It may only be August, but now’s the ideal time for US hospitals and healthcare facilities to turn their attention to ensuring they have the right number of nurses to cover the winter months.
It’s no secret that huge demands are placed on healthcare facilities over the winter period. With outbreaks of illnesses like the flu and norovirus, accidents resulting from poor weather conditions, and low temperatures affecting those with cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, hospitals are under significant pressure.
Additionally, the winter means that more hospital beds are taken up by patients who are well enough to be discharged but require a nursing home place or home care which isn’t available due to the same issues facing long-term care. Such factors mean that hospitals must ensure they have enough nurses to cope with the additional care demands at this time of year.
What Are Your Options?
In the face of nationwide nursing shortages, it may not be as simple as hosting a US recruitment drive. Additionally, using travel nurses to bolster staffing numbers can be cost-prohibitive for a lot of facilities. To illustrate, Charleston Medical reported that it spent $12 million on visiting or “travel” nurses, twice as much as it had in 2014.
An increasing number of acute and long-term care facilities are successfully managing staffing challenges by widening their net to include international nurses. In fact, the number of immigrant healthcare workers in the US is projected to continue rising, with 3 million already working in the healthcare system, according to the Harvard Business Review.
The Benefits Of Recruiting International Nurses
When you partner with a specialist staffing agency like Conexus, you’re safe in the knowledge that you’ll only ever be connected with quality candidates. We provide international US-educated nurses who have completed undergraduate and postgraduate studies and are looking to secure their first role, along with experienced nurses who will soon be ready to become charge nurses or managers.
Alongside securing knowledgeable and experienced nurses, employing international healthcare professionals rather than travel or local assignments will also save you between 10 - 30 USD per hour.
Is It Possible To Recruit Foreign Nurses In Time For Winter 2019/20?
In short, yes. While some direct hire agencies can take up to two years to have international candidates ready to work in the US, the Conexus staffing model means our nurses will be able to deploy between one and five months. Not only is this in line with the average 78-days that it takes for US hospitals to hire a nurse, it means that you’ll be able to properly prepare for the winter months, whether you need two nurses for a single hospital or 50 across multiple sites.
Your Next Steps
The Conexus Medstaff team is on-hand to answer any questions you have about hiring international nurses to strengthen your team this winter. Find out more by downloading our brochure, call our team on +1 832 406 3040, or email info@conexusmedstaff.com.