AMN healthcare Archives - Electronic Health Reporter

Tag: AMN healthcare

Sep 2
2025

The Best Healthcare Staffing Marketplaces for Short-Staffing

The healthcare workforce shortage is a problem with serious consequences. Facilities are under pressure to balance safe staffing with rising overtime costs, expensive temp labor, and clinician burnout.

By 2037, the Bureau of Health Workforce projects a shortfall of more than 200,000 registered nurses (RNs) and 300,000 licensed practical/vocational nurses (LPNs/LVNs).

What is a healthcare staffing marketplace?

A healthcare staffing marketplace is a digital platform that connects medical facilities directly with qualified clinicians who are ready to work. Unlike traditional staffing agencies that act as middlemen, marketplaces use algorithms, credential verification systems, and smartphone apps to streamline how shifts are posted and filled.

For many facilities, staffing marketplaces are becoming a strategic complement to existing workforce management systems by helping facilities respond to census fluctuations, emergencies, and unexpected call outs without relying exclusively on high-cost agency contracts.

Why healthcare staffing marketplaces?

Healthcare facilities face a perfect storm: rising patient demand, too few licensed clinicians, and escalating labor costs.

Traditional staffing agencies lack the ability to respond quickly to staffing needs, leading to the rise of online staffing marketplaces.

These marketplaces offer a more convenient, transparent alternative. Facilities can post staffing needs quickly, access real-time scheduling options, and leverage staffing marketplace features that streamline operations and onboarding.

What to look for in a staffing marketplace

When evaluating a platform, administrators should consider a few key factors:

Skillset coverage: Does the marketplace offer RNs, LPNs/LVNs, CNAs, and unit specialties like ICU, medical-surgical, or ER?
Candidate pool: How many clinicians are active, and are they reliable?
Quality and compliance: What systems exist for background checks, license verification, and training?
Reliability: What are the fill rates, and how are no-shows or cancellations handled?
Pricing model: Is it a transparent and pay-as-you-go model or subscription-based with additional costs?
Support: Does the platform provide real human or regional support for facilities?

These criteria form the backbone for comparisons between healthcare staffing marketplaces.

Top healthcare staffing marketplaces

Each platform has its own strengths. Some focus on workforce optimization, others on shift fulfillment, allied health, or long-term placements. Among them, Nursa stands out for transparent pricing, a broad clinician pool, and ease of use.

Below is a comparison of leading options against the criteria outlined earlier.

Nursa: Best overall

Nursa stands out for speed, transparency, and adaptability. Operating in more than 30 states, it connects facilities with a network of over 300,000 clinicians, including RNs, LPNs/LVNs, nursing assistants, medication aides, and respiratory therapists.

Facilities can build custom credential lists, use ShiftReady to design onboarding courses, and post shifts visible to clinicians in real time.

The model is strictly pay-as-you-go—no subscriptions, startup costs, or hire-away fees—giving administrators total budget control.

Reliability is strengthened through clinician ratings and “Favorites” lists, which simplify rebooking trusted clinicians, plus on-the-ground regional support teams and seven-day human chat assistance.

Clipboard Health: Best for allied health coverage

Clipboard Health connects facilities not only with nurses but also allied health professionals like therapists, dietary staff, and environmental services, making it useful for diverse staffing needs.

Features include rate negotiation, geo-tracking for attendance, and auto-reposting of canceled shifts. Pricing is per completed shift, with optional boost fees to attract talent faster.

For support, entry-level customers get general service lines, while higher-tier clients gain access to dedicated account managers.

SnapCare: Best for workforce optimization

SnapCare is a staffing marketplace and workforce optimization tool. Facilities can forecast needs with the Booker tool, manage compliance and invoicing, and track turnover risks with analytics.

Pricing is transparent on pay and travel, with extra fees for recruitment and supplier management.

Clipboard Health: Best for allied health coverage

Clipboard Health extends beyond nursing, connecting facilities to allied health professionals such as physical therapists, dietary staff, and environmental services. That breadth makes it attractive to facilities with diverse staffing gaps.

The platform allows rate negotiation between facilities and clinicians, offers geo-tracking for attendance verification, and auto-reposts canceled shifts.

Pricing is per completed shift, with optional “boost” fees to attract talent faster.

While the flexibility of shift price negotiation appeals to many (particularly clinicians), it can slow down time-to-fill. Support is mostly digital, without the local teams offered by some competitors.

SnapCare: Best for workforce optimization

SnapCare positions itself as both a staffing marketplace and a workforce optimization tool. Facilities can use the Booker tool to forecast staffing needs, opt in to managed services for invoicing and compliance, and leverage workforce analytics to spot turnover risks.

Its transparent pricing covers pay rates and travel costs, though extra fees apply for recruitment and supplier management.

Reliability depends on facilities adopting its full suite, which may increase cost but can reduce long-term dependence on contingent labor. Support is available 24/7 by phone or online.

ShiftMed: Best for enterprise health systems

ShiftMed is a large platform for hospitals, long-term care centers, and multi-site systems. It offers a national clinician pool, mobile-first shift posting, and digital MSP services for compliance and billing.

Pricing is pay-per-shift with extra enterprise fees. Its wide network supports high fill rates, with account managers for enterprise clients, though smaller facilities may find it less personalized than leaner competitors.

Other honorable mentions

There are several other healthcare staffing companies that have transitioned to providing online services. Here’s a quick look at the major players.

Aya Healthcare

Aya Healthcare is one of the largest U.S. staffing firms, known for travel nurse contracts and permanent placements. More agency than marketplace, its nationwide scale appeals to facilities needing specialized or long-term staff.

AMN Healthcare

AMN Healthcare is a leading agency offering short-term, travel, and permanent staffing, plus tools like predictive analytics and vendor management. However, its agency model lacks the speed and on-demand flexibility of marketplaces.

The future of healthcare staffing is online

Staffing in healthcare is changing quickly. Facilities can’t depend solely on agencies or overtime to cover gaps. The best nurse staffing platforms offer facilities faster clinician access, greater transparency, and cost control—benefits that are reshaping workforce management.

According to Precedence Research, the U.S. healthcare staffing market—valued at $19.47 billion in 2024—is expected to more than double by 2034. That kind of growth signals that online platforms aren’t a temporary fix; they’re becoming essential infrastructure.

Among the platforms compared, Nursa rises to the top.

Its flexible pay-as-you-go pricing, customizable credentialing, ShiftReady onboarding, real-time shift fulfillment, and strong human support give facilities a solution that meets today’s staffing challenges while preparing them for tomorrow.

Nov 13
2019

Survey of 20,000 Registered Nurses Finds Workplace Pressures Growing In The Decade Ahead

Millions of registered nurses face growing pressures on their professional and personal lives in the new decade because of increased demand for services, nursing shortages, and structural changes in the healthcare industry, according to a newly released survey of nearly 20,000 RNs by AMN Healthcare.

The survey, AMN Healthcare 2019 Survey of Registered Nurses: A Challenging Decade Ahead, found warning signs of larger problems ahead, including that significant percentages of nurses are working second jobs – and many with two full-time jobs. Nurses say they are unable to spend the time they need with patients, and most have been affected by some form of workplace violence, a recognized hazard of the healthcare industry. Nurses are concerned that their jobs affect their health, and many say they are planning to leave their current jobs, either to another nursing job, retirement, or getting out of bedside nursing altogether. Their biggest influence to remain at a job – even greater than pay — is flexibility and work-life balance.

Nursing Pressures Grow in the 2020s

Pressures on nurses may intensify in the next decade as the aging of America enters a rapid phase, which will increase demand for healthcare services (people 65+ have three times more hospital days than the middle aged) and accelerate the retirement wave of Baby Boomer nurses. At the same time, the healthcare industry will undergo dramatic structural changes because of consolidation and the movement to value-based medicine.

“From everything we know, this next decade will be extremely challenging for the nursing profession and healthcare in general, with serious workforce issues facing healthcare organizations at a time when many nurses are already experiencing tremendous pressure,” said Dr. Cole Edmonson, chief clinical officer at AMN Healthcare. “The 2019 RN Survey can help healthcare organizations understand and prepare for the workforce issues they face, particularly through addressing the need for greater flexibility and work-life balance, better professional development opportunities, embracing diversity, and reducing workplace violence.”

The survey found that more than one in five nurses holds more than one job, and many of them hold two full-time jobs. Two-thirds worry that their jobs are affecting their health, 44% say they often consider quitting their jobs, and 41% say they usually don’t have the time they need to spend with their patients.

Dec 13
2013

AMN Healthcare Survey: Hospital Executives See Shortage of Physicians, Nurses and Advanced Practitioners

According to a new report from AMN Healthcare, a healthcare staffing firm, 78 percent of hospital executives believe there is a shortage of physicians nationwide, 66 percent believe there is a shortage of nurses, and 50 percent believe there is a shortage of advanced practitioners. The survey also indicates that the vacancy rate for physicians at hospitals approaches 18 percent, while the vacancy rate for nurses is 17 percent, considerably higher than when AMN Healthcare conducted a similar survey in 2009.

“Change in healthcare is a continuous evolution, but the one constant is people,” said AMN president Susan Salka. “No matter what models of care are in place, it takes physicians, nurses and other clinicians to provide quality patient care, and the fact is we simply do not have enough of them.”

AMN Healthcare’s 2013 Clinical Workforce Survey asked hospital executives nationwide to comment on clinical staffing trends affecting their facilities. More than 70 percent rated the staffing of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants as a high priority in 2013, compared to only 24 percent of hospital executives who rated staffing these professionals as a high priority in AMN Healthcare’s 2009 workforce survey.

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