Discover common staffing challenges in this city and how using a PRN app can help you start solving them. Keep reading to learn about what sets Nursa apart from other contracted staffing options.
Nursa connects you with reliable staff in Fort Smith, AR
Nursa is the best option for your healthcare facility in Fort Smith, Arkansas. The flexible scheduling and other features it offers allow you to focus on other aspects of your facility. Compare nurse staffing agencies in Fort Smith, AR, with Nursa and note the differences.
This article will cover:
- Common challenges for healthcare facilities in Fort Smith regarding staff and clinicians.
- Solutions for the nursing shortage, including using a PRN app for facilities.
- The options Nursa offers for short-, medium-, and long-term staffing needs.
What common challenges do facilities have in Fort Smith?
Fort Smith has a number of local considerations that may present challenges for healthcare facilities:
- Diverse population: Fort Smith's population and demographics are highly diverse. With a multicultural population and a growing need for cultural competence and bilingual education, it becomes imperative to reach out more to the community. In general, nurses and other clinicians who can speak languages other than English are in high demand.
- Specific health issues: Obesity and diabetes are becoming priorities to address through prevention initiatives. This means that more nurses and physicians who can provide preventive care and manage these diseases are in demand.
- State regulations: Arkansas has regulations for nurse staffing to ensure safe patient care. Some of these regulations include requiring a specific number of nurse staffing ratios for different settings. Facilities must comply with these specific regulations, which is often difficult.
All of these considerations impact facilities in Fort Smith. However, meeting the number of staff required is often a large part of the solution to avoid any issues.
Impact on patient care
Facilities that are understaffed risk a negative impact on patient care. This impact can manifest in different ways.
Reduced quality of care provided
When there is not enough staff, the quality of patient care decreases. Those on duty must work harder, leading to burnout and decreased overall job satisfaction.
Fort Smith facilities have seen a high turnover rate, which means that many nurses are leaving their jobs or the profession entirely. This situation affects not only the quality of care but also the safety of patients, as there are fewer clinicians to monitor them.
Finally, patients often have longer wait times, which can lead to health risks when they need urgent help or have emergencies.
Access to care
Limited services due to understaffing can reduce healthcare access. Chronically understaffed facilities may not be able to operate to their full potential, and closures are a risk as well.
Many Arkansas counties have problems finding primary healthcare providers.
Impact on the Fort Smith community
Some community outcomes include a decline in the overall health of the Fort Smith population. Long wait times can affect both acute and chronic disease outcomes. When chronic illnesses are postponed, they can develop into bigger issues.
Additionally, as the need for healthcare grows, the pressure on facilities also increases. Lacking the ability to retain staff and recruit new staff, the burden on facilities is greater.
The impact on all healthcare sectors, patients, and facilities is clear. The question now is how to solve these problems.
How to solve the nursing shortage?
There are many initiatives to improve the clinician shortage in Fort Smith:
- International cooperation: Fort Smith has had initiatives that recruit nurses internationally, such as Mercy Hospital Fort Smith.
- Training programs: Some nursing programs that allow students to be more present in clinical practice ultimately help facilities to have more staff.
- Improving working conditions: Mental health support, flexible scheduling, open communication within the team, and other strategies that improve job satisfaction help to achieve a higher retention rate.
- Innovative solutions: Technology can create innovative solutions to acquire more short-term personnel. An example of this includes PRN apps, which allow facilities to hire PRN clinicians for shift coverage.
Reasons to use a PRN app
Using a PRN app can help your facility overcome nurse staffing challenges.
Let’s take a look at some advantages of adopting this system in your facility:
- Enjoy the flexibility to source nursing clinicians when you need them.
- Decrease burnout for your current staff because the workload is reduced, improving retention rates.
- Spend less in the long run. Although PRN shifts tend to pay more per hour, you don’t pay benefits to contracted clinicians, and you only pay them to work when you need them.
Using a PRN app can help your facility get contingent staffing when you need it.
Why is Nursa the best option for healthcare facilities?
Nursa provides many benefits for facilities. The administrative workload for facilities is reduced, because all clinicians on the platform that request shifts have already had their credentials verified.
Other advantages include the following:
- Direct connection with local nurses
- Cost-effective solutions
- Flexibility for nurses and facilities
This PRN staffing platform is easy to use. You can browse the application on your own and enjoy the ease of finding the lowest-cost, reliable nurses.
However, if you need it, Nursa Support is available, with a team of professionals available for your facility.
Nursa for medium- and short-term staffing needs
Nursa connects you with local clinicians, whether you need emergency staffing, on-demand staffing, or need to plan ahead for coverage for a vacancy or internal staff time off.
The app is a useful tool for last-minute callouts, emergencies, or seasonal surges, keeping facilities safe.
As a facility, you can post shifts in real time so that clinicians can respond immediately. This allows for rapid and efficient staffing solutions. Additionally, facilities have control over staffing choices, i.e., they can select who to have on each shift.
Nursa for long-term recruitment
Unlike other nurse staffing companies and nurse staffing agencies in Fort Smith, AR, the app is a helpful tool for long-term recruitment. The platform does not charge hire-away fees. This means your facility can use PRN shifts as a part of the internal staff hiring process.
What kind of facilities can access Nursa?
Our staffing app connects registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, certified nursing assistants, and other nursing clinicians with different types of facilities:
- Hospitals: Your hospital can meet last-minute short-term needs and also take care of long-term needs. Find hospital staffing.
- Home health: If you need nurses to work with patients in their homes, you can get them through the app.
- Long-term care facilities: Whether you have a nursing home or an assisted living facility, the platform helps you connect with qualified nurses. Cover your long-term care facility staffing needs with Nursa.
- Skilled nursing facilities: Many skilled nursing facilities use the app for local solutions to meet their needs. Your facility can find local PRN nurses in Fort Smith, AR.
Whatever your facility type is, start looking for local healthcare professionals and flexible staffing solutions.
Download, sign up, and start posting shifts
Fort Worth is known as a city of cowboys and culture. With its cattle drive, rodeos, and restaurants, as well as several world-class museums, it is a beautiful blend of old and new. Improve your work life and the lives of the patients and citizens of this beautiful city.
Create your Nursa account in just five minutes and start posting shifts as soon as you're verified.
Sources:
- American Nurses Association: Issues of Nurse Staffing: What’s Behind The Current Crisis?
- Arkansas Colleges of Health Education: Collaborative work needed to train, retain doctor
- Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Attract, retain nurses to ease shortage, experts say
- Mercy: Grants to Assist Mercy Arkansas Hospitals in Expanding Nursing Programs
- The Journal of Healthcare Contracting: IDN Solutions to the Nursing Shortage


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