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Hiring the Best Travel Nurses

By Sarah Wengert on Jun 19, 2013 in Nurse Recruitment

Hiring the Best Travel Nurses1 Hiring the Best Travel Nurses Hospitals and facilities depend on travel nurses to perform as competently and professionally as their perm staff, and also to do so seamlessly and with very little on-site training. Hiring the best travel nurses available is very important to maintaining your facility’s good reputation and providing excellent patient care. Like any field, there is a spectrum of skill and experience level, as well as variety in personalities. It is very important to isolate the ways you can ensure that your facility is hiring the best travel nurses to fill your facility’s needs.

What can your staffing agency do to ensure you hire only the most professional, qualified travel nurse staff?

First, it is important to know exactly what you want out of your temporary staff. Determining your specific needs will help you better express them to an agency. A trusted Client Manager will be an amazing help to you when staffing and an important advocate for your facility’s needs.

Your facility can also benefit from working with a trusted agency. At Medical Solutions our team of Career Consultants, Client Managers, and other support staff work diligently through a 28-point screening process to ensure that all of our Travelers are dependable, adaptable, at the top of their professional game. This process validates potential staff in terms of professional status (resume, skills, references, etc.), licensure and certification, education and orientation, background, identification, and health requirements.

Beyond staffing with high quality RNs, we know how important it is that a facility and a Traveler are a good fit for each other. Having the right cultural chemistry and common vision for patient care is essential to a Traveler fitting in well, and ultimately being successful, at a facility. Again, this is something that the right Client Manager will have a keen sense of and be a huge help to you in this area and to fulfill your ultimate goal of hiring the best travel nurses.

Click here to check out full details on Medical Solutions’ 28-point screening process.

Laws Mandating Nurse Staffing

By Sarah Wengert on Jun 13, 2013 in Healthcare Staffing, Nursing Staff Management

Nurse Glasses Laws Mandating Nurse Staffing A bill currently going through the paces in the New York state legislature would put in place laws mandating nurse staffing that would require specific staffing ratios.

According to an Associated Press article, it seems that the debate over the bill is causing a bit of a split between nurses and hospitals.

The New York State Nurses Association backs the bill saying that “members at 57 unionized hospitals last year filed 19,292 separate protests of staffing assignments they considered unsafe.” Those in favor of laws mandating nurse staffing believe that requiring one nurse for every two ICU patients and 1-to-4 ratios in medical-surgical units will improve patient experience and care while decreasing deaths and re-admissions. Proponents also believe complaints will plummet and that hospitals will be just fine financially.

On the other hand, New York’s hospitals are against the bill saying it would hinder their ability to be flexible with staff scheduling and that it would cost facilities and nursing homes approximately $3 billion annually. Many facilities believe they can self-police and move staff around as needed to maintain quality patient care. This camp believes service will actually suffer as a result of such legislation because due to the anticipated financial stress services will actually suffer too.

If the bill is successful it would be the second such set of laws mandating nurse staffing. In 1999 California passed legislation setting mandatory nurse staff ratios — although the laws were not implemented until 2004. Both opponents and advocates of the bill use California’s experience to defend their position.

The AP article cites a 2002 study from the Journal of American Medical Association which found that “hospitals with high patient-to-nurse ratios had higher death rates among surgical patients and nursing staff more likely to experience burnout. The study of more than 10,000 nurses and 230,000 patients found that with each additional patient assigned to a nurse, the likelihood of dying within 30 days after admission rose 7 percent.”

But, as Brian Conway, of the Greater New York Hospital Association told the AP the bill would actually work against its own goals costing money, draining resources, and resulting in less support staff.

How do you think laws mandating nurse staffing in your state would affect patient care and finances/resources in your facility?

Nurse Staffing Policies

By Sarah Wengert on Jun 05, 2013 in Healthcare Staffing, Nursing Staff Management

Refining your facility’s nurse staffing policies can have a resounding positive effect. With strategic staffing policies you have the benefit of happier nurses (less burnout and turnover!) and as a result the ability to achieve a healthier financial bottom line. A big trend in business is companies establishing better use of their resources, something the healthcare industry can greatly benefit from as well.

A recent article, “Revamp Nurse Staffing Policies and Cut Costs,” published at Health Leaders Media, discusses some of the key benefits of re-evaluating your nurse staffing policies and also details some of the helpful changes put into place by the WellStar Health System, which is based in Marietta, Georgia.

The crux of the changes made at WellStar had to do with making sure nurses were working their full set of hours but not regularly exceeding them. Some nurses were cutting shifts short and others were routinely working too many hours. An hour shaved off of a shift here and there can really eat into costs as well as throw the rest of the staff’s rhythm. And on the other hand, of course, nurses working too much overtime can lead directly to burnout. In the words of Goldilocks, they wanted the hours to be juuuuust right — no more, no less. Achieving this balance is instrumental to staff satisfaction.

As discussed in the article, many facilities have begun using scheduling software, which allows administrators to drill down and really get a clear picture of their staffing realities, in order to determine strong and weak areas, what’s working, what’s not, and most importantly why. Once that’s clear, streamlining policies, standardizing shift times, and holding staff accountable can have a big impact when it comes to cutting costs. Communicating any changes in nurse staffing policies to your staff in a direct and positive way is key to making the changes stick and achieving your objective of a happy, efficient, cost-effective workforce.

Introducing Medical Solutions Advanced Practice

By Sarah Wengert on May 08, 2013 in Healthcare Staffing, Medical Solutions Staffing News

Medical Solutions is pleased to announce that we have further strengthened our client services with the addition of Medical Solutions Advanced Practice.

This new branch of the Medical Solutions staffing arsenal provides our clients the opportunity to staff their facilities with temporary Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants, in addition to the first-rate travel RN staffing we already offer. Let us help you improve your facility’s ratios, fight full-time staff burnout, and maintain quality patient care with the added versatility of locum tenems Advanced Practice professionals.

Visit our Advanced Practice site to learn more about this exciting addition and how you can utilize our services to reach your facility’s goals.

MSPs – What they are and why they might be beneficial to you

By Jeannie on Apr 15, 2013 in Healthcare Staffing, Hospital Management

An MSP is basically a business partner that staffs your hospital for you. They take over your short-term contract staffing so your perm staff can focus on what’s most important…quality and patient care. A good MSP should share your values and goals, which in turn, should lead your facility to greater success.

Some benefits of an MSP include:

Reduction of time spent dealing with various other agencies, allowing your operation to run more efficiently without interruption. Single point of contact.
Custom tracking and reporting.
Minimize time spent in pre-screening & hiring.
Eliminate costs for advertising and benefits.
Dedicated Compliance Manager to manage protocol and
paperwork.
Drastically reduce costs associated with turnover, improve quality of patient care and decrease nurse-to-patient ratios.

To learn more about Medical Solutions Managed Service Provider (MSP) click here.

Do you think MSPs are a good idea?

How to Keep Your Nurses Happy

By Jeannie on Mar 01, 2013 in Healthcare Staffing, hospital culture, Nurse Recruitment

A recent study by AMN Healthcare surveyed 3,000 RNs showing that while most are happy with their career choice, approximately 30% aren’t happy with their current job. Seem a little confusing? The survey also reveals that nurses are eager to continue their nursing education in the near future (1-3 years) and approximately 40% want to pursue an advanced degree.

What does this mean for hospitals? If nurses aren’t happy at work, yet still want to increase their education in the career- it makes sense for nurse managers and leaders to help their employees reach their goals. Helping with tuition reimbursement and conducting onsite educational courses are both ways to help employees reach their educational goals.

With this support, nurses will likely feel more valued and supported at work. It also makes it easier to decide between working for a hospital that has these educational benefits versus ones that do not.

See more on the study here.

Does your facility offer advanced education benefits to your employees?

Preventing Nurse Burnout in Your Hospital – Free 7 Step Guide

By Jeannie on Oct 05, 2012 in Healthcare Staffing, Nurse Burnout, Nursing Shortage

nurseburnoutcover3 300x133 Preventing Nurse Burnout in Your Hospital Free 7 Step Guide Nurse burnout is a serious and growing problem for health facilities. Lack of staff means longer hours and stress for your nurses, which can severely affect patient care.

At Medical Solutions, we know what a hardship this can be and have created a guide to help and prevent nurse burnout in your facility. Discover the 7 visible signs your nurses may be suffering from burnout and how to prevent it at your hospital.

Visit Preventing Nurse Burnout in Your Hospital to download the free guide.

Permanent Staff Vs. Traveler Staff Costs Calculator

By Jeannie on Aug 28, 2012 in Featured, Healthcare Staffing, Hospital Staffing, Staffing Calculator

2012 08 28 0950 300x123 Permanent Staff Vs. Traveler Staff Costs Calculator

Staffing your hospital while working on a tight budget presents a challenge. Having your own staff work overtime may feel like the most financially sound option when budgets are limited.

However, this dilemma presents an opportunity to look at your staffing strategy and the use of travelers from a new perspective, one that helps you take care of hardworking perm staff, your patients and still be financially responsible for your hospital.

To compare the cost between a permanent staff member and a traveler, download this Staffing Value Calculator Worksheet. You only have to enter 3 numbers and it will calculate all your staffing needs.

Nurse Burnout Contributes to Increase in Patient Infection

By Jeannie on Aug 10, 2012 in Healthcare Staffing, Nurse Burnout

istock 000001005153xsmall1 Nurse Burnout Contributes to Increase in Patient Infection Nurse burnout has been a long running concern for nurses’ well being. Recent studies show that burnout not only effects nurses, but also the number of infections in the patients they are caring for.

The American Journal of Infection Control recently conducted a study recording the relationship between nurse burnout and patient infection. Here are the study’s results:

For every 10 % increase in the patient to nurse ratio, there is roughly one catheter associated urinary tract infection per 1,000 patients and almost 2 extra surgical site infections per 1,000 patients.
Nurses usually care for an average of 5.7 patients per nurse, when one extra patient was added the result was an additional 1,352 infections with the hospital population studied.
Reducing reports of burnout by 30 percent cut urinary tract infections by more than 4,000 and surgical site infections by more than 2,200, saving between $28 million and $69 million per year in estimated costs to treat those infections.

Nurse burnout not only affects the well being of the nursing staff, but the health of the patient. The study concludes that reducing nurse burnout reduces infections and saves money.

NBC News

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