Agency Nursing vs Staff Nursing

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Hi All!

I am preparing to do a debate in my Nursing 510 course about agency vs staff nursing. It is a formal debate complete with PowerPoint presentation, etc. My team and I will be arguing against the usage of Agency nurses as a bandaid to the "real problem " (yet to be identified) ;)

As a good debater should do, I am researching both sides so I can anticipate the other team's argument and refute it. I have several articles both from nursing journals as well as pop culture mags, however, I was looking for input from nurses who are either for or against as well to help me build my argument.

If there is anything you can offer, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks! :D

Originally posted by Susy K

Prn Nurse-

As far as infrastructure, do agencies not also provide these types of benefits to their employees? Something is not adding up.

You have a staff nurse, who is making $20 an hour, with all the "infrastructure" expenses you mentioned as well.

You have an agency nurse, who is making $50 an hour, with all the agency's infrastructure expenses. How is it that the agency is able to administer these expenses AND pay the nurse more, but the hospital is not?

Something is not adding up for me here.

Just speaking for myself and my agency, and strictly talking about benefits so that we may have some kind of comparison; the benefits my agency offers are definitely not as good as the benefits that I received while working as a staff nurse. Health insurance as a staff nurse for single coverage costed me $40 a month. Health insurance as an agency nurse for single coverage costs me $200 a month. As a staff nurse, my hospital equalled my 401K plan contributions. My agency does not equal my contributions. As a staff nurse I had sick days available. As an agency nurse I do not. The above 2 benefits are the only benefits my agency offers while the hospital I used to work for offered others in addition to the ones I mentioned. Why do I choose agency nursing over staff nursing? I work the days that I want, the shift that I want, and make more money despite the expense of health insurance. I walk in, take care of my patients, and leave without having to stay over for the mandatory meetings where more bull**** and empty promises are doled out by management. I believe that if hospitals increase pay, let nurses work the days and shifts that they prefer, and take some of the hats off the heads of nurses, they would be able to retain them.

Specializes in LTC.

i have worked agency over 2 years and would not do it any other way. i have only walked into a hostile inveroment a couple of times. i am not to work in a area that i am not properly trained. our agency gives test in areas and your scores reflect where you will work. i always offer to help my fellow nurses with difficult patients. and each shift i work i give at least 110%. any nurse out there has the same apportunity to work agency just as i do. i was tired of getting taken advatage of as most facilities are. i do get paid a little more money, i dont have to work overtime, and i can sch. the hours i work and not feel guilty to take a week or two off of work when the mood strikes. there are other reasons that i could go into but i dont want to bore others. hope this will help in your debate. good luck

I am an agency nurse and actually i enjoy it. I have worked in a LTC facility for years and find this less stressful for me. As a good agency nurse, or just a good nurse if u do not know the "normal condition or routine" u ask. I have no problem asking a staff member about one of my patients. If i am unsure about something i ask.

With agency u don't have to go the the company bs that staff does. Out of all the facilities i have been to staff nurse complain about how the company is making them do this or that. As agency nurse you go in and do what u have to with out having to worry about getting your nurse's notes done so you can go to the manatory meeting at the end of your shift.

I look at every place i go as a job, i do what i took an oath to do. Some agency nurses are just pill pushers but a lot of us are real nurses who love what we do.

I am now a staff RN at a hospital (inpatient mental health), but I was a "moonlighting" registry RN for many years. Why? The answer is simple: as the other nurses have described, the money and autonomy are both very appealing. There are other (professional) benefits for the clinician as well. For example, I was at a nursing agency in a large city (Toronto, Canada, pop. = 5 million), and so I was able to work at loads and loads of different hospitals, in various patient care areas. As you would expect, this is a wonderful way to keep one's med-surg skills current. (Although, I confess that I have no interest whatsoever in doing med-surg anymore! I would never leave psychiatric nursing.) Certainly, there is down side to all of this: guess who gets the backbreaking patients, the placement-problem clients, and the dubious pleasure of scooping up the myriad "code browns" on any given medical floor! The poor sucker from the staffing agency, who just walked in to the ward with his or her "one hour orientation", that's who! RNs are notorious for "eating our young"; this is even a discussion topic on one of the allnurses.com chat lists. To accuse registry nurses of having inferior skills is just a red herring, a way of laterally displacing disgruntlement and burnout. Of course not every nurse can work in each unit. I could no more do ICU than could a paediatric RN take on adult forensics. This is why many of us choose to specialise. Yet in an economy of supply and demand, there is an obvious need for registry staff. Just take a look at the hundreds of American "travel nursing" companies who so aggressively compete for even grad nurses.

agency nursing also offers the flexibility to nurses who for reasons such as family commitments, ongoing studies can not gain permanent employment that will allow for there requirements.We ahve shortages too our hospitals have a casual pool of nurses that can be called in when there are shortages.

Specializes in LDRP; Education.

Interesting to note: I found an article that linked an increase in blood bourne infections in hospitalized patients while agency nurse use was high.

It is THIS aspect of agency nursing that I will be focusing on for my debate.

Source: Robert, J. (2000). "The influence of the Composition of the Nursing Staff on Primary Bloodstream Infection Rates in a Surgical Intensive Care Unit." Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.

I'd like to hear more about this article. So now they're blaming increased blood borne infections on us. What? Agency nurses don't wash their hands as well as staff nurses? That's right, I forgot how to wash my hands and use clean and sterile technique as soon as I signed on with my agency. Come on. :rolleyes:

Brita, isn't this the truth...why must nurses find a scapegoat?:(

Our wonderful profession is continually at odds... it's management nurses vs. staff, BSN's vs. Diploma/ADN's, RN's vs. LVN's...now add agency vs. staff nurses....

My comment: who benefits from all this divisiveness? Certainly not our profession. I look forward to the day we can be united and all the finger pointing elitism stops....think we'll ever get there?

Specializes in LDRP; Education.
Originally posted by Brita01

I'd like to hear more about this article. So now they're blaming increased blood borne infections on us. What? Agency nurses don't wash their hands as well as staff nurses? That's right, I forgot how to wash my hands and use clean and sterile technique as soon as I signed on with my agency. Come on. :rolleyes:

Brita -

I've included the source of the article so you are more than welcome to look it up and read it. I don't think they were "blaming" anyone per se, they simply noticed a correlation, that's all. Take it easy.

I also found an article that sites that needle sticks are higher when agency nurse use is high. I will provide that source a little later.

Specializes in Hospice and palliative care.

What ALL nurses need to do (agency, staff, whatever) is give the management a pile of articles that demonstrate lower mortality rates with better nurse staffing. Dr. Linda Aiken from Penn was a lead or co-investigator on many of these studies. Although I don't have the references right at my fingertips, I would be more than happy to go searching for them for anyone who is really interested (after my semester is done at the end of next week).

Imagine if we unloaded a pile of these articles on the doorsteps of our CEO's/CNO's (chief nursing officers)! I don't know any other way to get the message across. Of course, just b/c we provide them with the information doesn't mean it will be acknowledged in any way, shape, or form. :rolleyes: It's just an idea.

Anybody know what's happening with the Million Nurse March? Is it going forward?

Laurie :p

Specializes in Everything except surgery.
Originally posted by Susy K

Brita -

I've included the source of the article so you are more than welcome to look it up and read it. I don't think they were "blaming" anyone per se, they simply noticed a correlation, that's all. Take it easy.

I also found an article that sites that needle sticks are higher when agency nurse use is high. I will provide that source a little later.

Hi Susy K,

I'm wondering if these two studies are reflection of the higher acurity of the pts assigned to agency nurses. As many agencies nurses have attested to, they're usually given pts with higher acurity when they work. I mean that many times...agency nurses are given the pts. with MRSA, the ones that require more complex procedures...as staff many times tired of being assigned these pts. and I have personally withnessed these pts being selectively assigned to us d/t staff feeling ...we make more money ...so we shoud take the more difficult pts. If agency is receiving the pts requiring the use of needles more often than the staff nurses.....then that would account for a higher incidence of needle sticks! Especially if staff as taking the pts. requiring less complex care.

Brita...I had to lol when you wrote, that since becoming an agency nurse....that you suddenly stopped washing your hands...:).

Good point, Brownms46! What you're saying could be very correct. There have been many nights that I've run around like a chicken with my head cut off taking care of my harder patients, while the staff is sitting down chatting. All finished with their paperwork and everything. And, I've actually sat in report while assignments are being doled out where staff have said "I don't want Mr. Brown" or "I'm not taking care of Mrs. Smith tonite." Guess who gets Mr. Brown and Mrs. Smith? The clueless agency nurse who doesn't know that these patients are famous for falling out of bed and pulling out their lines, or calling literally every 10 minutes. Of course, this doesn't happen all the time at all hospitals, but it happens a little too often for me to feel it's a coincidence.

LLDPaRN, a Million Nurse March sounds like a great idea. This is the first time that I've heard of it. I hope it does go forward.

+ Add a Comment