How to Solve Healthcare Staffing Problems
Working in the Health and Social Care sector is incredibly rewarding. However, when it comes to finding staff for your healthcare organisation, you can face challenges in recruiting the right people.
The social care sector in Scotland currently has a very high vacancy rate of 43% - and our ageing population with long-term diseases, conditions, and complex needs is going to increase in size over the next 20 years.
If staff absences are causing unnecessary stress in your organisation, partnering with a reliable and trustworthy healthcare staffing organisation can help to solve your problems thanks to their flexible service, range of staff, and the quality of care they provide.
Keep reading to find out how to identify the right partner for your needs!
What staff do you need?
When considering a healthcare organisation to solve your staffing problem, try to make sure you partner with a company that can provide all of the staff you need.
For example, if you work with a partner that provides nursing staff, but you also need carers and support workers, the relationship might not be what you’re looking for.
At Medway Nurse Agency, we can provide staff to fill a range of different roles within your service, including:
Nurses
Support workers
Cleaners
Kitchen assistants
Healthcare assistants
Live-in carers
If you own multiple care facilities you should also consider where you will require staff, as different healthcare staffing partners will be able to work in different areas.
Our nursing staff, for example, can work in care settings across Edinburgh, The Lothians, Dundee, Fife, Perth, and Kinross. We can provide care staff across the whole of Scotland.
What vacancies do you need to fill?
A healthcare agency that can provide a wide range of staffing solutions will help you save time and labour in finding people to fill your vacancies.
You should ideally pick a partner that can scale their solution to your needs. There are many reasons why you may have open vacancies - from your facility expanding to simply needing cover for unexpected staff sickness.
Medway Nurse Agency offers a flexible workforce to meet your changing needs - helping you avoid unnecessary disruptions to your service.
We provide the following cover for healthcare and social care organisations, including:
Ad-hoc and long-term positions
Block booking
Staff sickness
Maternity leave
Paternity leave
Staff holidays
Staff vacancies
Seasonal shortages
You might be wondering: what happens if you need last-minute support?
We can help with that too! Simply get in touch and we aim to not only quickly match you with the right member of our team, but have them ready to start their shift within the hour.
What skills do you require?
Consider the needs of your patients and make sure you find a recruitment partner who can provide you with staff with the skills and experience you require.
Our nurses and carers have extensive experience caring for patients with:
Dementia
Parkinson’s
Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
Stroke
Diabetes
Cancer
Rehabilitation
Mental health support
Learning difficulties
How well-regulated is the organisation?
Of course, the most important thing you need is a fully regulated organisation with a roster of enthusiastic and caring staff!
Our services are fully regulated by the Care Inspectorate and we only recruit under the Care Inspectorate Safer Staffing Guidelines.
Not only that, but our processes and procedures are aligned with ISO 9001: 2015 standards, and we were awarded a score of ‘Very Good’ in our latest inspection.
Every member of our team is committed to delivering high-quality care to the patients in your organisation.
Our Service Manager is an experienced nurse, who works closely with your organisation to understand your needs and match you with highly-experienced staff that are a good culture fit for your organisation.
We always prioritise those who have worked well with your organisation in the past to provide continuity of care.
We hope this blog has helped you understand the key considerations when choosing a partner to solve your healthcare staffing problems.
With extensive experience working across the health and social care sector, Medway Nurse Agency can provide highly-quality staffing solutions for a variety of care organisations, including:
Nursing homes
Residential homes
Daycare centres
Respite care settings
Charities
Housing associations
Other health and social care settings
