Using digital technology (like Nursebuddy) can contribute to reducing staff turnover in homecare, by helping to make life easier for hardworking carers.
Nursebuddy customer, Care for Me Ireland, recently told us: “Staff retention is at its highest since the company opened, even during all the challenges that the pandemic presented, and this is largely due to how our processes improved since moving to Nursebuddy.”
Here are 5 ways Nursebuddy’s homecare software is helping to reduce care worker turnover for domiciliary care businesses.
1. Reducing unpaid waiting time
Nursebuddy has a waiting time report which care coordinators can use to see whether any of their carers have large amounts of unpaid waiting time between visits. The report shows the overall organisational trend in waiting time, as well as highlighting the specific carers whose waiting time is particularly high.
With this insight, the schedule can be adjusted to try to reduce the impact on particular carers. We brought this feature in when we learnt that low pay combined with long hours was the single biggest reason for carers leaving their jobs in domiciliary care
2. Checking-in on team wellbeing
To help care coordinators understand how their teams are feeling, Nursebuddy’s carer mobile app features a wellbeing survey. At the end of each shift, care workers can tap one of the four smiley faces to describe how they felt about their day. Did they feel happy and satisfied with what they did today? Or did they feel burnt out and dissatisfied with what happened?
The data is sent anonymously for care managers to view the overall organisational trend in care worker happiness within their Nursebuddy portal. From that, care managers can get a sense of team morale and general wellbeing and take action where needed.
Coming soon! From early 2024, a follow-up question will be added to the in-app wellbeing survey to give care managers an idea of what is underlying their care team’s current sentiment.
3. Sharing schedules in advance
Rotas created in Nursebuddy can be published in advance and shared with carers via their mobile app. Homecare companies have the option to choose how far in advance they want care workers to be able to see their rota: anywhere from 1 to 4 weeks, to indefinitely. Knowing the rota in advance gives care workers more stability, as they are better able to organise their time.
“Carers knowing what their schedule will be weeks in advance with the care app, means that they can develop a routine and plan their own lives much more easily.”
- Ailish Leech, Senior Home Care Manager at Care for Me
4. Helping carers feel prepared for a visit
As well as seeing their schedule in advance, care workers can also access essential information about a client ahead of a visit securely via the Nursebuddy mobile app, so that they can feel prepared and confident. This can be particularly helpful for retaining carers who are new to their role, or to care as a career.
For example, carers can log-in to see care plans, client routines, access instructions and pinned notes, which flag little details or extras such as how the client was feeling earlier in the day. In app-notifications also give care workers a prompt if there is something new to review, such as an updated risk assessment. As one of the carers at Caroline Cares for You recently commented:
“It’s like having a personal encyclopaedia in my pocket about each of my clients.”
5. Making it easy to report on care
Writing-up notes is incredibly time-consuming for a care worker, so using a mobile app like Nursebuddy, makes it easy to quickly report on the care that’s been given. For instance, Nursebuddy has several handy tools for carers to record the care they’ve delivered at each visit:
-
Tick or cross selectors - mark a task done or skipped with a tap
-
Number boxes - quickly record data like fluid intake
-
Voice-to-text - dictate notes to speed up record-keeping
-
Photo upload - add evidence of tasks like meal preparation
-
Reminders - receive a prompt if something has been missed when trying to check-out of a visit
See all of these features and find out more about how Nursebuddy can help to reduce care worker turnover in your homecare business, by booking a demo. Or, explore the full Nursebuddy platform.
