☀️Good morning! 

It’s another day and another 20,000 steps around the unit.

We closed out January strong this week because if you ask us, 2024 starts in February – January still had some 2023 left in it. 😜

You’re in for another edition of The Nurse Report, the only nursing newsletter with more energy than your newest Cycle Instructor. 😅

Today, we’re Reporting Live on:

1. 🏆 ICYMI: The 2024 Grammy Awards: Whether you’re the music scene plug of your group chat or simply could use some extra firepower in your arsenal for patient small-talk this week, we got you. 

2. 🍟 The “Talk of the Town”: From ER Burger King feasts to midnight sandwich requests – we’re serving up a hearty portion of food delivery drama.

3. 💸One hospital's big nurse bonus moves are paying out: How California’s Palomar Health’s recent moves are encouraging America’s hospitals to offer nurses multi-year bonuses. 

🏆2024 Grammy Recap: Glitz, Glam, Grooves

Before we dive into the hustle and bustle, let's take a moment to catch up on the glitz and glam of the 2024 Grammy Awards. 

The 2024 Grammy Awards were a night of nostalgia mixed with record-breaking moments, heartfelt returns, new faces, and some stellar music that keeps our hips moving through those long shifts. 

Here’s a quick rundown to start your day on a high note!

• Still in her winning era, T-Swift made history as the first artist to win the coveted “Album of the Year” award four times. YGG. She also put on a marketing masterclass, announcing her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department” coming out on April 19th. Can't wait! 🌟

• I’m not crying, you’re crying. Joni Mitchell’s performance while snagging her 10th Grammy (she’s 80 btw), Celine Dion’s emotional return after facing health issues with grace, moving tributes by Annie Lennox to Tracy Chapman's surprise performance, and so many more moments had us reaching for the tissues. 😢

• Family wins across the board. Billie Eilish and Finneas are keeping it in the family with another win, and Jay-Z shared the stage with his daughter, Blue Ivy, calling attention to Beyoncé’s overdue Album of the Year recognition. 💗

• First-timers take the stage: Miley Cyrus won her very first Grammy (overdue if you ask us), while Victoria Monét was crowned Best New Artist. 🪩

💌 Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

🍟 Talk of the Town

Nurses are often bombarded with food requests and expected to provide a full concierge service, from picking up a DoorDashed burger at the front of the hospital to playing detective for confused delivery drivers. 

And we wonder why Daryl’s blood sugar suddenly shot through the roof and poor Bob is complaining about chest pain again. 🙄

🍟 When did nurses become impromptu food rushers and underappreciated waitresses anyway?

Nurses in the wild aren't waiting to grab a patient’s grub – we’ve got more important things to do, like save lives, cough cough. 

🎂 The icing on the cake? One nurse describes a patient who even lodged a formal complaint because a nurse, in a staff shortage, mind you, couldn't moonlight as a delivery runner and go ten flights down and a block and a half away from the ICU to pick up the patient’s food. 

Lol, what do these people think we do all day anyway?!

And then, there’s the classic family member completely ignoring dietary restrictions and ordering feasts for the patient, and then nurses have to deal with the consequences. 🙄

It's a combination of entitlement and a disappointing menu of saltine crackers and a splash of cran-apple juice, seasoned with a pinch of absurdity. 

🏥 So, our lovely nurses, next time you hear the ding of a food delivery app, remember: you're the heart of healthcare, not the head of hospitality.

Take a deep breath (or a few), check off one request at a time, and prioritize the most important tasks first, which means picking up Daryl’s DoorDash order comes last – sorry, Daryl. 

You are just one nurse, after all, and you can’t be expected to be everything everywhere all at once… 🫨😜😅

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🏥 A Hospital’s Bold Nurse Retention Move & What It Means for You

In the wake of the pandemic, Palomar Health in Escondido, California, tackled a nurse retention problem head-on with an unprecedented strategy, offering $100,000 in sign-on and retention bonuses over three years for their nursing staff. 

This isn’t just the average workplace perk; it is a full-blown commitment to keeping nurses around for the long haul. 

🎯 The Strategy Behind the Dollars: Let's talk numbers. The bonus decision wasn't made lightly. It was a balancing act – a financial sweet spot to reduce reliance on temporary staff while building a stable, long-term workforce. 

Palomar was betting big on its belief that a three-year stay could lead to even longer tenures.

📈 Early Results? Promising – the program's impact was immediate. The dependence on travel nurses dropped significantly, and the emergency department became fully staffed with permanent nurses. 

Palomar's approach is more than just numbers, though. It demonstrates that a hospital can cultivate a culture where nurses don't just work – they actually belong and are truly valued for the work they do. 

To hospitals like Palomar, it’s about making their staff feel at home, and that's something you can't put a price tag on. Well, maybe a $100,000 price tag over three years, but you get the point. 😜

🏥 What This Means for Nurses: For frontline nurses, this is a big move that signals a recognition of your worth, and the numbers are hard to ignore.

The big brains who wrote the 2023 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report explain that replacing one RN can cost a hospital as much as $64,500, and the hospital loses more than it gains from simply just paying the nurses what they’re worth to stick around.

And the report also found that a hospital can save $3,140,000 on average for every 20 travel RNs replaced with a staff RN. A single percent change in RN turnover will cost or save the average hospital $380,600 per year.

And Palomar isn't stopping at bonuses – they are amplifying the focus on wellness – think personal coaching focused on mental, physical, and nutritional wellbeing. It’s a signal that this health system values their nurses as people as much as professionals.

🔍 The Bigger Picture: Palomar’s approach could be a blueprint for how healthcare systems across the country can value their nurses, recognizing that supported nurses are the cornerstone of exceptional patient care – and are actually more profitable than regularly burning through RNs. 

And for you, the frontline nurses, it's a sign of hope and recognition of your invaluable contribution to healthcare.

TL;DR: Palomar Health medical system found that nurses came for the bonus and stayed for the bonus.

🤑 Financial First Aid: Tracking how many $5 coffees you get from Starbucks or $20 meals from DoorDash in an Excel sheet is miserable, but spending (and saving money) doesn’t need to be. 

In your NurseWallet app, we’ll calculate your budget for you so all your fixed costs are covered, and you can spend the rest guilt-free. 

🥸 Featured Fables: We’re coming up with recurring characters here in the NurseReport, “DoorDashing Daryl” and “Breathless Bob” are just two of them. Send us your best patient stereotypes, and we might just feature them (and you) in our next story. 

👀 P.S. Get that next DoorDash order for yourself on us – get a DoorDash gift card and more by referring friends and colleagues. More deetz below!