How to Open a Nursing Agency
Opening a nursing agency is a challenging and demanding business move.With the acute shortage in the nursing staff in the Health Care Department and the need to bring in nurses from overseas, opening a nursing agency is quite a promising career.
First of all, like any business, your agency will have to be named and registered. Tax forms have to be cleared and a licence to run business should be obtained. The next step after that is pretty tricky. If you are new to the health-care field, you will need to make yourself familiar with the terms and conditions and all the documents required for a nurse to register with your agency and consequently be placed in a hospital, nursing home or as a private nurse as the need required and the agreement signed upon.
Planning and execution are two very important tasks in any business and this is no different. A lot of planning is required for how you are to set up your agency. Planning takes into account the location and name of your agency, registering, staffing and paper work required, budgets to be outlined, affiliations and tie-ups with the Health Care facilities, visas and immigrations for international nurses and even pay packages to be fixed for the nurses. Execution is merely carrying out the above plans in a systematic way so as to get the business running smoothly from the start.
Once your agency name and location have been set, the next move would be to program a website for your business. This should have a cover or home page which gives a brief summary of your agency and the benefits for signing up at the mentioned link. It would also be helpful if a few hospital names or sponsors are mentioned on this page. The home page should end with a "request for more details" option, where a prospective candidate could submit his/her name, qualification, work interest and email address. Some ask for phone numbers too, but that is optional. Ideally an auto-response should also be programmed for those who submit a request, thanking them for their interest and also providing an application form relevant to the qualification they have entered. This not only makes it easier for you to track people who do and do not reply with the registration forms, but also gives you a comparative chart of the different nursing categories applied for tallied against your requirement.
You will required to liaise between hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centres, the government facilities, State Health Care Department, etc., to get clearance and sanctions for the nurse applicants to be posted at their positions. They may be Temporary, Contract or Permanent positions and accordingly the agreements too will have to be drawn up.
You will have to conduct online screen tests and have timely interviews set up, ideally online for international candidates, to assess their level of education, expertise and exposure to the tasks ahead of them. If you are to notice where a candidate would suit a particular position as against the one applied for, you should be able to convey and convince the candidate. Placements should be in recognised and in safe institutions.
Some agencies make their clients wear a particular style uniform to indicate the agency through which they have been recruited. This, however, might cause confusion at the work place for the nurses.
Advertising is another very important step to be taken. You will be required to advertise off line and online, so that you gain a wide business exposure. Online advertising should lead to your agency web page.
For your business to grow profitably, you will have to do a detailed study of the nursing market and your competitors. Run surveys if you have to. As the saying goes, "Benchmark". Find out your competitors' prices, affiliations and professional fees that are charged or quoted. Your business will have to be in par with them, initially not higher, and may be even much lower to begin with.
Business in general is a risky profession. However since the demand for nurses is very high, especially in the U.S., there should be no difficulty in finding placements. Getting your clients initially might be your worry, but once you get established and the many nursing schools get to know you nationally and internationally over a period of time, you will find that open your nursing agency has eventually been one of your best moves career-wise.
