The Services Travel Nursing Companies Provide to Healthcare Employers
Travel nursing companies are at the center of the healthcare staffing industry. They act as the “middle men” between the healthcare provider and the travel nurse. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of healthcare staffing agencies that are engaged in travel nursing contracts or PRN in the United States. Unlike “middle men” in many other industries, travel nursing companies provide an invaluable service that cannot be easily removed. There are some hospitals that attempt to cut out the middle man but such examples are few and far between, and typically require a unique set of circumstances.
Travel Nursing Companies Provide Sourcing Services
Healthcare staffing agencies provide many services to healthcare providers. For example, the companies provide sourcing services in that they seek out and find the qualified healthcare clinicians that healthcare providers need. This isn’t easy.
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Hospitals require that travel nurses have experience in the area in which they are going to practice. Hospitals are seeking travel nurses who will require no training at all, just a brief orientation to the unit.
At an absolute minimum, travel nurses will need 1 year of experience in the specialty applied for within the last three years of work history. The majority of hospitals now require 2 years of experience in the unit to be worked. Experience as a travel nurse is also becoming a common requirement.
Agencies utilize many methods to locate interested candidates. They undertake ad campaigns in various publications, and on the internet. They purchase lists of healthcare professional contact information and undertake aggressive phone and email campaigns. They advertise on internet job boards, and utilize social media tools.
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Once contact is made and interest is expressed, agencies must screen the candidate. This includes evaluating the candidate’s experience, and skills. Agencies will also check the candidate’s employment references, and run background checks. As a result of their efforts, agencies build large databases of nurses who have expressed an interest in travel nursing. These nurse can then be quickly informed about potential employment opportunities.
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Agencies have an advantage over hospitals when it comes to finding interested candidates. This is because agencies are able to cast a broad net compared to hospitals. Agencies typically work with hundreds of hospitals. Therefore, they have many more jobs available compared to any given hospital. As a result, they’re able to entice a larger number of candidates with their advertising and recruiting efforts. This helps agencies realize a lower cost of acquisition per candidate than most single hospitals could achieve.
Travel Nursing Companies Provide Credentialing and Compliance Services
Agencies also provide credentialing and compliance services. In this regard, agencies ensure that the required licenses and certifications are active and in good standing. They must ensure that such credentials do not expire during the travel nurse’s tenure. They must also ensure that all required medical tests and physical screenings are current and in compliance with the healthcare provider’s standards. This includes items like physical exams, immunization records, and drug screens, in addition to any and all documentation requirements specific to the healthcare provider. For example, healthcare providers often have their own tests, standard hygiene forms, and other documents that must be completed prior to starting work.
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Here again, agencies are able to accomplish all of this for a much lower cost per candidate than hospitals. A hospital might need an employee for 3 months only. In addition, travel nurses tend to enjoy moving on to the next opportunity, so it’s typical for them to stay in one location for only one 13 week contract. However, travel nurses will often stay with their agency if they’ve had a positive experience and the agency is able to find them a desirable contract. As a result, it’s much more common for travel nurses to complete multiple contracts through the same agency. Spreading the very expensive compliance and credentialing costs over multiple travel nurse contracts represents a savings that agencies are able to realize relative to the hospital.
Travel Nursing Companies Provide Human Resource Services
While sourcing, compliance, and credentialing are all very valuable services, human resource services are perhaps the most valuable set of services that agencies provide to healthcare providers. Technically, the travel nurse works for the agency, not for the hospital or healthcare provider. The agency is the employer and as such, they are responsible for all of the responsibilities and requirements involved with employing someone, thereby removing these burdens from the healthcare provider. This means that the agency is responsible for payroll processing, payroll taxes, worker compensation claims, disability insurance, unemployment insurance, liability insurance, disciplinary actions, and benefits management.
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Outsourcing human resource services results in huge cost savings for healthcare providers. Take unemployment insurance, for example. If a hospital were to directly hire employees for temporary positions, their unemployment costs would increase dramatically. When the temporary need expired, the hospital would have to lay off the worker. The individual could then collect unemployment. And while many people think that hospitals could hire travel nurses as independent contractors, this is simply not true.
By utilizing an agency, the hospital avoids these human resource costs. At the same time, the agency is in a better position to avoid unemployment costs as well. This is because they will almost always have work to offer the travel nurse. It may not be work that the travel nurse wants, but that doesn’t really matter in most cases. In most cases unemployment benefits can only be collected when someone is laid off, and no other work has been offered. When someone goes to work for a agency, the understanding is that they are agreeing to travel for work. The agency will almost always have work to offer its travel nurses. A travel nurse’s refusal will almost always result in a refusal of unemployment claims.
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All together, the services provided by agencies represent a valuable resource for entities in need of supplemental healthcare staffing. These services, and the cost savings they represent, constitute the agency’s sales pitch to prospective clients.
