Do any nursing homes use "agency staffing" anymore?

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In the good old days, the LTC's would call in "registry staff" to come in when needed. Nowadays, I don't ever see it being used. They usually just call the prn staff to come in and if none available, they stick the "on call" management nurse to come in if there are any call offs on the week-ends. Is that just at my LTC?

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.

In the area where I live and work (North Texas), the last time I've seen an agency nurse utilized in the nursing home setting was 2009, and this particular nursing home closed down in 2010. So several years have passed since I've last worked with an agency/registry nurse in LTC.

Management prefers to utilize on-call/PRN/pool/per diem staff because agency nurses cost enough money to bust the budget of most LTC facilities if used too often.

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Specializes in Gerontology, Med surg, Home Health.

We haven't used agency nurses in years.

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I was wondering because I recently saw a "want ad for nurses" to work agency in both hospitals and long term care units.

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Specializes in Case mgmt., rehab, (CRRN), LTC & psych.
I was wondering because I recently saw a "want ad for nurses" to work agency in both hospitals and long term care units.
The ad might be referring to agency nurses for LTACH (long term acute care hospitals), which is significantly more acute than the LTC setting.
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Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.

We utilize agency staff on a limited basis.

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Specializes in Assisted Living nursing, LTC/SNF nursing.

I heard that my place of employment will not hire Agency anymore (agency nurses or CNA's) because it about broke them at one time (that's the rumor anyway). Only in very rare cases would a supervisor work a cart. If a nurse is not available, a CMA would be on the cart and the other nurse would have to do all the assessments, insulin needs, more complicated wounds (beyond buttock calmo treatements), etc. etc.. If this happens on evening or night shift, if no nurse will come in, then someone stays over for 1/2 the shift and the oncoming nurse comes in for the second half a shift. Or, a nurse will get stuck doing a double and still have to come in the next scheduled shift. Not ideal, that is for sure.

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my guess being budget is the biggest reason, but another reason is = if mngmt can simply call agency nurses when coverage is needed, then management tends to not have a 100 percent commitment to retaining their nursing staff. by commitment I mean treating them fairly so they don't run them off and have to work in their place. . also they tend to keep their expectations more reasonable when they occasionally have to meet the goals they set for others. its a slap of reality when one cant jump through their own hoops.

to thine own self be true

and it must follow...

as the night the day

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Specializes in dementia/LTC.

We used to use 2 different companies for agency nurses and CNAs but about 3 years ago they stopped bc the agency folks were repeatedly no call no shows. now they won't do it bc of the expense. When there is a call in they call all the folks who are not working to see if they will come in and then they ask everyone working if they will stay and work overtime. If still no one takes the shift to fill in then we have a mandatory list that goes based on seniority & last time at least 4hrs of overtime were done and they start at the top of the list. If those on the list refuse they have to sign paperwork stating why. If everyone refused the unit works short, sometimes a manager ends up staying, the building supervisor has to work a medcart or a tma gets pulled from cna duties to work a medcart.

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Specializes in Peds Homecare.

They still do that here. Ads all the time, lots of agency work in Syracuse, NY and the surrounding area. Lots of jobs too, hospitals, LTC, and tons of private duty/ visits. Guess central New York State is just different.

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Specializes in psych.

I work for an agency as one of my two jobs. They have exclusive contracts for quite a few places. Everything from one of the hospitals to the LTC kids places. And tons of nursing home and rehab places.

The work is in cycles for us. Sometimes I get a lot of work in a short time, and them might go 2 weeks with nothing. I've been working for them as a CNA, but now that I graduated as RN, I'm working for them under my temp license until I take boards. So just like new grads and hospital jobs, I think it depends on the area you are.

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