Special Award From the World Employment Confederation Recognizes Efforts to Educate on Nurse Staffing Agency Rate Caps
The American Staffing Association has received an international honor for its advocacy work supporting health care staffing agencies in the height of the pandemic.
During its annual conference in Brussels, Belgium, the World Employment Confederation conferred a special award to ASA for its ongoing efforts to educate the public and stakeholders about the dangers of nurse staffing agency rate caps on a health care industry that was already facing a historic nursing shortage.
As the pandemic resulted in unprecedented burdens on the American health care system, mobile nurses who could be deployed where needed most helped health care facilities maintain staff levels necessary to ensure patients received quality care. In order to incentivize nurses to accept travel assignments, wage levels increased. Those increases led to discussions about capping rates charged by health care staffing agencies.
Faced with these challenges in 15 states and at the federal level, ASA formed a coalition of health care staffing organizations to educate policymakers on the negative impact that capping rates would have on nurses’ wages, and thus the supply of nurses willing to accept mobile assignments.
To date, no federal or state rate cap bill has passed and, as ASA predicted, nursing wage rates have come down as the demand for nurses has ebbed.
“ASA is honored to receive global recognition for our efforts to educate stakeholders and the public about the nursing shortage’s impact on maintaining high levels of patient care,” said ASA president and chief executive officer Richard Wahlquist. “ASA supports comprehensive and meaningful reforms to remedy the ongoing shortage of licensed nursing professionals, which will lead to improved care and better cost management.”
“Our country is facing a shortage of licensed nursing professionals that was only made worse during the pandemic,” said Toby Malara, vice president of government relations at ASA. “The increase in travel nurse bill rates during the height of the pandemic was a symptom of the ongoing nursing shortage. Reforms are needed to ensure our country has enough nurses to affordably deliver the high-quality care patients deserve.”
For more information, visit americanstaffing.net.
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About the American Staffing Association
The American Staffing Association is the voice of the U.S. staffing, recruiting, and workforce solutions industry. ASA and its state affiliates advance the interests of the industry across all sectors through advocacy, research, education, and the promotion of high standards of legal, ethical, and professional practices. For more information about ASA, visit americanstaffing.net.
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