Thanks to the nationwide nursing shortage, many hospital leaders are willing to take on a Travel Nurse who can simply “do the job.” In the scramble to fill open positions, it can be easy to disregard the importance of finding an experienced clinician who is also the right cultural fit for your facility. After all, the Travel Nurse in question won’t be at your facility for long, so why worry about cultural fit?
However, here’s why cultural fit is important when hiring contingent clinicians at your facility:
- Fosters a positive environment of care: Patients can’t tell the difference between a Travel Nurse and a perm staff nurse, so that means your hiring team should interview both the same way. Recruiting contingent clinicians who share your organization’s values just makes sense. The right candidate can help promote a positive experience for your patients as well as other nurses across the hospital system. Moreover, when you take cultural fit into consideration, you’ll have an employee who is just as committed to your patients and your facility’s goals as a member of your core staff. As a result, your facility will enjoy a positive environment of care which can lead to enhanced patient care outcomes and better patient satisfaction scores.
- Reduces turnover rates: Finding the right cultural fit in a clinician is one of the best ways to reduce staff turnover. Get it wrong, and the contingent healthcare professional could end the assignment early, leaving your hospital’s hiring managers with the headache and expense of filling the role again. You can minimize turnover by asking behavioral questions during the interview. Questions such as “What does quality patient care mean to you?” or “How do you handle conflict?” can help gauge a candidate’s cultural fit.
- Provides conversion opportunities: In some cases, contingent healthcare professionals use traveling as a way to test the waters at different facilities. If they love working for your hospital, they might be interested in joining your core staff. When the stars align just so, you’ll be glad you interviewed that particular clinician with cultural fit in mind. Thanks to the “working interview” or short-term contract, you’ll already know if he or she would make a perfect addition to your facility.
Whether a nurse will be providing care at your facility for three months or 20 years, it is important to recruit experienced candidates who meet your facility’s culture. Medical Solutions, the second-largest Travel Nurse staffing company in the country, can help you do just that. To learn more, visit us here.