When a healthcare facility is understaffed, the consequences are often negative for everyone: for the clinicians, for the facility, and above all, for the patients.
Your healthcare facility aims to provide the best possible care for its patients. But how can you do that if you don’t have enough staff? Read on to learn about:
- The connection between staffing levels and patient outcomes.
- How to achieve better staffing for your healthcare facility with a PRN platform.
- The road to follow when integrating per diem staff to your facility.
- A real case study where implementing PRN staffing solutions helped a facility provide quality patient care.
Understanding the importance of adequate staffing
Why does staffing matter so much?
Staffing affects a facility in many ways, including quality of patient care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction.
- Quality of care: When there is enough staff, nurses can conduct better assessments, administer timely medications, and provide the necessary care to each patient.
- Patient safety: When one nurse has to take care of too many patients, the risk of errors, infections, and complications can increase.
- Patient satisfaction: Patients who receive faster responses will have more confidence in their team and improved patient satisfaction in the facility.
How can PRN platforms enhance staffing?
A well-structured PRN platform helps healthcare organizations to:
- Fill schedule gaps fast: Post open shifts and enable nursing clinicians to sign up for shifts within hours, not days.
- Adjust in real time: Adjust staffing levels to match changing census or seasonal surges, without over or understaffing.
- Get the skills you need: Draw from a broader, local talent pool than staffing agencies can offer.
Nursa is leading contingent healthcare staffing by offering these solutions and more to healthcare facilities.
Benefits of using Nursa
Immediate staffing solutions ensure enhanced care quality. This means that nurse-to-patient ratios never fall below safe standards. Patients are more likely to have better health outcomes, as they get the care they need in a timely manner.
Access to a diverse talent pool
More than 300,000 healthcare professionals nationwide have joined Nursa to find shifts with local facilities. This broader and more diverse talent pool allows facilities to get the clinician they need when they need them.
- Availability of on-demand nurses: Facilities have on-demand access to a large pool of licensed registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs), and certified nursing assistants (CNAs), looking to pick up shifts. Facilities can also select clinicians with specialty skills.
- Flexibility without long-term contracts: PRN shifts support precision staffing to adapt to census fluctuations in a facility without overstaffing in times of low patient census.
Cost-effective staffing solutions
Not only do facilities benefit from this model because of its flexibility, but they also save money by:
- Minimizing the use of overtime for their in-house staff.
- Paying only for the shifts they need.
- Controlling shift pricing.
- Avoiding long-term financial commitments.
- Reducing staff turnover and burnout by maintaining proper staffing ratios.
How can facilities better integrate staffing platforms?
Here’s how to integrate a staffing platform into your facility operations.
Integrate this new model with current staffing models
Nursa complements existing full-time and part-time nursing teams; it does not replace them. Facilities find success when they use PRN staffing to augment their in-house staff rosters.
PRN clinicians can be used to cover last-minute call outs, cover for staff paid leave, and respond to sudden census surges.
Provide training and support
Use Nursa’s direct in-app messaging with PRN clinicians to send a welcome packet with important details such as parking, check-in location, facility policies, and uniform requirements.
Your facility can provide a brief onsite orientation so that PRN nurses can get to work as soon as possible.
Ensure the highest quality of care by standardizing the welcome packet, orientation, and clarifying expectations from the beginning.
Help with monitoring and analytics
Nursa offers the following:
- License verification and background checks
- Tracking of hours worked
- Tracking of hours spent
- Connecting in real-time with a public API for staffing
These aspects help facilities reduce administrative burden and monitor aspects related to quality and staff fulfillment.
How Nursa helped with better patient outcomes
When PAM Health and Rehabilitation Hospital in Westminster, CO, was struggling with staff shortages and bad experiences with another PRN provider, it turned to Nursa.
This hospital found PRN clinicians who were more professional and skilled, and who came to fulfill the shifts they had committed to. Consistently filling the staffing gaps provided in-house staff a sense of stability and relief from burnout as well as ensured uninterrupted patient care.
“Nursa helps us be able to provide quality care for our patients and ensure that we’re fully staffed so they can get the care they need and deserve.” – Katrina Butterfield, Assistant Chief Nursing Officer at PAM Health and Rehabilitation Hospital of Westminster
Explore and implement PRN staffing today
Healthcare facilities with robust, adaptable staffing models deliver better, safer care in today’s rapidly changing environments.
Embrace innovation. By integrating flexible solutions like Nursa, healthcare managers can deliver sound, quality care and foster a healthier workforce today.