What is Flex Team?

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Skylakes Medical Center

Flex Team is a group of employees who move around multiple areas of the hospital where they are needed to fill vacancies or provide support when there are more patients than staff to care for them. There are RNs, Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs), Patient Safety Assistants (PSAs), TeleSitter Observation Techs (TOTs) and the newest members of the team are the Entrance Screeners on Flex Team. Everyone on Flex Team are required to know the ins and outs of hospital and have competencies in many areas.

Flex Team staff don’t have a “home unit” and don’t know where they will be on during their shift until they arrive to work. They may also begin their shift in one department and move to another department at any time during their shift.

Because the Flex Team must remain competent in multiple clinical areas in the hospital, they spend a good portion of their shifts in the COVID unit as there are many patients requiring different levels of care, including intensive care, progressive care, and medical-surgical care.

Flex Team plays an incredibly important role at Sky Lakes, especially during times where there is a surge of inpatients in the hospital. Lilly, a CNA on Flex Team, was in the COVID unit during our recent COVID-19 inpatient surge when we had some of our highest COVID inpatient numbers since December 2020. We want to take some time to highlight the flexibility, competence, and exceptionalism on our Flex Team. They are truly amazing. Thank you, Flex Team, for your hard work!