Time and again, it has been said: nurses are the backbone of every healthcare facility. Just like the spine is the central support that connects and allows optimal functioning of the rest of the body, nurses are found in every corner, providing invaluable support to deliver optimal healthcare.
But, these nurses who go the extra mile to take care of patients day in and out are also people, and they need a proper breather from exhaustion so that they can provide premium support.
And so, healthcare employers are tasked with the responsibility to properly manage their workforce to ensure that each of them is in the best emotional and physical condition to serve their patients best. This challenge doesn’t just come with great importance but with urgency as well, as the country experiences a nursing crisis that shows no signs of slowing down.
Addressing staffing shortages isn’t just for the operation of your facility but for the health of patients too because when you’re understaffed, the patient care suffers. But take care of your nurses, and they’ll take care of your organization.
You can do this with the help of healthcare staffing firms. Their primary purpose is to provide you with qualified nurses so that you can better serve your patients and take care of your current workforce. With their help, you are better equipped to face the nursing crisis and provide round-the-clock high-quality healthcare service that America needs.
Here’s why.
Numerous studies show the negative impact of a high gap in nurse-to-patient ratios. The thing is, nurse staffing is deteriorating progressively, with hospitals seeing a 16% turnover rate — an alarming statistic considering that inadequate nursing staffing increases patient mortality by 12%.
Your priority is patient safety and what those numbers tell us is this: adequate staffing is a fundamental factor.
The staff’s service will always come from an overflow of their personal state. When you’re understaffed, your current roster of employees will be stretched too thin and will be overtaxed, leading to more errors in fulfilling their duties.
That’s how important it is to find qualified candidates in the shortest time possible. In the healthcare industry, it’s a matter of life and death.
Partnering with a healthcare staffing agency can significantly improve those numbers. Because they always have a ready pipeline of qualified candidates, they can fill your open positions in no time. Your staffing gaps can be addressed immediately, and you can prevent employee exhaustion. Patient care will always stay top-notch, and you can see improvements in:
Mortality rates,
Length of patient stays, and
The number of preventable events, such as falls and infections.
In such a time as this, you need to meet your organization’s needs fast without compromising quality — and healthcare staffing firms can give you just that.
It’s no secret that staffing is a significant problem in the healthcare industry. It’s pivotal to patient care and optimal operation of your facility; yet, finding a highly competent and nurturing nursing staff is no small feat, considering that it typically takes 54 to 109 days just to onboard one qualified candidate.
Can you imagine how much time and effort it would take to fill multiple open positions?
As a healthcare facility, you can’t afford to wait a minimum of 50 days to be better equipped to meet the needs of your patients. The value and urgency of patient care are too costly to risk waiting for even an extra day.
That’s why turning to health staffing agencies is a strategic move; they can offer placements fast. Staffing firms make it a point to proactively source candidates, and so they don’t have to start from scratch to provide the staffing needs of their clients. They’ve already spent time looking and weeding through applications to build a quality pipeline and can simply tap the best candidate that meets all your requirements when you need them. Since their business is recruitment, they go the extra mile in ensuring the candidates they offer will provide the best return-on-investment (ROI) for you. Thorough pre-screening procedures ensure that you only get fully-vetted candidates.
This means that you get to find staffing solutions without waiting for months for one suitable candidate. Even better, you can focus less on the time-consuming parts of recruiting and on higher-value responsibilities like the operation of your medical facility and patient care.
A low nurse-to-patient ratio naturally results in overworked and exhausted workers. The fact that frequent mandatory overtime can negatively impact their desire to stay with healthcare employers, it’s not surprising that 17.5% of nurses voluntarily leave in just one year. Studies even show that the burnout rate among American nurses is a whopping 35% to 45%.
So, the sad truth is: burnout is a very real problem that, as their employer, you must mitigate effectively and sustainably. This goes beyond just an issue of physical tiredness, but emotional exhaustion, with 45% feeling drained emotionally. When you overwork your employees, their morale also decreases.
Employing the services of a healthcare staffing firm to alleviate your staffing needs can demonstrate that you prioritize their well-being and treat them as valuable assets worth taking care of. Even a simple gesture of improving their work-life balance will significantly impact your workforce.
So, invest in the well-being of your employees. The power of treating your team as humans is not to be underestimated.
One of the best things about healthcare staffing firms is they aren’t limited to local candidates. Their sourcing capacities tend to go beyond borders, and so, they have access to a more diverse talent pool. However, it doesn’t go without much time and effort. Because candidates are the primary business of staffing firms, they are primarily focused on hunting for the best candidates worldwide.
Executing this with an internal HR team will not only be time-consuming but highly taxing, as importing international candidates will require your organization to undertake multiple steps to secure the necessary paperwork needed, like visas and permits.
By partnering with a healthcare staffing firm, you can omit the stressful legalities involved with securing candidates and simply partake in the benefits that they bring. Better still, you can have the opportunity to build a diverse workforce that has proven time and again as a critical ingredient to a high-performing team.
Gearing your organization for success begins with ensuring that your backbone is strong. With access to a long roster of culturally nurturing and trained nurses from all over the globe, PRS Global can give you a hand in taking better care of your nurses so they, in turn, can be in the best condition to take care of your patients.
Partner with us and reap the benefit of having a highly reliable team of nurses ready to deliver excellent patient care around the clock at your fingertips. It starts with taking the first step today, so send us a message now.