Arbeiten 5.0

The UKE project "Arbeiten 5.0" ("Working 5.0") deals with the harmonization of working hours and processes and is unique in Germany to date. As part of the Care Reinforcement Act, the project is funded by the Techniker Krankenkasse and scientifically supported by the HCHE.

Background
Existing staff shortages, rising workload and increasing complexity of tasks impose challenging working conditions for many healthcare professionals. However, in order to ensure a high quality of patient care, sufficient personnel capacities in general, as well as motivated and qualified staff, are necessary. Therefore, hospitals are increasingly confronted with the challenge of employing and retaining qualified healthcare workers. Investments in innovative employee recruitment and retention concepts that consider both the labor market circumstances of the healthcare sector and trends in “New Work” will be essential in the future. This is where the project “Arbeiten 5.0 - harmonizing processes and working time models” comes in.

Objective
The aim of the project is to make working hours more flexible and to harmonize and synchronize organizational processes between nursing staff, doctors, and other healthcare providers at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). This should lead to an improved work-life balance, increased employer attractiveness and efficient staff deployment. To this purpose, interventions will be introduced that (1) make working hours and organizational structures more flexible and (2) optimize processes between occupational groups. While interventions to make shifts and organizational structures more flexible are an optional offer for nursing staff, interventions to optimize processes between occupational groups are mandatory for nursing staff, medical assistants, and doctors. The project is being scientifically evaluated by the HCHE with the goal of assessing the effectiveness of the implemented interventions. Furthermore, factors are identified that should be considered for successful adoption and scaling of the project to other hospitals.

Approach
The evaluation is being conducted as a multicenter, prospective cluster-controlled trial with an open-cohort stepped wedge design over a period of three years. This study design entails a stepwise rollout of the interventions in all units of the participating hospital.
A multi-perspective, multi-dimensional evaluation approach is being applied, which makes it possible to include the perspectives of all occupational groups participating in the interventions (nursing staff, medical staff, ward management/central administration) in the evaluation of the degree of target achievement and the success of the project. For the evaluation, primary data stemming from annual surveys of the participating employees are combined with secondary data (personnel statistics, utilization statistics of the interventions) provided by the hospital.