Scottsdale, Arizona, holds first place as the city with the highest percentage of senior citizens.
At 24 percent, the proportion of the population over 65 in this “retirement destination” is well above the national average of 16.8 percent. This demographic trend fuels the demand for healthcare and qualified staff.
To keep pace, timely recruitment is essential to healthcare staffing in Scottsdale, AZ.
The Nursa open healthcare marketplace connects you with premium, cost-effective staffing solutions designed to meet the mounting demands of healthcare.
Find reliable healthcare staffing solutions in Scottsdale, AZ
With the increased healthcare required by the senior population added to the nursing shortage, Scottsdale healthcare facilities face an uphill battle every day.
In this article, we will look at challenges facing medical staffing, points to consider when selecting your workforce strategy, available options, and how Nursa’s PRN staffing strategy helps you find nurses in Scottsdale, Arizona.
What drives the challenges to healthcare staffing in Scottsdale?
Typical pain points range from systemic issues, such as the ongoing shortage, to administrative headaches like balancing the budget or last-minute call outs.
The ever-present nursing shortage
In 2025, Arizona has a nine percent shortage of registered nurses (RNs), close to the national average of 10 percent. The nursing shortage is complex and involves a snowballing of interacting issues, including nurse turnover, burnout, scarcity of nursing school faculty, and aging.
Highs and lows in patient census
In Scottsdale, each season has its health issues, but they vary in the type of healthcare required.
Seasonal fluctuations:
- Winter brings the “snowbirds” from colder states, especially retirees, flocking to Arizona and Scottsdale, increasing the demand for healthcare.
- Late spring and early summer are the peak allergy seasons due to the dust and pollen in the desert environment.
- Summer heat, with temperatures over 100℉, contributes to dehydration, a common issue in urgent care centers.
- Fall sees the beginning of the flu season, although it peaks in December and January. Older adults have the highest rate of flu-related hospitalizations.
Let alone the predictable seasonal fluxes, Scottsdale also sees unpredictable swings in demand.
Unpredictable variations:
- Epidemics, such as the 2025 measles outbreak.
- Poor air quality due to dust storms or wildfires.
- Extreme heat waves.
Many of these do not involve hospitalization, but the outpatient census also directly affects the number of nurses needed to care for the patients.
Nursa connects you to PRN nurses, who are ready to fill the shifts whenever staffing gaps arise.
Staffing costs
Staffing accounts for over 50 percent of hospital expenditures, and nursing staff alone adds up to 30 percent. These figures are even higher in long-term care settings, where staffing costs make up a larger proportion of the budget.
In Arizona, the minimum wage has risen from $8.05 per hour in 2015 to $12 an hour in 2020, and up to $14.70 in 2025.
The average wages for nursing clinicians in Arizona is as follows:
- Registered nurses earn on average $41.70 per hour
- Licensed practical nurses (LPNs) earn on average $32.08 per hour
- Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) earn on average $19.69 per hour
The average wages for LPNs and CNAs in Arizona are a little higher than the national average, but the average RN wage is slightly lower. The wages may be somewhat higher in the Phoenix metropolitan area.
Taking rising costs into account, efficient budgeting means employing only the minimum number of clinicians to provide quality care, and adding temporary nurses in peak times, for staff paid leave, or for call outs.
Nursa can help you find PRN nurses to fill shifts without overstaffing, whether you’re in a long-term care facility, a hospital, or another healthcare center.
Administrative workload
Schedulers, directors of nursing (DONs), and healthcare managers coordinate and manage patient and staff appointments, maintain accurate schedules and records, handle budgeting, and ensure regulatory compliance.
The work is heavy enough when everything goes on schedule, but high turnover and burnout lead to frequent last-minute call outs and shift changes, which suddenly make the job much more stressful.
Whether the call out is due to illness, a family emergency, or exhaustion, you have to find a clinician to cover that shift.
Nursa works with a vast pool of local RNs, LPNs, and CNAs, ready to hit the ground running, in as little as one hour’s notice.
What is your approach?
The interplay of the nursing shortage, escalating costs, and fluctuating healthcare needs calls for innovative healthcare staffing options. A few points to consider are the following:
- Time: How long does it take to fill a shift?
- Safety: Are the clinicians credentialed and vetted?
- Cost: Beyond the pay itself, what are the added costs?
Ultimately, successful nurse staffing solutions balance efficiency, safety, and cost-effectiveness, enabling healthcare providers to meet healthcare needs and support their valuable workforce.
See the Nursa report on how facility leaders view the changing social contract of work and are relying on 1099 nurses to enhance their care teams.
Staffing options in Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale has the traditional options, as well as innovative alternatives, each with pros and cons.
Traditional staffing agencies
- Pros: Full-service staffing support and access to licensed clinicians
- Cons: High cost, minimum shift commitments, limited facility participation in selection, slow onboarding for short-notice vacancies
Traditional nurse staffing agencies in Scottsdale, AZ, offer comprehensive services for long-term staffing demands, but they may not have the speed that you require, and agencies charge sizable fees.
Internal float pools
- Pros: Known staff, familiarity with the organization and policies, low cost
- Cons: Limited pool of resources regarding specialties, overtime policies usually apply, not scalable for peaks in patient census
Some facilities keep a pool of on-demand clinicians that can relieve the regular staff of the stress of overtime or understaffing, but it is a limited group.
Travel nurses
- Pros: Scalable to cover predicted peak census periods or longer-term needs, access to specialized clinicians
- Cons: Very high cost, including housing and travel stipends
Large healthcare systems use travel nurses more than long-term care facilities, rehabilitation centers, or smaller clinics. The cost of travel nurse contracts prevents this from being a sustainable solution.
Open healthcare staffing platforms, like Nursa
- Pros: Lower costs, scalable solutions, transparent processes, and greater autonomy for facilities and nurses, plus immediate access to a large pool of PRN nurses in Scottsdale, AZ
- Cons: Initial facility verification for signup
Once you register, Nursa will save you time, money, and stress, and registration just takes a few minutes.
Traditional nurse staffing companies, internal float pools, and travel nurses each have their place. You may want to consider a combination. Read more about flexible staffing options.
How does Nursa help you find nurses in Scottsdale, AZ?
Nursa is an experienced, national per diem healthcare staffing marketplace with a pool of more than 300,000 qualified nursing professionals, working with over 2400 facilities. Nursa connects you to reliable nurses, with the following practical advantages:
- Real-time on-demand staffing: Post open shifts for RNs, LPNs, or CNAs and fill them within hours or even minutes, immediately covering gaps.
- Autonomy for the facility and the nurses: You set the pay rates and select the applicant to fill the vacancy. The nurses choose their shifts.
- Credentialing: The Nursa platform automatically checks the credentials and background of all clinicians before they are allowed to pick up a shift.
- Auto-scheduling: Keep a Favorites list of the PRN nurses who have worked out well for you, and enable the app to schedule them automatically when they apply for an open shift.
- Flexibility: With flexible PRN scheduling, you can scale your workforce up or down as needed. No minimum shift commitments or long-term contracts.
- Nursa Billing Center: Facilitate and accelerate invoicing and payment processes, reducing administrative workload and ensuring timely, accurate billing for completed shifts.
- Cost-effectiveness: PRN nurses do not receive benefits. No buyout or hire-away clauses. High-quality care without overstaffing. You pay only for the shifts worked.
In addition to these advantages and more, Nursa’s software platform can be used as a recruitment tool to see the nurses’ on-the-job performance before offering them an in-house position.
Brookfield Health and Rehabilitation turned to Nursa
Facing nursing shortages and last-minute cancellations, Brookfield Health and Rehabilitation calls on Nursa for solutions.
Located in Battle Ground, Washington, Brookfield experienced the frustrations of staying fully staffed and ensuring top-quality clinicians were at the bedside of its patients.
Josh Clark, Brookfield CEO, says: “The need for staffing support is a day-by-day question. Sometimes I don’t know if I need support for tomorrow until 10 PM the night before.”
Brookfield found Nursa and solved the problem. “Switching to Nursa helps us plan out weekends, which eases stress across the whole team.”
Read more of their success story here.
How Nursa works for you
Nursa is your gateway to quickly filling shifts with trusted RNs, LPNs, or CNAs right when you need them most. Follow these easy steps.
- Sign up: Visit Nursa’s website or download the app to register your facility and create a user account free of charge. Nursa will promptly contact you to verify and connect your user profile to your facility.
- Post your vacant shifts: Upload your open shifts to the platform with the license type, date, time, location, and pay rate. Your posts will be immediately visible to the pool of nurses.
- Check the applicants and make your choice: View profiles, credentials, and select the best match.
Done. Your shifts are covered, and your facility has gained capacity to adapt to a changing environment, to successfully meet evolving healthcare challenges.
Sign up today and start filling your schedule gaps.
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