Should you hire a per diem nurse? The shortage of nurses has plagued healthcare facilities for decades. Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a bigger demand for nurses and other healthcare staff than ever before. Although many things have brought us to this point in our healthcare delivery system, some main contributors to this crisis include nurse burnout, retiring nurses, changing their specialization, or turning to remote nursing jobs, etc.
What should healthcare facilities do to get the workers they need and save money? One solution is to hire a per diem nurse. With per diem, or PRN nurses, you can immediately help fill staff shortages with professional workers, including registered nurses (RNs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs).
Is It More Expensive To Hire A New Nurse Or Use Per Diem Nurses?
While facilities contend with the ongoing COVID-19 dilemma, investing in per diem nursing will let you access the best possible healthcare professionals at a fraction of the time it takes to hire employees.
Avoid the hassle and costs of nurse staffing agencies and go straight for an app. Nursa is an on-demand nurse staffing app that can instantly provide facilities with nurses who are licensed and ready to go. Such a tool gives facilities access to professionals to fill the shifts in their facility but only when needed.
Hospitals and healthcare facilities reap many benefits from using a per diem nurse, such as savings in budget costs. However, even though per diem nurses don't receive benefits, their pay is substantially higher than staff employees. Unlike a regularly employed nurse, the facility is not responsible for paying out extra costs such as retirement, insurance, paid vacations, and training when dealing with a local travel or PRN nurse.
How To Improve Nurse Retention:
The nurse turnover rate is at an all-time high due primarily to nurses making advances in their careers, relocation, burnout, and retirement. Additionally, some other contributing factors that play a part in the increased demand for nurses include the frustration of poor working conditions, being overworked, receiving little compensation, or nurses moving to different jobs that are less stressful.
What are some ways to deal with over-stressed nurses? Facilities might offer incentives, such as unlimited overtime, making work schedules more flexible, and taking feedback from employees on how they can improve retention. Furthermore, retirement plays a big part in the turnover rate because of the aging population. To help with this problem, aging nurses who want to continue to offer help can look into a flexible pension or a job redesign.
What is A PRN Nurse?
PRN is an abbreviation for "pr re nata." This Latin word stands for "as the situation demands." Therefore, nurses who work PRN, also coined per diem, pick up jobs for healthcare facilities nearby when they post shifts or jobs. Nursa serves as a platform where healthcare facilities can post these jobs in real-time to get them out there in front of nurses in their area.
Different facilities will have different needs for temporary nurses to fill in shifts. Shifts on the platform may be four, eight, 10, or 12 hours depending on the facility's demands.
Nurses choose their hours with PRN jobs, which offers excellent flexibility. For a PRN nurse traveling to different facilities and working a variety of units at a hospital is part of the job. Therefore, per diem nurses must be versatile because they operate under different management with new people at each facility.
Requirements To Become a PRN Nurse:
To be a PRN nurse at a facility may have different expectations, such as requiring an RN license and at least one year of working in critical care. Or, some facilities require completing a competency test before you can work a PRN shift. You usually receive compensation for your work immediately after you complete a shift.
In scheduling, there's a lot to consider, such as the type of care the patients you're taking care of require, the number of patients vs the amount of staff, new admissions that may come through the doors, or call-ins that might leave your units short-staffed. Using PRN nurses plays a significant role in keeping facilities afloat during unexpected situations when a healthcare facility must have safe nurse-to-patient and staffing ratios.
A solution? Hospitals and other healthcare facilities that utilize PRN nurses via an on-demand app can quickly find experienced help to make up for any unforeseen shortages. These simple apps play a significant role in hospital staffing, especially in rural areas where it's needed the most.
Learn More: How facilities can fill shifts faster with PRN staffing on Nursa
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