Articles by Emjay

Hospitals and clinics partner with staffing firms to connect with and hire top healthcare talent, improve efficiency, and support the overall care standards of their operations.

Healthcare staffing professionals can help your facility manage staff shortages because they understand your team’s needs and the demands of each role. Their support goes beyond finding candidates and can ease the pressure that vacancies place on your managers and staff. In this blog post, we explore the benefits that healthcare facilities receive from working with a staffing firm and how that applies to their daily operations.

Healthcare Workforce Shortage in 2028

The American Hospital Association’s five workforce shortage takeaways for 2028 summarized a 2024 study by Mercer and Lightcast. The five findings below are projections from that study, rather than confirmed outcomes or a count of today’s vacancies. The practical implications explain how those pressures could affect healthcare facilities and their teams.

1. A Shortage of About 100,000 Critical Health Care Workers

The study projected a shortfall of about 100,000 critical health care workers by 2028, with uneven effects across states. New York and New Jersey faced projected gaps, while overall supply could exceed demand in California, Texas, and Pennsylvania.

How can this affect hospitals and clinic managers? A smaller pool of applicants could mean a longer search while current staff take extra shifts. If you cannot safely staff more appointments or beds, you may also need to limit how many patients you accept. That puts pressure on both your team and your income.

2. A Nursing Assistant Shortage

The forecast put the nursing assistant shortfall at about 73,000, with only 13 states expected to meet or exceed demand. Without enough nursing assistants, nurses may spend more of their shift helping with tasks such as mobility and personal care alongside their clinical duties.

Your team has more work to fit into the same hours, and patients may wait longer for help. Recruitment planning therefore needs to include support roles as well as nurses and physicians.

3. Registered Nurse Availability That Varies by State

A slight national registered nurse surplus was projected, alongside shortages in New York and other East Coast states. A national surplus won’t fill an empty shift if the available nurses live elsewhere or don’t have the experience your role requires.

You may need to search outside your area and discuss relocation. Before relying on national figures, look at the applicants you are actually attracting and the time your own searches take.

4. A National Physician Surplus Alongside Local Gaps

The study projected about 28,000 more physicians than needed nationally, but shortages in California, Texas, and New York. Combined physician and nurse practitioner gaps could affect preventive care. If fewer clinicians are available locally, your facility may struggle to offer routine appointments and follow-up visits promptly.

A surplus elsewhere gives you a reason to widen recruitment, but you still need candidates whose skills, location preferences, and availability fit your services.

5. Pay Differences That Encourage Workers to Move

Pay differences between neighbouring states or metropolitan areas could encourage staff to relocate for higher earnings. You could lose applicants to another employer even when the job itself interests them. If several people decline for the same pay-related reason, running another advert may leave you with the same problem. You need to understand what nearby employers offer and whether your pay, hours, and working conditions make the role appealing. These projections are one planning tool.

Mercer’s healthcare labour market research focuses on differences between occupations and locations, so compare the forecasts with your own vacancies, planned service changes, and local hiring experience. Consider where to widen your search, where staff development could help, and what would make current employees want to stay.

How Can Healthcare Staffing Firms Help?

A healthcare staffing firm can help you respond to the pressures described above by finding candidates, organising recruitment, and arranging suitable assignments. The six healthcare staffing benefits below explain the practical connection. The illustrative examples show how that support could work in day-to-day operations.

1. Access to a Wider Talent Pool

If the same local adverts keep bringing in few suitable applicants, it’s worth asking who your search isn’t reaching. Uneven registered nurse availability can make it difficult to fill vacancies when local job advertisements attract few qualified applicants. A staffing firm can widen the search to other areas and approach nurses who are open to a move, rather than relying only on people who apply locally.

An Example: A rural facility advertises for a rehabilitation nurse but receives few suitable local applications. A staffing firm expands the search to nurses in other regions who have rehabilitation experience and are open to relocating. The healthcare staffing firm discusses the role’s weekday schedule, pay, and available relocation support, then introduces interested candidates whose experience and availability match the facility’s needs. This wider search gives the facility access to suitable nurses it may not reach through local advertising alone. Discussing the practical details early also helps candidates assess whether the move would suit them before the manager arranges interviews.

2. Flexible Staffing for Absences and Busy Periods

A gap lasting a few weeks needs a different plan from a role you need filled for the years ahead. The projected physician gaps in California, Texas, and New York could make it harder to maintain routine appointments while recruiting. Staffing firms can supply temporary clinicians and may help you arrange care during the search. Temporary clinicians are often referred to as Locum tenens, meaning a clinician works to fill another clinician’s position for an agreed period.

An Example: A primary care clinic’s physician is leaving. Rather than canceling follow-up appointments, the manager asks a staffing firm to arrange a locum physician for agreed clinic days. The locum provides temporary coverage while the clinic recruits a permanent replacement, helping patients continue their scheduled care during the search.

3. Recruiting Support That Saves Leadership Time

The predicted nursing assistant shortage could mean more searches for the same roles and more recruitment work for managers. A staffing firm can handle agreed application reviews, screening calls, and interview coordination, leaving the manager to assess shortlisted candidates and make hiring decisions.

An Example: At a care facility, for instance, the nursing manager needs assistants for evening shifts. The healthcare staffing firm checks required qualifications, relevant experience, availability, and pay expectations before arranging interviews. Candidates who cannot work evenings are identified early, so the manager isn’t using the interview time to discover a basic scheduling mismatch. By screening candidates before interviews, the healthcare staffing firm saves the manager time reviewing applications and contacting unsuitable applicants. The manager can then spend more time supporting staff and overseeing daily care.

4. Credentialing and Compliance Support

Finding a willing candidate doesn’t mean they’re ready to start. You still need the required checks and paperwork in place. When physicians are difficult to recruit locally, paperwork delays can keep a hard-won hire from starting. A staffing firm can organise and provide compliance support on agreed credentialing, license verification, background checks, and references while your facility prepares for the person’s arrival.

An Example: A clinic hiring a physician asks a staffing firm to help with tedious paperwork and credential checks. The healthcare staffing firm collects required documents, verifies the physician’s license, coordinates background checks, and follows up on missing references. This support saves the clinic’s team time gathering records for its credentialing and compliance review.

5. Better Candidate Matching to Reduce Repeat Hiring

You don’t want to go through another search because a new employee discovers the job isn’t what they expected. When nursing assistants are already difficult to find, losing a new employee because the job was misunderstood sends you back into the same small applicant pool. With this, a healthcare staffing firm can explain hours, duties, physical demands, and working conditions much more thoroughly before someone accepts, so the candidate can decide whether the role suits them.

An Example: Imagine that your care facility needs assistants for rotating weekends. The healthcare staffing firm shares the actual shift pattern and explains daily duties, including personal care and mobility support. Someone who cannot manage those weekends can decide before accepting an offer, rather than discovering the requirement after joining and leaving you to recruit again.

The U.S. Office of Personnel Management’s guidance on realistic job previews explains how a balanced account of a job can help candidates assess their fit and may reduce turnover. This general recruitment approach may help you avoid some repeat hiring while nursing assistant supply is tight. Pay, workload, and support after hiring still matter.

6. Local Labour Market Insights

When applicants keep turning down your offers, you need to understand why before spending more time on the next search. The forecast about workers moving for higher earnings gives you a reason to investigate why candidates decline your offers. A staffing firm can collect that feedback and compare it with local wage information, helping you see whether the difficulty is pay, hours, or another part of the role.

An Example: Healthcare staffing firms track salary trends and the skills employers need. These insights help managers review their pay offers and job requirements against current market conditions.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes occupational employment and wage estimates for states and metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas. Those figures provide context, although they won’t show every employer’s current offer or explain every rejection. You can then decide whether to review pay, clarify the schedule, or change where you recruit. This responds directly to the risk of workers moving for better earnings by helping you make an informed offer. It won’t eliminate competition, but it can help you avoid spending another month advertising a role without addressing why applicants turn it down.

Conclusion

The healthcare staffing benefits worth looking for are the ones that help your team do its work: access to suitable candidates, useful recruiting support, and staffing arrangements that fit your gaps. Their value depends on how well the firm understands your facility and the responsibilities you agree to share.

Before choosing a recruitment partner, take one hard-to-fill role and identify what is holding the search back. Is it limited local interest, unsuitable applicants, pay, or a lack of time to recruit? Use that answer to decide what support you need, then review whether the partnership is helping with that specific problem.