Notably, the job market for talented nurses remains highly competitive, with strong demand driven by a nursing shortage. This is especially the case when considering the home care niche within the nursing industry. Medical organizations typically struggle when trying to recruit these specific healthcare professionals, leading to gaps in patient care.
With a goal of finding top-shelf home care nursing talent, check out these tips on optimizing your recruiting process. Leverage these insights to ensure your patients always get the care and support they truly deserve. It also helps your organization improve its staffing efforts, leading to lower costs and a faster time-to-hire.
Provide a Mix of Solutions to Support Your Patients
With offering excellent patient care as a goal, flexibility in your operational approach helps your organization achieve it. For example, provide patients with a mix of in-home and telehealth solutions. This strategy especially helps in rural and otherwise underserved regions. Also consider using LPNs in some situations when enough RNs aren’t always available.
Improve Your Job Offers to Nurse Candidates
In many cases, staffing success in a competitive market requires your company to boost its job offers. Your salary and benefits package needs to be higher than the average for your region. Additionally, offer a welcoming organizational culture with desired perks, like flexible scheduling and an optimized onboarding process. Providing meaningful medical professional development opportunities also improves your staffing efforts and retention rate.
Offer Extensions to Your Current Home Care Professionals
Simply offering an extension to your current home care nurses helps reduce gaps in patient care. In fact, studies reveal many nurses prefer to stay on a current assignment as opposed to finding something new. Ultimately, extensions remain an efficient and cost-effective method for staffing compared to always making new bookings. Consider taking a proactive approach by offering an extension by week 4 of any current assignment.
Always Analyze Your Organization’s Future Patient Demand
Making the effort to analyze future patient needs ensures your organization handles any spikes in demand. This approach lets you craft long-term staffing plans to make sure no gaps in patient care arise. It helps you stay prepared for future spikes like another pandemic similar to COVID-19. Try to shoot for a six-month lead time with your nursing provider to ensure your staffing needs are met.
If your healthcare organization needs an influx of home care nurses, connect with the experts at CHN Health Care Group. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in Boston, we provide the top-shelf candidates to provide exceptional patient care. Schedule a meeting with us to discuss your current and future hiring plans.