South Nassau Communities Hospital (SNCH) selected Amistaff Healthcare Technology’s Prophecy(SM) software as a complement to their comprehensive pre-screening assessment and hiring process. The Prophecy system compiles Behavioral, Clinical, and Situational Assessments into a comprehensive healthcare employment predictor. Implementing the Prophecy system ensures SNCH’s commitment to patient care by hiring the caregivers that best fit the SNCH values.

(Vocus/PRWEB ) February 18, 2010 — After a thorough search and business proposal process, South Nassau Communities Hospital (SNCH) selected Amistaff Healthcare Technology’s Prophecy(SM) software to use in addition to their comprehensive pre-screening assessment and hiring process. Implementing the Prophecy system ensures SNCH’s commitment to patient care by hiring the caregivers that best fit the SNCH values.

“The assessment tools provide the hiring manager and recruiter with valuable information to assist in ‘best selecting’ applicants for our vacant positions. The reports are user friendly and the interview questions provided are extremely useful during the interview process,” says Donna Pandolfi, RN, Director of Recruitment & Retention for Patient Care Services.

The assessment tools provide the hiring manager and recruiter with valuable information to assist in ‘best selecting’ applicants for our vacant positions. The reports are user friendly and the interview questions provided are extremely useful during the interview process

Prophecy’s three web-based assessment tools – Behavioral, Clinical, and Situational – test interpersonal competencies missed in traditional testing. The three assessments work together to create the most comprehensive employment predictor for the healthcare industry.

Prophecy Behavioral Assessments, powered by PeopleClues ™, utilize personality and attitude tests to measure cognitive thinking. The results capture behavioral characteristics that predict high performance, such as integrity and conscientiousness.

The Clinical Assessments encompass the extensive exam library of Amistaff’s own NurseTesting.com. The comprehensive library provides testing solutions for more than just nurses. These clinical assessments include OSHA and Joint Commission mandatories, nursing and allied assessments, as well as clinical skills checklists.

Measuring a candidate’s skill level in the nursing and healthcare profession is more important than ever. Steps need to be taken to ensure that caregivers hold the latest skills and knowledge, as well as the critical thinking capabilities required of their positions. Prophecy Clinical Assessments identify caregivers with sufficient job knowledge to perform successfully by targeting the most important aspects of each clinical specialty.

Prophecy Situational Assessments identify caregivers with soft-skills directly correlated to successful nursing practice. Designed by industrial/organizational psychologists, four areas of critical workplace competencies are measured:

1) Interpersonal Competence
2) Workflow Management
3) Teamwork
4) Customer Service Skills

After viewing the video vignettes, the applicant selects their choices for the most and least effective responses. The answers demonstrate the manner in which the candidate responds to tough situations. Using Prophecy’s Situational Assessments, facilities are able to quantify which caregivers will make the most effective decisions in the workplace.

Amistaff looks forward to partnering with SNCH for on-site recordings of additional situational vignettes. The current collection of 25 assessments will be expanded to include the clinical specialties of Critical Care, Labor & Delivery, and Medical/Surgical.

About South Nassau Communities Hospital – South Nassau Communities Hospital is one of the region’s largest hospitals with 435 beds, more than 820 physicians and 2,700 employees. Located in Oceanside, NY, the hospital is an acute-care, not-for-profit teaching hospital that provides state-of-the-art care in cardiac, oncologic, orthopedic, bariatric, pain management, mental health and emergency services. In addition to its extensive outpatient specialty centers, South Nassau is a designated Stroke Center, boasts Long Island’s first and only Gamma Knife® and is one of seven hospitals in New York without an open heart surgery program permitted to perform angioplasty as an elective or emergency procedure. It is also recognized as a Bariatric Surgery Center of Excellence by the American Society of Bariatric Surgery. For more about South Nassau, visit www.southnassau.org.

About Amistaff Healthcare Technology – Amistaff Healthcare Technology was founded in 2004 as a healthcare staffing solutions provider. Amistaff creates products and services that help hospitals and healthcare staffing firms improve recruitment, retention and placement of caregivers. Amistaff includes a team of IT professionals, RN’s and former recruiters allowing Amistaff to base their products on an in-depth understanding of each client’s unique staffing requirements. All of the Amistaff products are web-based solutions designed to simplify workflow and increase efficiency. These products include NurseTesting, Prophecy Health, and BlueSky Medical Staffing Software. Visit www.amistaff.com for additional information.

January 22, 2010 — Amistaff Healthcare Technology selects RightSignature as the electronic signature complement for their suite of healthcare staffing solutions including NurseTesting.com, BlueSky Synergy, and Prophecy Health. Ron Gonzalez, Chief Executive Officer, stated that after evaluating some of the leading electronic signature software, RightSignature had the right mix of features to meet their clients’ needs.

“RightSignature offers unique, indispensable options for facilitating the signing process,” Gonzalez explained. “RightSignature’s iPhone application and Google Docs integration make working with traveling healthcare providers easier than ever, reducing the time between application and placement. Healthcare staffing companies and hospitals will absolutely benefit from the rich feature-sets available to them, facilitating the recruitment and on-boarding process.”

RightSignature offers unique, indispensable options for facilitating the signing process

RightSignature’s iPhone application and Google Docs integration make working with traveling healthcare providers easier than ever, reducing the time between application and placement. Healthcare staffing companies and hospitals will absolutely benefit from the rich feature-sets available to them, facilitating the recruitment and on-boarding process.

Using the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, RightSignature provides a clean, simple interface to get documents signed online. Focusing on the small and medium business market, RightSignature ensures secure and compliant signatures globally for corporations, non-profits, and web workers alike.

Daryl Bernstein, Chief Executive Officer of RightSignature, said, "RightSignature is singularly focused on enabling users to fill out and sign documents online with ease. We’re thrilled to work with Amistaff Healthcare Technology to bring our intuitive, elegant signing experience to employee on-boarding processes in the healthcare industry. Amistaff’s NurseTesting, BlueSky Synergy, and Prophecy Health products are the perfect integration partners for RightSignature."

RightSignature’s API allows seamless integration of the electronic signature application with other leading software solutions. Amistaff developers have utilized the API to enable users to send documents for signature from within the Amistaff suite of software solutions.

About Amistaff: Amistaff Healthcare Technology was founded in 2004 as a healthcare staffing solutions provider. Amistaff creates products and services that help healthcare staffing firms and hospitals improve recruitment, retention and placement of caregivers. Amistaff includes a team of IT professionals, RN’s and former recruiters allowing Amistaff to base their products on an in-depth understanding of each client’s unique staffing requirements. All of the Amistaff products are web-based solutions designed to simplify workflows and increase efficiency. These products include NurseTesting, BlueSky Medical Staffing Software and Prophecy Health. Visit www.amistaff.com for additional information.

About RightSignature: RightSignature LLC provides cutting-edge software for signing documents online. Parties complete form fields online and create a handwritten signature with a mouse, on the iPhone touchscreen, or on a fax signature page. Utilizing the world-class infrastructure of Amazon Web Services, RightSignature is a software-as-a-service and is available anytime, anywhere, through a web browser. From solo professionals to Fortune 500 companies, RightSignature users span the globe and represent almost every industry. RightSignature has offices in Santa Barbara, California, and London, England.

A recent article in the LA Times caught our attention here at Amistaff Healthcare Technology.  A very valid and present concern for the healthcare staffing industry was brought up in the article Temp Firms a Magnet for Unfit Nurses:

 “Firms that supply temporary nurses to the nation’s hospitals are taking perilous shortcuts in their screening and supervision, sometimes putting seriously ill patients in the hands of incompetent or impaired caregivers” (Weber et al, 2009).

What a claim to be made with the potential to cause detrimental effects on the already declining healthcare staffing industry!  

Unfortunately, the investigation conducted by the LA Times and ProPublica found significant instances where staffing firms “skimped on background checks or ignored warnings from hospitals about sub-par nurses on their payrolls. Some hired nurses sight unseen, without even conducting an interview” (Weber et al, 2009).

One reporter found that “firms hired nurses who had criminal records or left states where their licenses had been restricted or revoked. At least three firms employed a nurse in California whose license had been suspended in Minnesota for stealing drugs at a string of temp jobs. One used him after he’d been convicted of doing the same thing at a Santa Rosa nursing home” (Weber et al, 2009).

Unlike hospitals, staffing firms do not immediately see the effects of an unqualified or inept caregiver.  Hospitals entrust staffing firms with supplying caregivers to complete their workforce.  With hiring the primary focus of a staffing firm, hospitals assume that the firms have access to and effectively use industry leading pre-hire screening assessments. 

A well-known fact is staffing firms pay the bills by placing their employees.  Therefore, the possibility that firms knowingly place incompetent, unfit caregivers in hopes that they will not “mess up” is hard to ignore. 

In fact, the reports of this investigation found examples of this exact fear:

“Temp agencies shuffled errant nurses from one hospital to another, even as complaints mounted. A Culver City agency continued sending one nurse to hospitals despite more than a dozen warnings that she was ignoring her patients and sleeping on the job. Before she was hired, the nurse had been convicted of 12 crimes, including prostitution, carrying a concealed weapon and possessing cocaine” (Weber et al, 2009).

Although Amistaff does not believe that these types of behaviors are the industry norm, we do feel that hospitals and staffing firms alike need to keep their focus on hiring the most qualified caregivers that match the job specific needs of the openings.  The current nursing shortage makes this task more challenging than ever.

So, what can be done?

We recommend hospitals look into the pre-screening tools implored by their elect staffing firm(s).  Supplying onboarding procedures should be a relatively easy task for staffing firms as the process should not differentiate from one clinician to the next.
 
Also, staffing firms and hospitals alike stand to benefit from reviewing and perhaps restructuring their internal hiring process.

Amistaff’s newest, web-based assessment tool – Prophecy Health – tests interpersonal competencies missed in traditional testing. The Behavioral, Clinical, and Situational assessments work together to create the most comprehensive employment predictor for the healthcare industry.

Regardless of the assessments selected, Amistaff strongly advises the use of assessments that are frequently monitored for reliability and validity given the ever-evolving practices in the fast-paced industry.  And, Amistaff’s clients can rest assured that these precautions are taken by our clinical team to ensure we offer the most accurate and complete assessments for the industry.  

Check out how dedicated our clinical team is to this calling by the new development process our NurseTesting.com clinical assessments undergo in order to creating validated content!
 

Weber, T., Ornstein, C., & Schwartz, L. (2009, December 6). Temp Firms a Magnet for Unfit Nurses. The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-nurses6-2009dec06,0,1174984.story?page=1

About Prophecy – Prophecy is the aggregation of three assessment tools that work together to generate the most comprehensive employment predictor for the Healthcare Industry. Prophecy Clinical Assessments identify caregivers with sufficient job knowledge to perform successfully by targeting the most important aspects of each clinical specialty. Prophecy Behavioral Assessments identify caregivers with behavioral characteristics that predict high performance, such as Integrity and Conscientiousness. Prophecy Situational Assessments identify caregivers with soft-skills that are directly correlated to successful nursing practice. Learn more at www.prophecyhealth.com .

Amistaff Healthcare Technology will present on the new Video-Based Situational Assessments for pre-employment nurse screening at the Nursing Economics 3rd Annual Nurse Faculty/Nurse Executive Summit in December 2009, American Nursing Association’s NDNQI conference in January 2010, and the AONE annual meeting and conference in April 2010. These newly-developed assessments, measuring competencies such as stress tolerance, interpersonal skills, or teamwork skills, assist medical facilities with properly evaluating these critical abilities in nurse hiring programs.

High Point, NC (Vocus/PRWEB ) October 27, 2009 – Amistaff Healthcare Technology’s new video-based situational assessments were selected out of hundreds of entries for poster abstracts at the Nursing Economics 3rd Annual Nurse Faculty/Nurse Executive Summit in December 2009, American Nurses Association National Database of Nursing Qualifying Indicators Conference in January 2010, and to the American Organization of Nurse Executives at their 43rd Annual Meeting & Exposition in April 2010. The new video-based situational assessments have shown success at targeting competencies overlooked by traditional employment testing. With the current push to reduce costly mistakes in the Healthcare Industry, ensuring employment of the most qualified personnel is of utmost importance.

As part of a trilogy of assessments collectively known as Prophecy, the video vignettes identify caregivers with soft-skills directly correlated to successful nursing practice. Designed by industrial/organizational psychologists, four areas of critical workplace competencies are measured:

1)   Interpersonal Competence
2)   Workflow Management
3)   Teamwork
4)   Customer Service Skills

After viewing each web-based video, the applicant selects the most and least effective responses demonstrating the manner in which the candidate responds to tough situations. These situational assessments help organizations know which caregivers will make the most effective decisions in the workplace.

Jim Ostmann, Sr RN, MBA, CNO of Amistaff and co-presenter for the poster presentations, commented on how Situational Assessments by Prophecy assist organizations with reducing costly hiring mistakes:

“Most nurse hiring programs include only credential based hiring (e.g., with no additional assessments given pre-hire) and interviews. In many nurse-hiring settings, the selection process does not include an evaluation of some of the most critical nurse competencies, including patient care, physician-nurse interaction, stress management, and interpersonal/teamwork skills. Interpersonal competencies are critical to the nursing profession. For example, the Joint Commission Standards (Standard LD.03.01.01) urges, ‘Leaders create and maintain a culture of safety and quality throughout the organization. Safety and quality thrive in an environment that supports teamwork and respect for other people, regardless of their position. Disruptive behavior that intimidates others and affects morale or staff turnover can be harmful to patient care.’ Leaders are encouraged to ‘regularly evaluate the culture of safety and quality using valid and reliable tools.’ With HCAHPS becoming an increasing focus for acute care facility reimbursement, incorporating standardized ’soft-skills’ will undoubtedly impact the nurse to patient, nurse-peer, and nurse-physician interactions which all impact the level of patient satisfaction.”

Hiring qualified employees requires an investment of both time and corporate resources in order to hire honest employees, minimize ineffective hiring, and maintain a safe and secure workplace. Making the wrong hiring decision is an expensive choice that may cost more than most companies realize. However, with proper assessment tools in place, it is possible to protect company assets against the cost of a poor hire.

With the healthcare industry probing for budget cutting options and new assessments surfacing to reduce costly hiring mistakes, the interest of executives at the Faculty/Nurse Executive Summit, NDNQI, and AONE conferences will be piqued to learn more about Amistaff’s new video-based situational assessments.

About Amistaf Healthcare Technology – Amistaff Healthcare Technology was founded in 2004 as a healthcare staffing solutions provider. Amistaff creates products and services that help healthcare staffing firms and hospitals improve recruitment, retention and placement of caregivers. Amistaff includes a team of IT professionals, RN’s and former recruiters allowing Amistaff to base their products on an in-depth understanding of each client’s unique staffing requirements. All of the Amistaff products are web-based solutions designed to simplify workflows and increase efficiency. These products include NurseTesting, BlueSky Medical Staffing Software, and eSigTek Electronic Signatures. Visit www.amistaff.com for additional information.

About Prophecy – Prophecy is the aggregation of three assessment tools that work together to generate the most comprehensive employment predictor for the Healthcare Industry. Prophecy Clinical Assessments identify caregivers with sufficient job knowledge to perform successfully by targeting the most important aspects of each clinical specialty. Prophecy Behavioral Assessments identify caregivers with behavioral characteristics that predict high performance, such as Integrity and Conscientiousness. Prophecy Situational Assessments identify caregivers with soft-skills that are directly correlated to successful nursing practice. Learn more at www.prophecyhealth.com.