Skilled and qualified employees represent a paramount part of every business, regardless of its way of working. However, you can see there is a trend in the business world about shifting to temporary employment, including healthcare. Hence, it will be helpful for you to know the types of healthcare staffing.
In this article, you will travel around the types of healthcare staffing that exist today. Here, you will know what healthcare staffing is and why it is important. Moreover, you will learn about the types of healthcare staffing. We will allow you to do this by talking about the following:
- What is healthcare staffing?
- Why is healthcare staffing so important?
- How many types of healthcare staffing there are?
- Where can I find more information about healthcare staffing?
1. What is healthcare staffing?
The healthcare business is highly diversified, with different types of facilities directed to several healthcare services. Furthermore, it also involves a high variety of professionals that go from physicians to nurses, including nursing assistants and physical therapists. However, such a business found a problem in its operations. In essence, healthcare companies are now facing an economic setback because of the COVID-19 pandemic and other reasons. Consequently, they had to find ways to cut expenses without altering their operations.
As a result, healthcare staffing was born. It is the practice of filling positions at healthcare facilities with temporary employees. They still require having the necessary knowledge and certifications, but they are not hired permanently. This way, healthcare companies avoid increasing their costs regarding permanent employment benefits.
Such a practice is now being used at every level of the healthcare industry, even in hospitals and clinics worldwide. It has proved to deliver several advantages, such as higher flexibility and faster hiring, among others. Now, you should hire a temporary staffing agency to apply this practice in your facility. After all, there are several reasons why organizations should use staffing firms to hire contract workers.
2. Why is healthcare staffing so important?
The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe effect on the healthcare business worldwide. Certainly, the sudden and tremendous increase in its service demand brought numerous consequences. The two most important of such consequences were the understaffing and the financial problems.
As a result, the healthcare business emerged from the hardest part of the pandemic with fewer qualified staff and financially affected. Hence, healthcare facilities are not currently able to hire permanent employees easily, while still having high demand.
Healthcare staffing came as a savior for many of them. In essence, it allowed them to find and hire qualified and certified professionals without the need for a full-time contract. In this way, they managed to survive after the COVID-19 pandemic, while maintaining a qualified workforce in their ranks.
Furthermore, healthcare staffing also helped healthcare professionals that suffered layoffs because of the pandemic. It allowed them to find employment quickly and in a more flexible manner. Thus, they now can have several jobs at the same time, increasing their income and working experience.
In the case of another pandemic, temporary staffing agencies can help healthcare facilities during the peak demand period. Consequently, they will stay operational while lowering their costs in the process.
3. How many types of healthcare staffing there are?
As you probably already know, the healthcare business has an enormous variety of positions in which qualified professionals are needed. However, you do not need such qualified professionals permanently in some of these positions.
For instance, some of them need to be fulfilled only during patients’ treatment or healthcare campaigns, among others. Furthermore, several healthcare facilities are also now using healthcare staffing for positions that used to have permanent employees.
In other words, to answer the question above, there are a lot of types of healthcare staffing. But, we managed to shorten the list by only considering the most demanded ones. Certainly, they are also the offered types by most healthcare staffing agencies around the world.
With a quick search, we found seven types of healthcare staffing with such a characteristic. They are now the main reason why staffing agencies are now developing ways of performing their processes faster and more efficiently. To work with one of these agencies properly, you should know how the best of them search for potential candidates nowadays.
Let us now show you in detail the seven types of healthcare staffing most demanded today:
3.1 Vaccination staffing for COVID-19
In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was all about the development and certification of an effective vaccine. Now that such a vaccine is available, it is all about applying it in many people as possible. However, it is impractical to have full-time employees dedicated to this.
After all, hiring permanent employees for applying a vaccine that will only be needed during this pandemic seems illogical. Luckily, healthcare staffing agencies came up with a solution for this: vaccination staffing.
Above all, it involves sourcing and recruiting qualified healthcare professionals for temporary roles at vaccination sites. Licensed physicians, registered nurses, and licensed practical nurses can be recruited through this type of healthcare staffing.
On the other hand, the COVID-19 pandemic generated changes in other industries as well. In this matter, you can see one example of this in the private household staffing sector.
3.2 Travel nursing
The current globalization allows you to provide assistance to your customers in every place in the world. In essence, you can receive a request remotely, and deliver your services by traveling to the site in little time.
Travel nursing works this way. It involves healthcare staffing agencies sending registered nurses to sites where there is a spike in healthcare demand. Some of these sites can even have a seasonal spike. Therefore, they will find travel nursing as their most suitable type of healthcare staffing.
Moreover, travel nursing also represents a good opportunity for registered nurses to gain experience in several facilities across the globe. All of this while getting a weekly or hourly pay, or also customized salary packages.
Indeed, travel nursing can be a way to deal with healthcare industries that are currently terribly understaffed. You can find a clear example of it in the nursing homes of today.
3.3 PRN healthcare staffing
In the land of healthcare staffing, PRN represents the larger part of the population. Its main goal is to provide qualified professionals for the existing occasion, or as its name says, Pro Re Nata.
In other words, it is the type of healthcare staffing that you use for stopping gaps in your facility. For instance, you can use a PRN temporary staff when you have sick employees or unexpected demand spikes.
Certainly, you can only fulfill the recruitment requirement you have in these scenarios through temporary employment. After all, faster hiring is one of the main aspects of a temporary staffing agency.
In conclusion, you can keep your healthcare facility operational at all times by using PRN healthcare staffing. Thus, you should be always alert for sudden spikes in your demand to call your healthcare staffing agency immediately.
3.4 Medical screening
Healthcare staffing can also provide assistance to other businesses. In this matter, most companies worldwide are including healthcare in their safety protocols to avoid any COVID-19 outbreak. The first part of these new safety protocols is the use of additional protective equipment, such as masks and face shields. Then, you must have qualified personnel whose function is to keep your employees safe and protected. Healthcare staffing can help you in this matter by providing you with medical screening experts.
Most importantly, they will allow you to maintain your business’s normal operations while taking measures against the pandemic. For instance, they can perform temperature screening and conduct questionnaires daily. Furthermore, they can alert you quickly when there is a possible COVID-19 positive case detected.
One industry in which these changes in its safety protocols is paramount is construction. After the pandemic’s worst part, it is an industry following some staffing tips in its search for a quick recovery.
3.5 Medical testing on-site
Following the example of the previous type of healthcare staffing, some companies have taken measures to go even further. Besides healthcare safety protocols, they have also put in place the possibility of performing COVID-19 testing.
In this matter, healthcare staffing agencies can provide you with qualified professionals for medical testing on-site. They will allow the implementation of policies such as regular testing of all employees. This way, you can keep your working environment completely free of COVID-19.
The medical testing on-site staff can also help you with the handling of specimens and test results management. Hence, you can create a safe working environment that will be attractive to potential candidates.
On the other hand, there are also other activities where medical testing on-site can be helpful. For example, you can use it for an event whose duration is a few days or more. Now, it is important to train your event staff in case of having medical testing on-site.
3.6 Locum tenens
As happens in other industries, some healthcare professionals find it attractive to work as temporary employees. Furthermore, they do it because of the possibility of working in facilities on a locum tenens basis.
In essence, a locum tenens physician will supply the work of the permanent physician during his/her vacation or sabbatical year. Healthcare facilities tend to use temporary employment here because it eliminates the requirement of hiring permanent physicians for the job.
Moreover, it is a type of healthcare staffing that is gaining popularity rapidly. It allows physicians to have travel opportunities and to earn extra income. They can also gain additional experience when they supply the work of physicians of another specialty.
One way they can apply for this type of work is by working for a temporary staffing agency. However, it is a way that has both several advantages and disadvantages for them.
3.7 Medical coding
Another key aspect of the healthcare business is the transmission of information. It is especially essential when physicians from different specialties or facilities have to treat the same patient.
In this matter, you can ask your healthcare staffing agency about its medical coding experts. Their expertise will allow you to translate your medical reports into the shortcode used in the healthcare industry. As a result, you will have useful medical codes generated from your physicians’ diagnoses and procedures. They will make data transferring more efficient, which can potentially be a life-saving advantage.
Your temporary staff dedicated to medical coding can also help you with Health Information Management (HIM). Thus, they can find efficient ways to store, move, and read the generated medical data. Remember, any mistake in this data can bring potential health consequences. Hence, you must hire a healthcare staffing agency that evaluates their certifications regularly.
4. Where can I find more information about healthcare staffing?
The healthcare industry is one in which failing to fulfill empty positions or hiring unqualified professionals can bring serious problems. Thus, the way you manage your healthcare staff is essential to declare your healthcare company as trustworthy. Therefore, you must know which types of healthcare staffing are available to you.
Proper healthcare staffing requires getting the services of people with expertise and experience in the field. On Connect Staff, we believe in doing meaningful work for you, by providing you with the best healthcare staffing available. And also, they can help you with admin support staff, receptionists for your healthcare facility, and more.
Do you have some questions about staffing services? Take a minute to contact us and obtain more information about how we can assist you, by calling us at +971 43 316 688. You can also email us at contact@connectstaff.ae, to talk with one of our representatives who will answer all your questions.
On The Talent Point, you can find your dream job. Apply for one today by sending us your CV to thetalentpoint.com. Moreover, we will not store CVs that you send to contact@thetalentpoint.com.
