The American Nurses Association reports a projected 194,500 average annual openings for nurses by 2030. Hospitals, rehabilitation, and long-term care facilities have always relied on PRN staffing agencies to come to the rescue to provide additional nurses when they’re short-staffed. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 “gig” agencies started popping up to help combat the additional shortage of nurses.
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The Challenges of Traditional PRN Staffing
Traditional nurse staffing relies heavily on email, text messaging, and phone calls which can lead to a slower response time. Oftentimes, employees would receive so many texts that they would miss the shifts they wanted, and end up not working even though they were available. In healthcare, each second matters, and PRN agencies have been working to find the fastest way to schedule employees since their conception.
Since emails get buried, phone calls get missed, and texts get ignored there had to be a better way to get ahold of your staff quickly.
The Rise of PRN Agency Apps
COVID-19 brought on a lot of challenges in healthcare, and with those challenges, solutions started to emerge. Staffing agencies have seen an influx in shift requests, and we needed to find a faster way to communicate with our employees.
“Gig” agencies started to pop up, but they are mostly geared towards 1099 employment, which comes with issues for healthcare facilities. There had to be something better.
Cascade Health Services saw an opportunity to be the leader in PRN agency apps and developed an app specifically for our W-2 Employees. The app functions as a one-stop shop for all of the PRN shifts in your area. Instead of having constant texts and emails. Our employees can open the app and see every shift that is available in the area they choose.
Since all of our shifts are on our app it frees up our texting and email lines to communicate short-notice needs. This opens up a door for faster communication when we need it. This opened a new door for nurses to take charge of their schedule on their own time and increased the amount of shifts we were able to fill in a short time.
Benefits of PRN Agency Apps for Nurses
PRN agency apps give nurses more control over their lives. It’s no secret that nurses work long shifts. The shifts are stressful, they’re overworked, and they don’t have enough work-life balance. All of these factors lead to burnout.
When nurses use PRN agency apps, they get to pick their schedules. This allows nurses to get the rest that they need before they come back to work which leads to less burnout.
PRN agency apps also increase the amount of work opportunities for nurses. It gives them a chance to step away from a certain specialty or facility if they feel like they need the break. It also allows them to try new care settings without the commitment.
Nurses use PRN agency apps to keep track of their schedules. When we developed our app, we wanted to provide our nurses with an easier way to view and manage their schedules. Before apps, nurses had to use their scheduling systems to keep track of when they were working. This led to more no-call no-shows simply because people forgot they had picked something up.
Healthcare Facilities Benefit From PRN Agency Apps
Since we released our app to our nurse staff, facilities have seen a show-up rate of up to 98.8%. Proving that this is a powerful tool for not only us but for our facilities. Our staff picks up available shifts faster and communication has been streamlined from facility to agency staff.
See also: How Cascade Health Services’ PRN Scheduling Platform is Changing Agency Staffing.
The Future of PRN Staffing with Apps
Recent rulings by the Department of Labor make predicting the future of PRN apps difficult. The “gig” agencies are facing new challenges from misclassifying their staff as 1099. Because of this, it’s hard to tell what will happen with PRN apps as a whole.
One certain thing is that W-2 PRN agency apps like the one Cascade Health Services built will be around regardless of the decisions the Department of Labor is making concerning 1099 healthcare workers. Making it one of the best options for nurses making the switch to PRN.
