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What types of nurse staffing do travel nursing companies provide?

By Jeff on Aug 14, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Travel Nurses

This can be dependent on the company’s size and the number of candidates in their pool, but travel nursing companies normally should be able to provide you with nurse staff for almost all specialties and sub-specialties.

Of course they will face similar challenges to you when it comes to harder to find specialists, but the thing to keep in mind is that travel nursing companies are in the business of candidates. So good ones will always be trying to grow the number of candidates they talk to so that when your needs arise they will have the candidate to match as quickly as possible.

When you are talking to new travel nursing companies make sure you ask them for a breakdown of the different types of nurses they have in their database. This should be an important factor in how you determine which company to go with. You may find that it is a big inconvenience to settle on a company only to find that they have low numbers of nurses in specialties that your hospital needs most.

They should also be able to supply your hospital with nurses that are comfortable and qualified to work in many different settings and hospital sizes. Even the size of your city may play a role in how comfortable they are.

Although most companies will pay for a new state license for their travel nurses, it can still be a time consuming process so it is also helpful to find out how many nurses they have in their databases that are actually licensed to work in your state and/or have in interest in doing so.

Basically, remember to ask these two questions to get a feel for what kind nurse staff a travel nursing company will be able to provide:

Can you send me a breakdown of the number of nurses in your database by state license and interest?
Can you send me a breakdown of the number of nurses in your databse by specialty?

Whose job is it to provide a temporary healthcare professional with housing?

By Jeff on Jul 23, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Healthcare Overtime, Hospital Staffing

This is something you do not have to worry about if you are considering using travelers at your hospital. Housing is something that the healthcare staffing company you are working with should definitely take care of. They usually have a housing department that handles finding their travel healthcare professionals suitable housing and furnishing it, which is part of their overall compensation and benefits package.

The housing department’s goal is to find the nurse good housing that enhances their experience, while also being close to the hospital and at an affordable rate using corporate discounts and contracts to minimize the expense to all three parties, the hospital, the traveler and the company.

If you come across a company that does not provide housing for its travelers then you may want to ask them why they don’t and what they do instead.

The traveler may opt to just receive a housing stipend instead, but even then the healthcare staffing company should try to assist them in the process.

If you come across a company that does not provide housing for its travelers then you may want to ask them why they don’t and what they do instead. And possibly look at working with another company instead, because this may be an indicator of how they will treat their employee and it is important for you and your hospital that the traveler is treated well by the company.

Can a hospital extend a temporary travel nursing assignment?

By Jeff on Jul 09, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Healthcare Staffing, Travel Nurses

Ideally of course you would like to fill your open nursing position with a permanent nurse or have a staffing plan in place that lets you know in advance when you are going to need temporary staff to supplement your full time staff.

However, if neither of those are the case, then yes most healthcare staffing companies can extend a travel assignment. With enough notice, most of the time, they will be able to provide you with the same travel nurse who worked the first assignment. But keep in mind that that is really up to the nurse more than the company, which is why it is important to provide a great experience for your travel nurses like you do your permanent staff.

If that travel nurse does move onto another a hospital or company, again enough notice is important, but most companies are going to be able to provide you with another RN to take the assignment.

It is always to the advantage of the travel nursing company to extend assignments, it saves them money in housing, insurance and marketing costs to keep travelers working in longer assignments so don’t hesitate to discuss the option with your healthcare staffing company.

Why would a healthcare professional want to work on a temporary basis?

By Jeff on Jul 02, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Hospital Staffing

There is a misconception out there at times that a nurse may be interested in travel assignments because she could not cut it in a permanent position.

In reality, not only has research shown that temporary nurses are as qualified if not more so than permanent nurses, but there are also other reasons they may be interested in a temporary assignment, including:

Looking for more flexiblitiy in there job opportunities
Enjoy seeing and experiencing different parts of the country
Adding to their clinical skills set
Building their resume by working at a variety of hospitals of varying size and focus
Going through changes in their life
Entering a new phase in their career

11 websites to help you keep your nurses from burning out

By Jeff on Jun 25, 2010 in Nursing Staff Management

Dealing with nurse staff that is suffering from burnout is a constant challenge for nurse manager, so we have put together this list of nurse burnout resources for you to refer to when it becomes a challenge in your unit.

And one more just for fun

Nurstoon.com

Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company's Cost

By Jeff on Jun 11, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Featured, Healthcare Staffing, Hospital Staffing, Working with Staffing Vendors

Of course no evaluation of healthcare staffing companies would be complete without a look at cost. However, we have saved cost for last because it is really a combination of the first two factors the quality of the candidate and the system of its delivery.

Obviously cost is a complicated and may be more than we should tackle in a single post, but we will give it a shot. First off though we will assume that you are already past the mindset that “travel nurses cost too much”. The cost of temporary healthcare staff is not expensive compared to what it costs to staff your hospital with a permanent staff member, you can learn more in this post about Can travel healthcare staff actually save you money? Sure there are times when it makes to use travelers and times when you flat out don’t need them, in this case we will assume you have made the decision that you do need them and you are merely comparing one travel nursing company to another.

There are some things you need to consider when looking at a cost. There is obviously not a lot of information available on individual companies policy towards determining bill rates so this will be a fairly generic overview, but it should give you a few things to consider when you are evaluating travel nursing companies costs.

Areas of Expense Affecting Healthcare Staffing Company’s Bill Rates

First remember that there are a lot of factors that go into determining bill rates and they will vary from company to company, but some of the most common areas of expense affecting bill rates are:

Rate of pay
Vacations, holidays
Worker’s compensation
Unemployment
Social security (FICA)
federal state and local taxes
Bookkeeping costs
Recruiting
Advertising
OSHA bloodborne training
HIPAA training, drug screens
Hep-B screen testing
Malpractice insurance
Housing
Other traveler benefits
Costs of hospital’s protocols (i.e. screening requirements and background checks required by the hospital.
The length of the contract
The number of guaranteed hours
VMS involvement

Considerations When Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Bill Rates

Based on these somewhat standard items that you need to keep in mind, you then need to look at the service you receive from the travel nursing or the travel allied health company and the quality of candidates from the point of view of what you are willing to pay for them.

So in conjunction with cost you need to consider the importance you place on the following areas:

Quality of candidates
Thoroughness of screening processes
Good communication with the nurse by the staffing company
The level of communication you want with the staffing company (not the VMS)
Customer service you want from the staffing company

Conclusion about Evaluating Healthcare Staffing Company’s Bill Rates

All of these areas are indirectly tied to the bill rates of the healthcare staffing company. For you HR and nurse managers making the decisions, the difference may be seen in a few dollars difference per hour either way, but can have bigger impacts than that. The question is, is that difference worth lower quality candidates or not having direct contact with the staffing company (both areas we discussed in the previous two posts in this series)? Or conversely is that extra service really worth the greater expense?

Conclusion about Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Processes

The key thing to remember when evaluating a healthcare staffing company to work with is to think of your needs and what is going to be the best fit for your hospital. Just because a company has a slick sales presentation or is the biggest doesn’t mean they are going to be the best fit for your facility. There are a lot of factors that going into finding that right partnership for you and your hospital.

Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company's Processes

By Jeff on May 28, 2010 in Hospital Staffing

If the quality of the candidates is the lifeblood of a healthcare staffing company then their process is the heart. It is in the process that a lot of differentiation in companies takes place. There are three key process styles that companies tend to fall into and they really set the tone for how they are going to work with you and your hospital. They are: The Hands-On Approach to Healthcare Staffing, The High Volume Approach to Healthcare Staffing and The Multi-Tasking Approach to Healthcare Staffing.

The Hands-On Approach to Healthcare Staffing

A company with this approach is going to be structured in a way that allows them maximum contact with their customers, both hospitals and traveling healthcare professionals. That means they are more likely to be split between a recruiter and a hospital client manager. This lets each group focus on meeting the needs of those clients without having to split their time. This elevates the level of attention and expertise they are able to give to their customers and thus their service.

A company with this approach is also going to have a cautious approach to working with Vendor Management Systems (VMS) if it limits their ability to connect with their hospitals because that affects their ability to provide the best customer service they can. This can limit the number of jobs they have, but the trade-off is the service their clients do receive and the experience their travelers have at an assignment.

Companies with the hand-on approach are also going to want their recruiters to have smaller “desk sizes” or the numbers of travelers they will work with at any given time, so they can focus on individuals and not numbers.

The High Volume Approach to Healthcare Staffing

A high volume approach company is going to be structured to work with large numbers of clients and travelers. They are more likely to encourage larger desk sizes for their recruiters and ask them to also be the hospital contact. As a result they work with a large number of VMS, which aggregate companies to compete for a hospital’s jobs and take the work out of finding new customers for companies. Their structure allows them to process more travelers, but the level of customer service can suffer as a result of a lack of focus in one area.

The Multi-Tasking Approach to Healthcare Staffing

A company using a multi-tasking approach is going to ask their recruiters to also be the hospital contacts, which has the advantage of direct contact for the Nurse Manager of HR specialist with the same person talking to the nurse, therapist or tech. On the flip-side, however this set up usually means that the recruiters are assigned regions or states that they focus on. This can result in a disjointed experience for the traveler who has to switch recruiters if they want to work in a different part of the country, which affects the company’s ability to attract new travelers if they don’t feel a connection to a recruiter.

This type of company is also going to rely heavily on working with VMS in order to offset the amount of time that is required to recruit healthcare professionals. This means that they have to put a lot of focus on volume because the number of candidates submitted to hospitals through a VMS can be a large number.

Conclusion about Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Processes

All of these approaches are different and which one is best for you really depends on your situation and how your hospital is structured. In the next post in this series we will look at evaluating a healthcare staffing company’s cost.

Evaluating a Company's Nursing and Allied Health Candidates

By Jeff on May 21, 2010 in Healthcare Hiring, Healthcare Staffing, Hospital Staffing, Working with Staffing Vendors

The quality and quantity of nursing and allied health candidates that a staffing company provide is really the core of their business and is one of the main reasons you should be considering working with a staffing company in the first place. There are four key components to this: Nursing and Allied Health Candidate Pool Size, Recruiting Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals, Screening Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals and Speed in Finding Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals for Your Hospital.

Nursing and Allied Health Candidate Pool Size

First you want to look at how many nurses and other healthcare providers they have in their database. It does not do you much good to sign on to work with a company, no matter how low their prices or how friendly they seem, if they don’t have the candidates to meet y our needs. Even more specifically you will want to find out how many candidates they have licensed in your area and working in the specialties you need most.

Recruiting Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals

Next you want to find out how they attract new nurses and therapists to work for them. You want to know that they are an attractive option for the best candidates out there. Think of them like a college sports team, often the best schools get the best student-athletes and in turn put the best teams out on the field. Travel nursing companies or travel therapy companies function basically the same way. The best nurses, for example, know that they are in higher demand and thus are going to go with the company that treats them best, whether for that nurse it is pay, relationship with recruiter or customer service. That’s why you want to work with companies with good reputations among the travelers themselves and that are always actively seeking new candidates and building their brand among them.

Screening Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals

The next factor you will want to look at is what qualification process goes on to ensure that your hospital only gets qualified and pre-screened candidates that you feel comfortable providing patient care at your facility. One easy way to do this is to make sure they are Joint Commission certified, which means that they have been evaluated by the largest standards-setting and accrediting body in healthcare and have earned the Gold Seal of Approval™ . This demonstrates that they are dedicated to providing qualified healthcare staff able to deliver high-quality patient care.

Next you want to ask specifics about their application and screening process. The basics of a good screening process include a thorough background check, immunizations, drug screening, skills evaluation, personal interviews and references. If any of these things are missing from a company’s screening process you should reconsider if they are going to provide you with the best candidates.

Speed in Finding Travel Nurses and Allied Health Professionals for Your Hospital

Another important factor in evaluating travel nursing or travel therapy companies for your facility is their response time in getting you the candidates you need. Again it does not do your hospital any good to work with a staffing company that boasts thousands of candidates, but takes a week to send you someone. You should expect a company to provide you with qualified candidates in the speed you need whether it is a couple of days or months in advance.

Conclusion about Evaluating a Company’s Nursing and Allied Health Candidates

Being thorough in evaluating the quality of candidates of a travel nursing or travel therapy company is an important part of the patient care your hospital provides so take the time to do it right and ask the right questions and lots of them. In the next post in this series we will look at Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Processes.

Why should I use one company over another to meet my healthcare staffing needs?

By Jeff on May 14, 2010 in Demystifying healthcare staffing, Featured, Healthcare Staffing, Hospital Staffing, Working with Staffing Vendors

There are a lot of factors to look at when it comes to determining what travel nursing company you think will meet the needs of your hospital best. We looked at these partially earlier in two posts, one about evaluate the healthcare staffing vendors and another about healthcare staffing providers financially stability, but now we will take a look at how to compare companies when you are looking for new ones to work with.

Several factors need consideration when working with individual healthcare staffing companies, but they all basically center on their ability to provide you with what you need, qualified and caring nurses or allied health professionals at a cost that provides value to your hospital and patients.

Over the next three weeks we will be looking at three important parts of this evaluation:

Evaluating a Company’s Nursing and Allied Health Candidates
Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Processes
Evaluating a Healthcare Staffing Company’s Cost

How are you dealing with a more diverse nurse population?

By Jeff on May 07, 2010 in Hospital Staffing, Nursing Staff Management

A recent study titled The Registered Nurse Population: Initial Findings from the 2008 National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses revealed some interesting developments regarding the ever more diverse nursing population. Some of the findings include:

Women still outnumber men by 15 to 1 overall, but for nurses who became RNs after 1990, the ratio is only 10 to 1.
The average age of all licensed RNs in 2008 was 47 versus 46.8 in 2004, which the report said means the age increases of the past have slowed down and the age of nurses is stabilizing
The number of minority nurses increased to 16.8% of nurses in 2008 from 12.2% in 2004.
The number of foreign educated nurses living in the U.S. increased to 170,235 (RNs), which makes up 5.6% of the nursing population in the U.S. , this is up from 3.7% in 2007. These were mostly comprised from the Philippines, Canada and India.

So what does this increase in diversity mean for your unit? Like every situation there are bound to be both benefits and challenges.

Some of the Benefits Diversity in Your Unit Include:

Better adaptability to different kinds of patients - Nurses from different backgrounds can bring individual talents and experiences in patient care that make them more flexible in adapting to different patient needs

Broader care range – Having a diverse set of skills and experiences (for example, languages and cultural backgrounds) means nurses can relate to all kinds of patients.

Larger knowledge base - A culturally diverse nursing unit that is able to communicate their different viewpoints to each other creates a larger knowledge base of ideas and experiences that they can use collectively to meet the needs of the community they serve.

Some of the Challenges of Diversity in Your Unit Include:

Poor Communication – Overcoming the cultural and language barriers that can happen between people from different backgrounds is crucial to reaping the benefits of a culturally diverse unit, so you will need to focus on creating open and understanding lines of communication among your staff

Resisting change – As your unit’s makeup changes you may have some employees who resists the change and don’t accept that the cultural and social dynamic of the unit is changing.

Managing of Diversity in the Unit – Making sure the diversity in your unit is a positive and not a negative starts with you as the Nurse Manager. And one of the best ways to do this is through recognition that it is taking place and putting education and an open communication policy in place for your team.

Here are some other resources to help you:

What about your unit? What trends have you seen in diversity? What strategies have you used to use it your advantage?

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