The end of the year is a busy time, especially for healthcare professionals. Patient care doesn’t take the day off for the holidays and healthcare facilities need the extra help from travelers. Here are three important healthcare staffing trends travel nurses and allied health professionals should know for the 2019 holiday season.
Job Expectations for the Holidays
Healthcare travel contracts through the end of the year will require employees to commit to working over the holidays. Typically, facilities have required travelers to work two out of three holidays during the busy season. This year, guidelines are becoming more specific requiring travelers to work three of five holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and/or New Year’s Day).
“Facilities are looking for contract RNs who are flexible and can commit to working over the holidays so that they can give staff nurses time off and alleviate their holiday hours,” said Jayson Sipe, Director of Talent Advisory at LiquidAgents Healthcare. “Travelers need to keep this in mind if they’re looking to start a new assignment before January as they’ll be expected to help fill those holiday shifts.”
More Opportunities for Overtime Pay
Healthcare facilities can offer different levels of opportunities for overtime work depending on policies, patient needs, census, management and other factors. Working travel contracts through the holidays can bring even more opportunities to pick up those overtime hours or shifts, and more pay.
Prebooking for January
January is the No. 1 transitional month for healthcare travelers. Many travelers currently on fall assignments may have planned to end their contract right before the holidays to take some time off to spend time with family and friends until January. Or they could choose to extend their contract to cover more holiday shifts. Either way, they’ll be looking for new contracts in the New Year, which is why healthcare facilities are already thinking about prebooking for January.
“Facilities experience the most amount of turnover every January, so they will be preparing to fill those needs,” said Oren Lavi, Director of Client Advisory at LiquidAgents. “The number of healthcare travel openings for January will only increase as we get closer to Thanksgiving.”
Travel nurses and allied health professionals can start thinking about where they want to go after the holidays and lining up their first contract for 2020.
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