization’. Through the Overture app, nurses are immediately presented with open shifts and can ‘claim’ them immediately. A GPS tracking system (like Uber) is turned on prior to the start of the shift to ensure that nurses who have claimed upcoming shifts are on time and in the right place. Employers can monitor nurses checking in and out, rate shift performance, and manage it all seamlessly with a seamless operating system, as well as reduce operating costs.
Nurses gain many benefits, including higher hourly rates, working at the facilities of their choice, and claiming their choice of shifts, which provides a much better life and work balance. Upon completion of their shift, nurses are paid in as little as 24 hours.
With Overture, healthcare facilities can hire verified and professional nurses with ease and eliminate frustration and burnout in the nursing community by providing flexibility that addresses the pain points of both healthcare employers and nurses. Overture ensures that patients receive the best care by having qualified staff on board and available 24/7.
Overture is neither a staffing nor a per diem agency. Overture is a system and a process adopted by the healthcare provider with the Overture team behind it providing support and service
As a fully cloud-based HIPAA-compliant provider, Overture offers state-of-the-art functionality and ease-of-use both on laptops, desktops, as well as on their proprietary app, which is the hub of the system.
By ensuring that nursing resources are available and affordable, Overture keeps patient care at the forefront of healthcare employers’ minds. Disheartened nurses will also receive much-deserved recognition, higher pay rates, shift and facility control, and a chance to establish a healthy lifestyle and work-life balance. As a result, Overture is addressing the root causes of the nursing shortage.
With decades of experience building adaptive and paradigm-changing processes in the healthcare arena, Rosenzweig has taken on solving the nursing shortage problem in the United States with this platform and process.
