Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Internal Travel Nurses Clinical Knowledge: A Modern, Electronic Approach To Staffing Readiness, Nicole Hartmann

Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference

Background/Introduction:

The Advocate Aurora Health Internal Agency needed an efficient way to assess teammates clinical knowledge to rapidly hire nurses into our internal travel pool. Advocate Aurora requires new teammates to complete orientation skills checklists upon hire. These checklists take many hours to complete, and several original checklists could not be retrieved. We also needed a way to assess pre-hire candidates to ensure they were clinically skilled.

Purpose or Objective:

Utilize a validated tool to assess traveler nurse knowledge prior to hire/contract/acceptance to internal agency. The goal of the tool is to efficiently evaluate level of expertise, and immediately transition …

The Evolution And Sustainment Of An Internal Agency To Further Reduce Costs, Desiree Bellon, Kari Mleziva

Nursing Research & Professional Development Conference

The Advocate Health (AH) Midwest (MW) Region Internal Agency was developed in the peak of the pandemic in response to the growing volumes of nurses leaving their positions for travel. Teammates leaving (interceptions) or who had left (boomerangs) their positions were offered the opportunity for a travel assignment within the MW Region. Internal agency rates were set at 60% of the current average bill rate for external agency, and in the first year, over $12 million were saved by utilizing internal agency nurses in lieu of external agency. This also resulted in decreased turnover and increased retention of high-performing nurses, …