Temporary Healthcare Staffing: Enabling Quality Care During Times of Need
The healthcare industry has faced unprecedented challenges over the past year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Healthcare facilities around the country have been pushed to their limits as patient volumes surge and put immense pressure on existing staff. Despite these difficulties, our healthcare heroes have continued working tirelessly to care for those in need. However, it has not been without sacrifice and burnout as staff take on more patients and longer hours. This is where temporary healthcare staffing plays a vital role in augmenting the workforce and ensuring quality patient care can be delivered, even during times of crisis.
One of the most in-demand temporary positions is that of traveling nurses. As
COVID-19 hospitalizations surge periodically, hospitals utilize nurse staffing
agencies to source experienced RNs on a contract basis to work for a specified
time period, often 13 weeks. This allows hospitals to smoothly scale up nursing
resources as case volumes fluctuate. Travel nurses fulfill roles in high acuity
areas like emergency departments and intensive care units, as well as general
medical-surgical floors. Their temporary assignments ensure hospitals have
sufficient nursing coverage and patients continue receiving the attentive care
they need during public health crises.
Leveraging Per Diem Healthcare Professionals
In addition to traveling clinicians, per diem staff provide vital support to healthcare organizations. Per diem employees sign up to work variable shifts on an as-needed basis, often with little advance notice based on facility requirements. They fill important roles like certified nursing assistants, medical technicians, respiratory therapists and more. Having a pool of per diem professionals to draw from gives administrators flexibility to manage unpredictable staffing needs and call in extra help during peak periods. It prevents service disruptions and burnout among permanent employees working overtime. Per diem staff are essentially the “relief valve” healthcare systems need during unpredictable times.
Augmenting Staff to Prevent Burnout
The physical and emotional demands on healthcare workers during the pandemic
have understandably taken their toll. Overwhelming patient volumes, long hours,
caring for very ill COVID-19 patients, risks to personal safety - it has created
impossible pressures and stress levels that have led to widespread burnout
across the industry. Temporary healthcare staff have helped alleviate these
strains by enabling facilities to better distribute workloads, offer staff more
time off and prevent fatigue among permanent employees. This augmentation
supports worker well-being and boosts morale during arduous conditions. With
extra temporary resources available as needed, hospitals could better manage
shift schedules to allow permanent clinicians occasional breaks from COVID
units and high-intensity care areas. This improves care quality long-term by
preventing caregiver burnout and its downstream impacts.
Bolstering Non-Clinical Support Areas
Beyond serving on clinical frontlines, temporary staff have also buttressed
non-patient care divisions that are equally crucial to healthcare operations.
Temporary employees filled positions in registration, medical records,
laboratory services, facility maintenance and other support areas. This ensured
key ancillary services did not experience disruptions due to self-isolation of
permanent workers exposed to COVID-19. Temporary staffing even assisted with
testing and vaccinations by sourcing clinical and administrative professionals
to work in drive-through vaccination sites or mobile clinics administering
COVID vaccines. Their contributions encompassed diverse roles spanning clinical
and non-clinical domains throughout the healthcare ecosystem.
Adapting Staffing Strategies for Future Surges
As the pandemic wears on with the still unforeseen trajectory of new variants, healthcare organizations are examining how to enhance readiness for potential future surges, waves or other public health emergencies. There is renewed focus on pandemic preparedness planning with an emphasis on strategic and adaptive staffing strategies. Temporary healthcare staffing agencies will remain a critical asset, with their infrastructure to deploy skilled flexible workers at a moment's notice. Facilities are leveraging insights into shifting demands and staff requirements over the past year to optimize just-in-time scalable staffing models relying more on traveling clinicians, per diem pools and rapid onboarding abilities of staffing vendors when needed most.
Embracing flexible workforce solutions and innovative technologies will
strengthen healthcare's ability to resiliently adapt staffing to shifting
conditions ahead. Partnerships between facilities, agencies and clinicians
ensure our care delivery heroes have the necessary backup to sustain providing
compassionate care through whatever public health challenges may come. The
selfless service of temporary healthcare professionals has been instrumental in
protecting patients and supporting overburdened permanent staff. Their
contributions further cement the value of flexible, scalable staffing during
times that test our healthcare systems to their limits.
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