Any thoughts on agency v. core staff?

[juliaann]

Disclaimer: Yes, this is a homework assignment. If you don't want to help with someone's homework, feel free to ignore me.

I'm writing a short persuasive essay on the benefits and drawbacks of 1) hiring more core CNAs as staff to your facility or 2) using agency. The context is when your patient/resident census goes up dramatically and your facility doesn't have the staff to meet all the patient/resident needs. The patient/resident census may or may not stay elevated (meaning you might end up overstaffed if the numbers go back down)

As a CNA (if you are core staff) would you rather have new coworkers hired or have a (potentially) different agency coworker for multiple shifts?

If you're core, do you like working the agency? What's different about working with them versus core coworkers?

If you're an agency CNA, what's hard about going to different facilities? Do you find it easy or hard to adjust to a new facility? How do the core CNAs treat you?

If anyone wants to throw out any comments or stories related to any of these topics, I'd be grateful. If you could please leave a first name (if you're comfortable doing so) and the number of years experience you have as a CNA, I'd appreciate it. I may quote you in my short paper (with credit) - it will only be read by myself and my instructor, it will not be published or posted anywhere.

I just thought I'd throw this out there and see if I can get some feedback from people who don't work at my facility. :)

[dicecream]

Not sure exactly what to say on this one. My facility always tries to use core staff because it's much cheaper than agency. Also core staff generally gives better care because they know the residents. Even if we give a good report, there are always little things that the residents like done a certain way, and we don't have time to explain. Mostly I would prefer to work with the same people so we develop a routine together and I can usually depend on them. I have worked with some very good agency CNAs, but a few who I would rather not see again.