Hospital.Help

Berlin When people think of the New Work concept, they immediately think of home office or mobile working. But that is only a small aspect, explained Jutta Rump, economist and professor of general business administration at the Ludwigshafen University of Economics and Society, today at the 144th general meeting of the Marburger Bund (MB).

Even if working from home is hardly possible for most doctors, there are still many aspects of New Work that could lead to happier doctors in the long term, explained Rump and the political scientist Wolfang Schrder from the University of Kassel.

Working conditions must be better, demanded the first chairwoman of the Marburg Association, Susanne Johna. Things cannot stay the way they are in many places now. We know this from our own experience and our member surveys show this again and again.

In times of an increasing shortage of skilled workers, only those who respond to the needs of their employees and create the appropriate framework conditions are successful in the competition for qualified workers. This not only affects the employers and respective management, it also affects us doctors if we are managers, appealed Johna.

The concept of New Work is to be understood as a solution to the challenges of today. It’s about ways to design the working world in such a way that it is humane and employee-oriented and can produce a high level of productivity, said Rump.

The scientist continued to explain that in the world of work today we are faced with a significantly higher speed of change processes. The new normal is characterized by a variety of transformations, i.e. parallel changes, for example through digitalization or the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

Time and money are tight

This new normal will continue to be shaped by three scarce goods. These included limited financial opportunities, time as a scarce commodity and the lack of workers and young talent. In its social and collective policy responsibility, the Marburg Federation must consider what priorities should be set in order to best deal with the changes against the background of scarce goods, explained Rump.

But the biggest challenge is demographic change; in the next ten years, around 13 million people from the baby boomer generation will retire and leave the labor market, said Rump. However, only 60 percent would come for them. Things will really get going between 2027 and 2034, she predicted.

The challenge is to reconcile employees’ current wishes for flexible working hours or reduced working hours. It is important to have working conditions that do not make you sick, because you cannot afford sick leave against this background. In theory, the next generation has to be able to do and achieve twice as much to compensate for this. There needs to be a significant increase in productivity and skills, says Rump.

Qualifications and health of the staff are very important

Specifically, employers need to invest primarily in the qualifications, health and motivation or identification of employees, emphasized Rump. Networked work and participation are also important to people. Hierarchical leadership styles need to be reconsidered. New working time models and healthy coexistence, including good dealings with a diverse workforce, are also important.

For political scientist Schrder, checking hierarchical relationships between professional groups as well as working time and shift planning are important topics when working in hospitals.

In addition, agile process management can lead to a better working environment, he said. Deploying staff based on needs and not according to a strict hierarchy could lead to more autonomy for individual teams and departments. Changing role assignments are also an option.

The use of home office is less important, as this is only partially possible for doctors and only for documentation purposes, explained Schrder. The design of the workplace in the clinic is also subject to strong restrictions, for example by taking patient safety or hygiene into account. According to Schrder, the relationship between telemedicine and new work has not been given enough attention.

Adaptation of occupational safety and more co-determination

In order to better enable new work approaches in hospitals, occupational health and safety legislation would have to be adapted to changing realities and staff’s opportunities for co-determination would have to be expanded, says Schrder. There is also a need for experimental spaces for new concepts. According to Schrder, skills and the further training and qualification of staff are crucial.

Schrder also recommended that the MB delegates work on their fighting strength and increase the pressure on the business side. The future also depends on the collective ability to act, which must be further developed.

Positive effects from the use of new work concepts are threefold worthwhile in the hospital, he said. The staff benefits from better working conditions, the decreasing workload also has a positive effect on the patients and the concept can also be used as a starting point for recruiting the necessary specialists.

Rump also recommends that hospitals carry out strategic personnel planning and carefully estimate the need for future staff. This would have to be extrapolated and checked at which point the system would collapse due to a lack of staff.

Such a procedure should actually become mandatory for every institution, emphasized Rump. With these figures and facts you could also get a better overview and better hospital planning within a federal state. © cmk/aerzteblatt.de