What is the value of temporary/supplemental workers? Is the answer to this question industry specific? The Health Care industry, in all of its many forms, has utilized temporary/supplemental workers for a variety of endeavors, with much success over the years. As the economy improves, albeit slowly, we have seen an increase in the procurement of temporary/supplemental workers, as well as a significant increase in the hiring of permanent employees. Even though many permanent hires are ‘part time’ or less than the more significant ’40 hour work week’, the fact that hiring is taking place is key. (More on the 40 hour vs. 30 hour work week in a later piece).
In the winter of 2013, while I was still trying to entertain whether having my own Human Resources Consulting/Health Care Staffing business would be a productive enterprise, I read an article online stating that supplemental nurses could be "lifesavers" during times of critical nurse shortages in U.S. hospitals. This information was based on a 2012/2013 study by University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researchers. The study was partly funded by the American Staffing Association Foundation and the results are a justification for the hiring of temporary workers for any medical facility that is or could be compromised.
The study, "Hospital Use of Agency-Employed Supplemental Nurses and Patient Mortality and Failure to Rescue," examined controlled data from more than 1.3 million patients and 40,000 nurses in more than 600 U.S. hospitals to reach its conclusions. The detailed results of the study were published in Health Services Research around the time that I read the article.
"Our study showed these nurses could be lifesavers. Hiring temporary nurses can alleviate shortages that could produce higher patient mortality," says Linda H. Aiken, Ph.D., RN, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of sociology and nursing and director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.
Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research has long established a link between extending nurse shifts and adding patients to a nurse's workload to potential risk of patient mortality. The study also concludes that poor patient outcomes once believed associated with the hiring of supplemental nurses in hospitals are more likely the result of poor working conditions within those hospitals than of the temporary nurses hired to alleviate staff shortages. I, personally, have never seen or been involved in a situation where temporary ‘help’ (optimum word here) has had any type of negative impact on a Health Care environment.
"This research underscores the important role that supplemental nurses play in hospitals around the country," says Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. "Not only are supplemental nurses just as qualified as permanent nurses, they improve the quality of patient care."
In the winter of 2013, while I was still trying to entertain whether having my own Human Resources Consulting/Health Care Staffing business would be a productive enterprise, I read an article online stating that supplemental nurses could be "lifesavers" during times of critical nurse shortages in U.S. hospitals. This information was based on a 2012/2013 study by University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing researchers. The study was partly funded by the American Staffing Association Foundation and the results are a justification for the hiring of temporary workers for any medical facility that is or could be compromised.
The study, "Hospital Use of Agency-Employed Supplemental Nurses and Patient Mortality and Failure to Rescue," examined controlled data from more than 1.3 million patients and 40,000 nurses in more than 600 U.S. hospitals to reach its conclusions. The detailed results of the study were published in Health Services Research around the time that I read the article.
"Our study showed these nurses could be lifesavers. Hiring temporary nurses can alleviate shortages that could produce higher patient mortality," says Linda H. Aiken, Ph.D., RN, the lead researcher of the study and a professor of sociology and nursing and director of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research.
Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research has long established a link between extending nurse shifts and adding patients to a nurse's workload to potential risk of patient mortality. The study also concludes that poor patient outcomes once believed associated with the hiring of supplemental nurses in hospitals are more likely the result of poor working conditions within those hospitals than of the temporary nurses hired to alleviate staff shortages. I, personally, have never seen or been involved in a situation where temporary ‘help’ (optimum word here) has had any type of negative impact on a Health Care environment.
"This research underscores the important role that supplemental nurses play in hospitals around the country," says Richard Wahlquist, president and chief executive officer of the American Staffing Association. "Not only are supplemental nurses just as qualified as permanent nurses, they improve the quality of patient care."
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