Agency vs. Traveler: what do you choose?

In general, my organization is working hard to eliminate the use of any contractors - clinical or non-clinical. So our use of agency & travelers is dramatically decreased from this time last year. Staffing patterns are being carefully analyzed and re-worked with an optimal mix of FT/PT to prevent scheduling mismatches that result in the need for contract workers.

Travelers are used to fill 'predicted' vacancies for a period of time - most often due to FMLA or other scheduled leaves of absence. They function as 'temporary full-time' staff and are treated as such.

Agency staff, on the other hand, is locally obtained, contracted on a per-diem basis and can be cancelled at the last minute. In times past, we may have utilized an agency nurse on a routinely scheduled basis, but those days are pretty much over. Instead, we are doing much more with bid-shift or other arrangements that encourage and reward our own staff for filling in as needed to cover for unscheduled absences.

We use agency for day to day needs. We use travelers for positions that are consistently left unfilled. Unfortunately, they are both very expensive and agency can cancel at the last minute and have no ties to the organization. Our CFO will not allow us to fill more positions for new grads but did just ok us to extend our 2 travelers!!! Whatever was he thinking!