You have successfully rated this document.
Sorry, you need to login to rate this document.
Sorry, you already rated this document.
|
A Nursing Agency is an Agency of Mercy
There are many famous quotes describing the kindness and tenderness with which nurses treat patients. While these nurses are undoubtedly miraculous individuals, the way they come to provide patients with care is a process similar to how substitute teachers are hired.
Gathering a Nursing Workforce
Nurses join a staffing agency called a nursing agency, or registry, that organizes their employment force at various healthcare facilities. After joining one of these agencies, the nurse will be contacted about facilities which have vacancies in need of filling.
The nursing agency will arrange a temporary contract for the caregiver. Generally, this type of business is small and privately owned. However, these agencies have come to capitalize on opportunities presented by the internet.
A Contract Position
Nursing agencies help provide nurses work at health care facilities per diem. This means that the nurse will work at a facility for a contractual number of days or at a location when regular staff are absent. A nursing agency may need to contact their nurses day, night, and even on holidays.
Most hospitals pay their staff overtime on major holidays but in spite of this incentive, there is still a lot of demand for the nurses’ services. Many hospital personnel take vacations in the summer, which creates a vacuum.
If there is a shortage of nurses, there is a greater chance of poor patient outcomes – cardiac arrest, pneumonia, urinary tract infections, and bedsores – according to a report from the United States Department of Health & Human Services in 2004.
Ideally, the hospital will pay the agency as soon as the services are finished and then money will be immediately passed on to the nursing personnel. Unfortunately, there is no exact rule set for interactions so the health care facility or hospital might not pay the registry until several weeks or months later.
The Regulatory Board
In the United States, nursing agencies are generally small businesses that are privately owned. English nursing registries are regulated by the Care Quality Commission. The Care Quality Commission began operating in April 2009. Their objective is to ensure better care levels.
Therefore, nursing agencies must register with the Care Quality Commission to verify that the levels of safety and quality being provided meet regulation standards. This removes ambiguity about whether or not the nursing agency is providing comprehensive and effective services.
|
