Hiring registered nurses (RN): a guide for facilities
Registered nurses assess patients’ conditions and provide timely care. They coordinate with doctors and other allied health professionals to spread awareness among the public on various health conditions. Moreover, their duties include educating patients and providing emotional support to the patient and family. Sometimes, the registered nurse’s role includes supervising other LPNs and nursing assistants in the facility. A registered nurse can work in a variety of healthcare settings based on the varied patient group. To work in a particular setting, the RNs need to accomplish specialized certifications. The different specialized RN roles include rehabilitation nurse, addiction nurse, neonatal nurse, public health nurse, critical care nurse, and many more. Some registered nurses work as nursing educators and do not work directly with patients. In such cases, the registered nurses also have to maintain their licenses. Ultimately, license regulations and job duties are determined by the particular state where the facility is located. This blog discusses some of the most important areas related to registered nurse hiring, such as types of work settings, writing compelling job descriptions, assessing clinical fitness, and how MedSquirrels’ staffing platform can help you hire registered nurses by navigating through each of these areas.
What are the commonly available employment settings to hire registered nurses?
If your healthcare facility is looking to hire registered nurses, you should be aware of the different types of RNs based on their mode of hire and employment status. This includes:
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- Permanent nurses: These registered nurses are hired for a long term in healthcare facilities to work in specific departments. They are the regular full-time nurses we see in clinics and hospitals who have the advantage of all the benefits that the facility provides.
- Contract nurses: The contract hiring of registered nurses is usually done for a specific period and once the contract gets terminated, the facility needs to renew the contract to continue the employment with the contract nurse. In some states, there are fewer regulatory restrictions for contract hiring compared to full-time staffing, making it an ideal option.
- Temporary nurses: As the term suggests, these registered nurses are hired temporarily to support the existing staff during peak seasons. They usually work via a staffing agency that acts as their employer of record.
- Travel nurses: Travel nurses are also temporary nurses hired through staffing agencies but they differ from temporary nurses as they will have to travel to different locations to satisfy the short-term staffing needs of the facilities. Usually, the period for which the travel nurses are hired is shorter than that of a temporary nurse.
- Per Diem nurses: Per diem means “per day.” These RNs work on a need-to-need basis based on an urgent shift requirement from facilities. They have the flexibility to work on shifts on an on-call basis.
How to write a job description that attracts top registered nurses
Registered nurse staffing requires adequate planning and execution to attract the right talent to your facility. Having a competent RN job description with compelling job offers is the first step to attracting the top RN talents to your healthcare facility. Here is a quick checklist of the things to consider while writing a job description for registered nurses.
- Provide a clear and detailed overview of the job role, including the RN responsibilities, opportunities, etc
- Ensure the compensation package that you specify is based on the industry standard.
- Brief the additional perks and benefits that the employees in your facility get apart from the salary.
- Clearly specify the qualification, certification, and experience of the registered nurse you are hiring.
- Have a section that clearly defines the stages of the application process and leads to the registration link.
- Highlighting your employer brand by adding the workplace culture and D&I can make the RN job description more appealing.
Interviewing registered nurses: how to assess clinical competence and fit in a healthcare setting
- To hire registered nurses, prepare a set of questions well in advance to assess the candidate’s experience, skill set, and technical expertise.
- Have behavioral assessment rounds to check the cultural fit of the candidates as well.
- Provide scenario-based case studies to understand how the candidate copes with an emergency.
- Evaluate the soft skills of the candidates, such as communication skills, compassion, multitasking, etc.
- If necessary, include existing staff in the interview panel to screen the candidates efficiently based on the specific needs of the facility.
- Consider references from the previous employers of the candidate to understand how fit the candidate is for the role.
Compliance and certification requirements for hiring registered nurses: what HR teams need to know
Detailed credentialing and compliance checks need to be done while hiring registered nurses, as they play a pivotal role in the healthcare facility as a whole by collaborating with patients and other healthcare professionals. The role of a registered nurse is critical, and so are the RN hiring regulations associated with it. Given below are some important RN compliance requirements to be followed for hiring registered nurses.
- Ensure that the candidate has the relevant license to work in the state where your facility is.
- Verify the credentials, including the educational qualifications, certifications, and experience certificates submitted by the candidate at the time of the interview.
- If you are hiring RNs for a specialized role, make sure the registered nurse is certified in the particular specialization.
- Most healthcare facilities require RNs to have a basic life support (BLS) certification to practice.
- Understand the regulatory guidelines pertaining to both temporary hiring as well as permanent hiring to navigate the challenges.
- Do a thorough background verification and ensure that the candidate doesn’t have any criminal, malpractice, or drug abuse history.
- If necessary, check the medical records of the candidate.
- Ensure to follow the data privacy policy and document everything for future reference.
Retaining registered nurses: how you can reduce their turnover and boost morale
The most effective strategy to reduce staff turnover at a facility is to focus on staff retention. As the current staff is well-experienced in working in your facility, retaining them would be an efficient way to save huge dollars and time invested in the registered nurse recruitment process. Understanding their concerns by taking regular feedback and initializing consistent efforts to resolve them is the first step to having a happier workforce. You will foster a positive work environment where everyone feels heard and supported. Prioritizing the well-being of your registered nurses can hugely decrease the attrition rate, as the primary cause of staff shortage is burnout among overworked staff. Establishing flexible schedules, addressing staff gaps by filling them adequately, and providing opportunities for career growth can increase the satisfaction level of the current workforce and retain them. Along with these perks, salary is also a significant factor. Annual renewal of the compensation package based on the market standard and providing competitive pay can improve the registered nurses’ retention in your facility.
Leveraging RN staffing agencies for healthcare facilities
The registered nurses staffing can become a huge administrative headache for your facility as this can bring up a lot of regulatory and administrative tasks upon you, which can cost you time and money. Navigating the regulatory challenges to hire registered nurses can be a hurdle. Sometimes, facilities associate with registered nurse staffing agencies to fulfill all their RN staffing demands. An experienced RN staffing agency can help you solve all your staffing crises by helping you implement strategies to hire RNs. They can help you customize job descriptions, filter relevant candidate profiles, and ensure compliance and credentialing.
If you are looking to hire registered nurses in temporary roles, these staffing agencies can supply you with RNs while they act as the employer of record (EOR) for the hired RNs. This is a convenient solution for healthcare facilities to alleviate the enormous administrative burden upon them. Even though these registered nurse staffing agencies can be an excellent advantage for healthcare facilities, a common scenario is the non-transparency in their billing process. Most staffing agencies charge a huge markup fee, constituting a significant portion of their bill rate. This leads to a situation where the facility is forced to spend more than its budget while the final payment received by the contract nurse will be much lower than the market standards. Ultimately, this non-transparency in the billing process leads to more unsatisfied staff in your facility. To address this concern, MedSquirrels has developed a flat-fee approach where the facility just has to pay a flat license fee for using the platform and the payroll cost of the hired registered nurses. This way, we ensure that the contract nurses hired through us are paid above the industry standards, helping us attract the top candidates for your facility.
In addition, our registered nurse hiring platform leverages AI, simplifying the entire recruitment process and ensuring zero risk for your healthcare facilities. With our AI-based platform, you can customize job descriptions based on your requirements for registered nurses. Moreover, our healthcare recruiters will help you source and hire registered nurses based on the specific requirements of your facility and guarantee complete credentialing and compliance checks. Be it contract or permanent hiring, MedSquirrels’ staffing platform will fulfill all your job requirements! To start your registered nurse hiring process, request a demo!