Per Diem Healthcare Staffing Solutions in Los Angeles, CA

California is the most populous state in the country, with nearly 40 million people. However, according to Becker’s Hospital Review, the state ranks 40th in hospital beds per capita. This situation is directly related to the state’s nurse staffing shortage. Amid this staffing crisis, hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Los Angeles, California, must find staffing solutions to maintain mandated patient-to-nurse ratios and quality of care.

Understanding the Staffing Challenges in Los Angeles, CA

United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) shares the following staggering statistics that help paint a clear picture of the staffing challenges California faces:

The registered nurse turnover rate is about 18 percent.
Replacing just one nurse costs about $56,300. If a hospital can reduce its nursing staff turnover rate by one percentage point, it can save $250,000 in associated replacement, recruitment, and training costs.
California needs another 74,000 nurses to reach the national average nurse-to-population ratio.
California’s nursing schools must increase enrollment by 60 percent to avoid nursing shortages.

Issues affecting nurse staffing in California are diverse and complex. According to an article published by CalMatters, a nonprofit newsroom, nursing vacancy rates among hospitals in Southern California exceed 30 percent. The logical solution is to train more nurses. However, nursing programs are full, and schools are forced to turn away qualified candidates. Schools claim that they need more faculty and hands-on training opportunities to accept more students. Meanwhile, the nursing shortage creates a vicious cycle that leads to further shortages since nurses feel overworked and burned out, leading many to leave the profession or retire early.

Other factors that make healthcare delivery even more complex in Los Angeles are the elevated homelessness and linguistic isolation.

Homelessness in LA

The 2022 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count by the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) found 69,144 people experiencing homelessness in the county, representing a 4.1 percent increase from 2020. According to the County of Los Angeles Public Health, people experiencing homelessness were almost four times more likely to die than the LA County population as a whole in 2022.

Leading causes of death among the homeless population include the following:

Overdose
Coronary heart disease
Transportation-related injuries
Homicide
Suicide

The prevalence of homelessness in Los Angeles is one factor leading to the high demand for healthcare services in this city.

Linguistic Isolation in LA

According to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, over 40 percent of Californians speak a language other than English at home, and about half of those either do not speak English well or at all. People with low English proficiency often have trouble communicating with local healthcare professionals. Therefore, they may not receive the care or information they need.

Top Staffing Options in Los Angeles, CA

In many ways, nurse burnout is out of facilities’ hands. However, one way facilities can increase nurse happiness and reduce turnover rates is by maintaining adequate staffing levels. In the context of a nursing exodus coupled with insufficient numbers of new nurses, hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Los Angeles, California, need flexible staffing options providing short- and long-term solutions. The following are the top staffing options facilities have at their disposal:

Traditional employment: Facilities can post job openings, review applications, interview prospective candidates, and hire and onboard new nurses. Traditional hiring is an excellent way to find the ideal candidate for a position, but this recruitment method is expensive and time-consuming.
Nurse staffing companies: Facilities can outsource the nurse recruitment process to staffing agencies and rely on them to choose the right nurses. Staffing agencies provide a convenient solution to staffing needs but have high fees and may also require long wait times.
Travel nursing: Facilities can contract travel nurses to help cover short-term needs. However, contracting travel nurses is expensive and includes paying or compensating for housing, making it an unsustainable long-term solution. Furthermore, since California is not yet a Nursing Licensure Compact (NLC) member, nurses from other states must obtain new nursing licenses to practice in this state.
Per diem nursing: Facilities can also contract per diem or PRN nurses in Los Angeles, California, to cover specific shifts. Although facilities may prefer to find long-term solutions instead of covering one shift at a time, PRN staffing can be a great way to get to know potential employees before offering them permanent positions. Our staffing solutions software streamlines the recruitment and talent acquisition processes.

Tips for Choosing the Right Staffing Option

Acute care, skilled nursing, rehabilitation, long-term care, and long-term acute care facilities in Los Angeles all must find short- and long-term solutions to their staffing needs to guarantee the safety of both patients and healthcare workers. Due to facilities’ evolving needs, a combination of staffing solutions may be the best approach.

There is no question that a large percentage of a facility’s staff should ideally be long-term internal employees. However, facilities don’t necessarily need to follow the traditional recruitment process to find new staff. Per diem healthcare staffing options in Los Angeles, California, allow hospitals and other facilities to find emergency nursing staff and, at the same time, evaluate potential candidates for in-house staff.

In short, facilities in Los Angeles, California, can rely on PRN staffing solutions to cover immediate, short-term needs while they look for permanent in-house staff. Simultaneously, these permanent staff may come from onboarding these PRN nurses.

How to Find PRN Clinicians in Los Angeles, CA

Hospitals and other facilities increasingly rely on PRN clinicians for on-demand staffing and flexible scheduling. Nursa is a PRN nursing platform that leverages technology to facilitate staffing by connecting facilities and clinicians directly. Facilities offering acute and post-acute care can post the shifts they need to cover on Nursa, where healthcare professionals can request them. Since Nursa handles credential verification and background checks, facilities can find the nurses they need quickly and efficiently. Post a PRN job to start solving your staffing challenges today.

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