What can facilities in Port Arthur do to find vetted clinicians ready to work?
There are several options. Which begs the following question:
How can a facility choose the best option when looking for flexible scheduling?
If you are looking for healthcare staffing solutions in Port Arthur, TX, this article is for you. Continue reading and learn how to choose the best option for your staffing needs.
Look for PRN healthcare staffing solutions in Port Arthur
Port Arthur is a mid-sized city in Texas, about 90 miles from Houston. It has a diverse community and population and is known for being a hub for industry and cultural exchange.
In this magnificent city, healthcare professionals need to have intercultural knowledge and be able to counsel patients in different languages. In recent years, this city has faced many challenges, including natural disasters and a lack of sufficient healthcare staff.
Overall, there is a growing demand for health professionals nationwide, and this is also the case in Port Arthur. Therefore, facilities need to find reliable yet flexible staffing solutions to meet their healthcare staffing needs in Port Arthur, Texas.
The reality behind staffing challenges in this city
What are some of the most frequent and persistent problems in Port Arthur?
Some of the most pressing healthcare staffing issues in Port Arthur, Texas, include:
- Persistent nursing shortages: Referred to in Port Arthur as a “medical emergency,” facilities here are dealing primarily with an imbalance. Most nurses go to larger metropolitan areas for work, leaving smaller cities like Port Arthur with an insufficient pool of nurses.
- Cultural competency issues: Port Arthur has a highly diverse population. Clinicians must be able to adapt to the different needs of minority communities present in the city.
- Retention issues: Both recruiting and retaining staff are complicated in Port Arthur. When staff are overworked to meet the demand, retention becomes an issue.
- Financial strains: The cost of hiring new nursing staff and maintaining high-quality operations can put a financial strain on healthcare facilities.
While healthcare facilities in Port Arthur face many different challenges, creative ideas, such as PRN staffing, can provide solutions to almost all of them.
Choose the best staffing option for your facility
Port Arthur's healthcare facilities have several options to help them address their workforce needs. We will analyze the pros and cons of nurse staffing companies and agencies, travel nurses, float nurses, and PRN nurses.
Nurse staffing companies and agencies
The use of nurse staffing companies or agencies in Port Arthur, Texas, has long been a traditional form of sourcing both temporary and long-term clinicians.
Pros
Some advantages of using the services of an agency are:
- Offloading the recruitment and candidate selection process to a recruiter allows you to focus on other tasks and responsibilities.
- Agency services typically verify the credentials and references of their candidates.
Cons
Some disadvantages of staffing companies include:
- Costs for the service are often high.
- Hire-away fees and other additional contract fees may pop up.
Travel nursing
Many nurses like to work with travel nursing contracts, an option in which they work for eight to 13 weeks in a facility with a high and temporary staffing demand.
Pros
Some advantages of having a travel nurse on board include the following:
- Having an extra nurse to add to the schedule for the contract period can help shore up gaps in the schedule.
- Travel nurses help facilities meet large patient demands during busy census periods.
Cons
- If patient census is low, the facility either incurs fees for canceling the travel contract or has the expense of an unneeded nurse.
- Travel nurse contracts are notoriously expensive and therefore unsustainable.
Nursing float pools
Some hospitals have float pool nurses internally, which means that nurses can move from one unit to another as needed.
Pros
Some advantages of having float nurses for facilities are:
- Float nurses can be cost-effective for facilities, as they do not need to hire new hospital nursing staff for different units all the time.
- Cross-training for a nurse float pool improves the professional growth of nurses as they adapt to different units.
Cons
- A float pool requires greater flexibility from nurses who often feel overworked.
- Additional training may be necessary to prepare nurses to float to different units.
- Some nurses may not want to float to other units.
Per diem staffing
Per diem staffing, also called PRN staffing, is the most innovative solution. These nurses work on an as-needed basis, filling gaps in the schedule and solving shortages.
Pros
Some advantages of contracting PRN nurses in Port Arthur, Texas, include the following:
- PRN contracts offer facilities flexibility.
- Long-term savings are often a benefit of PRN staffing since they only work (and are paid) when needed.
- PRN nursing clinicians offset staffing shortages by helping with shift coverage and staffing ratios.
- Often, PRN healthcare professionals are local.
Cons
Some disadvantages of per diem staffing might include the following:
- Lack of familiarity with facility procedures
- Difficulty building relationships
- Administrative burden for facilities
Keep reading and find out how Nursa addresses these disadvantages, making per diem staffing the best option for your facility.
How to choose the best staffing option in Port Arthur
Some tips for deciding on the best staffing option include the following:
- Analyze upfront costs for each option, and look for additional fees or hire-away fees.
- Analyze the time and effort required to adopt the new staffing strategy.
- Consider how much administrative burden would be added.
One option that many facilities in Port Arthur are beginning to use that meets all of these criteria is the per diem healthcare staffing platform, Nursa.
Related: “Staffing Efficiency in Healthcare: How to Get There”
Nursa: The easiest way to find care professionals
Nursa streamlines per diem staffing to be better suited to your needs. Here’s how:
- Facilities can rebook preferred clinicians, enabling better relationships and team cohesion over time.
- Nursa offers the option to Auto-Schedule your favorite PRN clinicians to reduce administrative burden.
- The platform can be integrated with existing management systems.
- License verification and background checks are taken care of so that only vetted clinicians can pick up shifts.
- Facilities can use ShiftReady to give clinicians easy access to onboarding and training materials.
- Nursa allows facilities to hire a PRN clinician for an internal staff position without paying hire-away fees. This allows facilities to “test-drive” nurses before hiring them permanently.
If you are looking for PRN nurses in Port Arthur, Texas, Nursa may be the solution your facility needs. Why don’t you give it a try?
Sign up today to start using Nursa.
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