How to Find Quality Nurses in Strapped Times

Hiring quality, reliable healthcare professionals is tougher than ever. You've got nurses retiring, overworked nurses leaving the profession, and bottlenecks in nursing education. It's become a costly dog-eat-dog situation for healthcare providers trying to attract and retain top talent.

Healthcare Dive states staffing shortages will continue in 2023, especially among nurses, as widespread burnout and increased turnover plague the healthcare sector. These shortages will continue to lead many healthcare providers down the costly contract labor path to fill shifts. The national average weekly pay rate for travel nurses was $3,173 in December 2022—up from $1,894 in January 2020.

However, whether you're staffing a hospital or skilled nursing facility, you can maintain adequate nurse-to-patient ratios and achieve the best possible patient outcomes without putting additional stress on your staff or paying out the nose for travel nurses. What you need is the right healthcare workforce partner—one that focuses on quality improvement in nursing. That's what ShiftMed is all about.

On Demand Healthcare Workforce Marketplace

ShiftMed has one of the fastest-growing nationwide networks of credentialed healthcare professionals ready to work on a per diem, short-term, long-term, or permanent basis.

Healthcare providers Powered by ShiftMed have direct access to more than 350,000 healthcare professionals via our on-demand healthcare workforce marketplace. Whenever a provider needs additional clinical support, they can post a shift(s) for one of our local professionals to claim—enabling them to maintain optimum staffing levels while saving on labor costs.

Several of our healthcare provider partners have moved away from travel nurses and reduced their labor expenses by up to 30% by relying on ShiftMed healthcare professionals in their communities.

Now you may wonder how we attract and retain quality nurses. For starters, we partner with a third-party research company to conduct annual state of nursing surveys that provides valuable insight into the profession.

In 2022, 65% of the nurses we surveyed said they would likely leave the profession within two years. To stay, they would need more job flexibility and better incentives. Basically, we know what nurses want and work hard to give it to them.

Through the ShiftMed App, nurses have complete control over their work schedule and can access incentives such as affordable healthcare benefits, Instant Pay, Guaranteed Shifts®, and Uber Health rides. By taking care of our nurses and keeping them happy, they're better equipped to care for patients.

ShiftMed Hires Based on Qualities of a Nurse

We recruit and hire CNAs, GNAs, STNAs, LPNs, LVNs, and RNs with varying specializations across the country. To apply to ShiftMed, nurses must have an active, unencumbered professional license and more than six months of professional healthcare experience. In fact, more than half of our nurses have over two years of experience. ShiftMed applicants must also pass our clinical and safety knowledge quiz that tests their foundational skills. If they don't achieve a 70% or higher score, they can't continue the hiring process.

It's also worth mentioning that we hire nurses as W-2 employees, which means we're responsible for them while they're working at your facility. We're confident in our hiring process and willing to take on employee-related risks. More specifically, you don't have to worry about unpaid overtime or workers' compensation claims.

ShiftMed Onboarding Process

Before one of our healthcare professionals sets foot inside your facility, they've gone through an extensive onboarding process and shown us they possess the qualities of a good nurse. In other words, we've verified essential credentials to ensure they meet all state requirements for professional practice and have the proper credentials for your facility.

Core Credentials

As part of our onboarding process, our core credentials include the following:

• Government-issued Photo ID

• I-9 Employment Verification

• Negative TB Test Results

• Annual Physical

• CPR Certification

• COVID Vaccine Card

Other Credentials

We also verify credentials based on state-specific or facility requirements, such as:

• Federal and/or State Background Check

• Drug Screening

• Varicella Vaccination

• MMR Vaccination

• Flu Vaccination

• Resume and References

Signed Documents

We require our healthcare professionals to review and sign off on important documents to ensure they abide by our rules of engagement and those at your facility. These documents include an employee handbook, training manual, and COVID acknowledgment.

ShiftMed Show Rates

While we go the extra mile to vet our healthcare professionals, we're not immune from having some bad apples in the bunch. Therefore, we have measures to ensure our nurses remain reliable and show up for shifts.

We have a firm yet fair attendance policy that helps keep our nurses accountable. For example, we put healthcare professionals with a show rate below our standards on a 60-day suspension.

Our app also has claim limitations that require healthcare professionals to work a single shift at your facility before they can claim more. As a result, we've seen a significant drop in no-call/no-shows.

And most recently, we've made it possible for our facility partners to put healthcare professionals on a Do Not Return list.

Schedule a ShiftMed Demo

Schedule a demo today to see how we can solve your staffing challenges for good and save you on labor costs.