PAM Health Uses Exceptional Clinicians to Fill Staffing Gaps with Nursa

Facility Background

PAM Health Hospital of Westminster is a skilled nursing and rehabilitation hospital located in Westminster, Colorado. It has approximately 25 full-time staff members and uses Nursa on a week-by-week basis to cover open shifts and fill its patient census.

The Challenge

Pam Health was not alone in the struggle that came with the nationwide nursing shortage. As administrators worked to staff the facility to support its patient census, they ran into roadblocks that prevented them from reaching their full-time staffing goals. "Even now, with the shortage of staff, it's so hard to hire people. Every time we tried to set up interviews, people just didn't show up. It's really hard to build your team and keep it," started Katrina Butterfield, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at PAM Health. The difficulty to hire and retain staff motivated them to turn to a PRN staffing method to support their needs.

Prior to using Nursa, the staff at PAM Health was using a different platform to fulfill their PRN needs. "When we used [the other PRN provider], it was common for clinicians to not come in or show up. It caused a lot of issues," Katrina clarified. "Either calling off before their shift or not showing up. We had to get in contact with their representative, but he wouldn't answer the phone.

And, there weren't any repercussions for people calling off. It was a disaster." Katrina joined the PAM team as it was evaluating replacing its previous PRN platform with a more sustainable solution. "I had used Nursa in a previous role so I was able to share how much I love it."

The Solution

Nursa's clinician quality and dedicated local support were a couple of the reasons why Katrina advocated to bring on Nursa to support staffing needs. "In my experience, Nursa and its clinicians tend to have more knowledge, more professionalism, and more skills in their roles," she insisted. "Compared with other platforms I've worked with, I've never had an issue with Nursa clinicians calling off or not showing up. I can't think of a time when a clinician didn't show up for a shift. If a clinician does cancel, it's usually 2-3 days prior which gives us enough time to repost the shift."

Providing quality clinicians to the PAM Health staff proved to not only have a positive impact on its patients, but on its full-time staff members as well. "Using Nursa to fill empty shifts gives my full-time staff more relief and stability. Knowing ahead of time that we're not going to be short staffed, helps the whole team feel relief," Katrina gushed. "My full-time staff is less burned out, less stressed, and just overall happier. I don't have to worry about burnout because I have Nursa." She continued, "Not only does Nursa ensure PAM Health is fully staffed, but it also enhances support for the facility's schedulers by providing dedicated local support."

"The other day when our two PAM clinicians didn't show up for their schedule shift, I called Reagan [at Nursa] asking him to quickly add a bonus to the last-minute request for help. He quickly helped me out and the shifts were covered within a handful of minutes with exceptional clinicians we had worked with in the past. It completely saved us," she shared. "Nursa is incredibly responsive. If we call the members of [the] local team, they always answer the phone ready to help with whatever is needed. The extra support makes it incredibly easy to work with Nursa.

Between quality clinicians and local team support, Katrina and the staff at PAM Health have been able to effectively put a clinician at the bedside of every patient. "Nursa helps us be able to provide quality care for our patients and ensure that we're fully staffed so they can get the care they need and deserve."