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Q&A on Staffing Correctional Facilities: 5 Difficult Questions Answered
The nationwide caregiver shortage has had a significant impact on correctional facilities. Staffing shortages in these institutions can have devastating effects on community safety and societal well-being. That’s one of the main reasons that correctional facilities enlist the assistance of healthcare staffing solutions providers.
A healthcare staffing agency works with all types of correctional facilities, including:
- Federal prisons
- State prisons
- Privately-run prisons
- City jails
- County jails
- Juvenile detention centers
Amergis Staffing has decades of experience connecting healthcare staffing professionals with job opportunities at correctional facilities that change their careers for the better. Qualified medical staff can search our website for job openings.
5 Difficult Questions About Staffing Correctional Facilities Answered
One of our directors of business development at Amergis, Ryan Burd, has worked with correctional facility teams to find physicians, nurses, mental health professionals, and more for 15 years. He spoke about five of the most common and complex questions he gets from correctional facility professionals when they are considering working with a healthcare staffing solutions provider.
1. How can correctional facilities benefit from using a staffing agency?
Healthcare staffing agencies have established pipelines with qualified candidates, many of whom come prepared for the job with correctional facility experience. In short, using healthcare staffing solutions means a much quicker turnaround time to fill positions.
2. Besides the obvious, why is being understaffed such a pressing issue?
Understaffing in correctional facilities is a significant safety issue and is dangerous for medical staff and society. When there is a shortage of clinical personnel, that impacts not only the inmates but the existing healthcare staffing professionals as well. The inmates aren’t being cared for as they should, and the current staff is being overburdened with extra tasks outside of their job description. This affects morale and turnover and takes a toll on everyone.
3. How do you ensure candidates are a good fit and stay in their job?
Prison staffing has a lot of unique requirements that warrant careful consideration when selecting candidates for the job.
We make sure candidates:
- Understand the nuances of correctional facility work, such as not bringing cell phones to work and using clear bags for any personal supplies
- Have behavioral health and prior correctional facility expertise
- Aren’t fearful of working closely with this population
In addition, we also like to tell facilities that the better the onboarding process is, the longer people stay in their jobs there.
4. Hiring a prison staffing agency can be costly. Why is it worth the cost?
In the long run, facilities save money and headaches and prevent productivity losses using a staffing agency. Particularly for correctional facilities, taking on hiring internally is often time-consuming and expensive. There’s also the reality that unfilled positions impact the facility’s bottom line and reputation.
When certain requirements aren’t met, inmates can file lawsuits that lead to investigations and consequences if a facility isn’t following protocol or adequately staffed. For private prison staffing, there is often language in their contracts that warrants being fined for not meeting requirements, which has long-term effects on their contract and their reputation.
5. When considering using a staffing agency, what should organizations look for when choosing one to partner with?
There are a few questions to ask a staffing agency before moving forward with them, which are:
- Do they have a team dedicated to correctional facility recruitment and partnering with correctional facilities?
- Where are their office locations? Do they have a nationwide presence or function in all 50 states to increase their applicant pool?
- Do they have any behavioral or correctional medicine training they require their candidates to complete before filling a position?
Find Medical Staff for Correctional Facilities with Amergis Staffing
At Amergis, our team thoroughly prepares healthcare staffing professionals with our required proprietary correctional facility training course that covers day-to-day operations in this job setting, how to care for this population, and other crucial nuances for retaining quality candidates. That’s one of the many reasons that Amergis is a leading healthcare staffing solutions provider for correctional facilities. Take the stress out of staffing your correctional facility and learn more about the advantages of partnering with Amergis.
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