Importance of Registered Nurse Staffing Contracts in the US
In the modern healthcare system registered nurses undoubtedly play an important role. More people in the US are compelled to use the healthcare system due to the increasing number of aging population and reforms in its health care system. It increased the demand for registered nurses in healthcare facilities. Most of the healthcare facilities contact staffing agencies to hire nurses on the basis of registered nursing staffing contracts.
They prefer to hire RNs on the contract due to a few reasons like:
- Lowering the mortality rate of patients by increasing nurse to patient ratio immediately
- Getting registered nurses with extensive knowledge and experience instead of nurses working at one facility since long
- Provide flexibility to RN and make it more attractive for them as they are free to extend their vacations, or start their family if they are not willing to continue with that facility
- Get registered nurses quickly when their demand is high at the time of epidemic or pandemic like COVID-19. It also allows healthcare facilities to reduce their staff when demand is very low.
In this condition, health care providers have to find certain staffing agencies that can take care of the registered nurse staffing contracts on their behalf. It will help healthcare providers to meet the demand of their patients to provide them the best care as much as possible. While finding a staffing agency for your health care facility you know why you need it and how it can help you.
Why do you need an RN staffing agency?
Meet the shortage of nurses
With the increase in the demand for healthcare facilities the demand for registered nurses increases in the US. According to the suggestions of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand of RN is growing at the rate of 15% per annum due to the increasing number of retired nurses, exhausted young nurses as well as patients. Moreover, the quality of the care of the patients is suffering from the poor nurse to patient ratio and that is why nurses are going on strike all over the US.
The increasing number of patients
The main reason for the shortage of registered nurses is a rapid increase in the number of patients due to various seasonal epidemics as well as pandemic due to Coronavirus etc. It is a crucial time for public health as 2.5 million people are infected from Coronavirus across the US at present and this number is progressing. Along with the people suffering from COVID-19 healthcare facilitiesRN have to take care of other patients with chronic health problems also.
Reducing number of registered nurses
According to an estimate, the nurses born after WWII are going to retire in a large number in the next 5-10 years. It will increase the demand for new registered nurses who have recently graduated from reputed institutions. The number of new graduates may not be able to meet the number of nurses expected to retire every year. This shortage of RN can be more in rural areas as the executives of the hospitals have to face difficulty in adjusting to remote places as most of them do not like to live there.
Need to find a dependable solution
So, to meet the staffing requirement in the healthcare facilities in the US it becomes important for them to find a staffing agency around them. Due to this shortage of RNs, the healthcare industry of the US is developing an all-round approach to meet the demand of registered nurses in the future.
Working of Nurse Staffing Agencies
The agencies dealing in nurse staffing help the healthcare facilities facing difficulty in hiring nurses on a permanent or temporary basis. They have registered nurse staffing contracts from various healthcare facilities to appoint nurses to work with them. During the last few decades, the concept of employing international nurses is gaining popularity to meet the increasing demand and supply of registered nurses in the US. Most of the hospitals depend on staffing agencies in the US due to the increasing cost of internationally qualified RN. These agencies charge fees from the hospitals at a flat rate against sponsoring the visa of international nurses. Along with providing staff several nurse staffing agencies also provide certain other services to the hospitals and healthcare providers like education programs, housing, and support in continuity, etc.
Types of nursing placement contracts
Most of the nurses staffing agencies in the US offer different types of registered nurse staffing contracts like:
Pro Re Nata (PRN)
Pro re nata or PRN nurses can be hired as needed. These nurses can meet the requirement of RN for healthcare facilities. They can be required to work on holidays or weekends.
Per Diem
Per diem or per day contract allows the healthcare services to hire a nurse on-call. This contract can be extended to several weeks as per the requirement of the facility. They can get a nurse in this contract as and when required to meet the demand immediately. The working hours are not guaranteed in this contract.
Travel Nurse
The contract of traveling nurses ranges from a few days to several weeks. They can be from different locations and assigned to different fields of healthcare wherever required. The terms of the contract can vary as per circumstances. Even full-time nurses can also work as traveling nurses.
Temporary-to-permanent contracts
To fill the gap of RNs in the healthcare facilities it is the best contract as temporary nurses can work as full-time nurses for a certain time if they like the location and environment of the workplace. Some of the employees involve agencies to help in the process of transition from temporary to permanent nurses.
Permanent placement contracts
Nurse staffing agencies help hospitals to hire nurses directly for permanent placement against some fee which can be a fixed percentage of the annual salary of the candidate. But the agency does not offer any retention guarantee. This is the best contract for those nurses who want to stay at one location for a long time.
Thus, the registered nurse staffing contracts play an important role in fulfilling the staffing requirements of healthcare facilities in the US. Nurse staffing agencies take care of these contracts.… Read the rest
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