Recapping AONL 2024’s Conference: Three Ways Nurse Executives Are Evolving to Meet Today’s Frontline Shortages

By Lauren Rewers | Sr. Director, Nursing Catalyst

For the second year in a row, researchers from THMA’s Nursing Catalyst team attended the American Organization for Nursing Leadership ’s (AONL) national conference in New Orleans. While ostensibly the issues that nurse leaders are seeking to discuss are largely consistent with themes from the 2023 conference—namely, persistently elevated labor costs, and the workforce shortages impacting many kinds of frontline roles—how nurse leaders are thinking about how to fix those issues has evolved. 

Below are three ways in which nursing innovators are evolving their solutions to health care’s biggest challenges, and what leaders can learn from their examples. 

1: The Question of Virtual Nursing Isn’t If, but Where

While most virtual nursing pilots were too nascent to be presented at AONL’s 2023 conference, virtual nursing dominated the conversation in New Orleans. More striking than the sheer number of featured pilots was the diversity in scope, technology, and use case.

For example, breakout sessions showcased virtual nursing models for night coverage, a team-based model including VNs and robots, and the intersection of virtual nursing and nursing education. 

How system nursing leaders should take action: 

• Create or expand the organization’s virtual inpatient road map to include use cases beyond ADT and documentation work.
• Collaborate with IT to identify where additional technological investments (robotics, ambient sensors) could expand VN workflow.

2: How Executives Solve Nursing’s Current Challenges Will Impact Nursing Practice for Decades to Come

AONL presenters weren’t only focused on the discrete practice changes that could address presenting workforce challenges—leaders also presented their high-level strategy to transform care delivery. For example, leaders from Advocate Health shared how they designed a “menu” of care delivery changes system leaders designed and made optional implementation tools for site leaders to adopt if they chose.

The result: not only are they addressing workforce challenges, but also providing site leaders with enhanced agency to adopt the practice that makes sense for their facility.

How system nursing leaders should take action: 

• In partnership with other clinical executives, identify what larger goals the system has in relation to care delivery (acceptable degree of variance across sites, etc.).
• Design the nursing strategic plan—and multidisciplinary care redesign—to support the system’s broader vision and identity.

3: Solving Nursing’s Bedside Workforce Challenges Starts with Re-Scoping the Roles of Frontline Leadership

AONL’s most packed session was the organization’s presentation of their Workforce Compendium. This compendium is the result of work three years in the making, designed to offer a comprehensive solution to the industry’s ongoing workforce challenges.

One of the issues outlined as critical to workforce sustainability was reducing frontline manager span-of-control, so managers can re-focus on their staff and other system priorities.

How system nursing leaders should take action: 

• Review Nursing Catalyst’s report on frontline manager span-of-control, which informed AONL’s professional guidelines.
• Look out for AONL’s forthcoming span-of-control ROI calculator to make the case for additional investment in unit leadership.

So, What's Next?

The journey towards transformative care and sustainable workforce solutions continues, and it is through forums like the AONL conference that we gain the collective knowledge and motivation to advance.

We invite you to stay connected with our Nursing Catalyst team by visiting our website and joining us in this crucial dialogue to shape the future of nursing leadership. Together, we can address today’s challenges with tomorrow’s solutions.