How Important Are Nursing Agencies?

We often think of nursing professionals as those who are always there to help us when we fall ill; we hardly ever think that these nurses too are human beings in flesh and blood and so have their own lives to cater to. They too deserve a break from work just like any other individual working to earn her/his livelihood!

Barring some nursing professionals who find steady jobs in hospitals, most of them have to seek work under short term contracts. Nursing agencies or registries provide the common source to supply nurses to employers in need The way the nursing agencies provide nurses is usually based on per diem or locum system i.e. the nurses are hired out to work for a contracted number of days at a demanded location.

They readily provide continuity of services during absence of regular staff members. This makes it obligatory for a nurse registering with an agency to be available during day or night to take up a position at short notice, holidays included. Such vacancies so created are unplanned and unpredictable; may be just for a few days. In England, Care Quality Commission regulates nursing registries while in United States, these services fall under the domain of small businesses.

Care Quality Commission started in a full fledged way in April 2009 and aims to set up higher standards of health care. In England, as the nursing services are duly registered with the aforesaid Commission, a continuous effective check on the quality of nursing services is ensured. In the absence of a similar body formed in United States, the ability of the nurses is judged by their degree, license, certification and registration.

Now, these nursing agencies can be located through their websites. Such sites are helpful to these agencies as also individuals who need professional nursing facilities at their homes. In an effort to amply compensate the nurses for working overtime or on holidays, the nurses are paid higher rates for such periods. Still, occasions do arise when these nurses take an off from work to be with their families particularly during festivals.

US Department of Health & Human Services reported in 2004 that inability of agencies to replenish nurses who opted to stay away from work resulted in cardiac arrest, urinary tract infection and pneumonia affecting several patients. Mostly, the hospitals promptly pay the nursing agencies from where they hire nurses and these agencies pass on the payments to the nursing professionals.

At times however it may happen for a variety of reasons that there is delay caused in such payments coming from a hospital or a health care facility that results in an unfortunate delay in payments being made to the nurse practitioner.

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