ShiftWise recently attended the Value for Nurse Staffing Conference in Bend, OR. There was a lot of chatter about how important it is to staff the right nurse with the right assignment. With the effects of healthcare reform being felt, readmission penalties and patient satisfaction scores are a top of mind priority. Getting the right nurse the first time around is crucial to providing the best care.
Three main factors to look for in placing a nurse
Skill level
Finding a nurse that is capable of doing the specific day-to-day duties is crucial. You want to find a nurse that understands best practice care delivery is more than the number of hours earned each year; it’s a commitment to being a professional, keeping up-to-date, continuously seeking to improve, and ultimately a commitment to provide individuals with the best care.
Experience
Some people think a nurse is just a nurse and as long as you have the right credentials, you should be qualified for the job. Try and tell that to any charge nurse. Look for a nurse who has experience working in that same type of department or specialty. Even having just a few hours of experience whether it be floating that department or having a clinical rotation in that area can make a world of difference.
Education
Nurses with a 4-year BSN tend to know more overall, and not just on the nursing side (they also know more business and interpersonal skills). Don’t pick a nurse just because they attended a recognizable school over one from a small sized school. A familiar name does not automatically equal quality. 
Many of these lesser-known, smaller colleges turn out nurses with better test scores and higher employability stats than many larger schools.
Ok, but how do I find them?
You probably know what a good nurse looks like on paper. But here’s the million dollar question: Where are they and how do you find them? No doubt, finding the right worker can be a challenge. It’s common that a nurse ends up in the wrong spot simply because the staffing manager didn’t know what else to do. This is where process comes in.
Health systems don’t have to “triage” their contingent staffing. With the right tools (such as a vendor management system), staffing managers can operate with confidence that they will have the right option even in the most difficult placements. In the case of VMS, it gives you the ability to automatically find and filter for nurses that match a given opening.
What’s more, there is typically a vast network of vendors plugged in to the system which widens a health system’s reach. Fruitless phone calls and email blasts done with your fingers crossed give way to a simple button click that yields a list of the exact qualified and available workers you need.
“We have never had to worry about sending a client to a job that might be unqualified,” says ShiftWise user Annette Zargaryn, director of operations for Be Well Nursing, LLC. “ShiftWise helps us only send the best and most qualified.”
In the end, with more qualified workers at your fingertips, it becomes easier (not to mention more cost-effective) to place the right nurse in the right place at the right time.