Healthcare Staffing Report: Aug. 22, 2013

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Extended vacancies take toll on healthcare organizations

Forty-eight percent of nursing jobs and 39 percent of allied health jobs take six weeks or longer to fill, according to a study from CareerBuilder, and nursing jobs go unfilled for 12 weeks or longer at 20 percent of health care organizations.

Fifty-nine percent of employers surveyed cited at least one negative effect of vacancies, including 36 percent who said employee morale is lower because staff is overworked. Other negative effects included less attention given to patients, higher voluntary turnover, more mistakes in administration of patient care, and increased lawsuits.

Sixty-five percent of health care employers said that recruiting nurses is difficult in some way while 35 percent said they had no difficulty recruiting nurses.

Sixty-two percent of employers say they plan to hire healthcare workers and provide additional training. Of those employers currently hiring nurses, 41 percent say they’re only looking for experienced nurses.

The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of CareerBuilder among 216 health care hiring managers and human resource professionals. The survey was conducted between May 14 to June 5, 2013.