Contingent Staffing Strategy in Healthcare: When to Deploy Travel, PRN, and Temp Roles

June 12, 2025

Contingent Staffing Strategy in Healthcare: When to Deploy Travel, PRN, and Temp Roles

 

In healthcare, the only constant is change, and it’s essential that your workforce strategy keeps pace. From shifting patient demographics to the growing demand for specialized outpatient care, the pressure to adapt is relentless. Add in chronic labor shortages and evolving employee expectations, and even well-staffed organizations are feeling the strain.

That’s why more healthcare leaders are building contingent staffing into their hiring plans.

Historically, temp healthcare staffing has been a stopgap measure—what you turned to when a key team member went on leave or an essential role was left empty during a high-volume period. Today, it’s a strategic advantage.

Flexible roles like travel nurses, PRNs, and temporary allied health professionals allow systems to scale quickly, fill critical gaps, and align with how today’s clinicians want to work. Whether it’s supporting a new telehealth initiative or meeting seasonal demand, contingent staffing is helping healthcare systems stay agile in a dynamic care environment.

But when should you deploy travel, PRN, and temp roles? What does a successful temporary healthcare staffing strategy look like? What’s the difference between travel and PRN hiring? Here’s what you need to know about contingent staffing in healthcare today.

Understanding Travel, PRN, and Temp Roles

While they all fall under the umbrella of contingent work, travel staff, PRN, and traditional temporary roles fill different needs:

Travel healthcare professionals are often nurses, but they can be any clinician. They typically work on contracts for a set duration, with 13 weeks as a typical starting point. Travel staff are generally brought in to fill roles in locations with significant or persistent shortages or for specialized projects. While this provides facilities like yours with access to a national talent pool, travel professionals typically demand higher wages, as well as expenses and other fees.

PRN stands for Pro Re Nata, Latin for “as needed.” These are on-demand healthcare staff, often local to the facility, who are hired to work on an intermittent basis without a set number of hours per week. PRN staff are great for covering unexpected, short-term needs, but their availability is not guaranteed.

Temp staff, or traditional temporary workers, are hired for a specific, often shorter duration to cover immediate needs. Temp workers can fill a wide range of clinical and non-clinical roles, but they may lack the institutional knowledge required for longer stints or more complex work.

Strategic Deployment of Contingent Staffing

Travel, PRN, and temporary staff may fill different needs, but hiring decisions should be based on strategy and not just staffing considerations alone. A truly strategic deployment of contingent staffing should follow these guidelines:

First, assess your organizational needs. Review past data on patient census fluctuations, staff turnover rates, and leave-of-absence patterns. Identify recurring staffing gaps to anticipate periods of high demand in advance.

Next, identify the optimal roles for specific situations. For example, a travel nurse is best for predictable gaps of several weeks to months, such as a planned maternity leave. PRN staff offer maximum flexibility, but you should define the circumstances under which you will call on them.

Finally, perform a cost-benefit analysis for each type of contingent worker to help guide staffing decisions. Unfilled positions, especially in revenue-generating areas, can lead patients to seek care elsewhere, which may justify longer contracts for travel staff. Carefully analyze each potential situation to help ensure contingent staffing always provides value to your organization.

Choosing the Right Staffing Partner

The right staffing partner will be strategically aligned with your organization’s contingent staffing needs. They will be able to help identify the best fit for each scenario and recommend highly qualified medical professionals. When you need healthcare staffing solutions, finding the right partner is critical. Use these criteria in your search:

  • The staffing agency must have significant experience in the healthcare sector.
  • They offer a wide range of quality candidates for all types of contingent roles.
  • The right staffing partner can scale up and down to meet your organization’s fluctuating needs.

Also, make sure to ask about the staffing agency’s screening processes. Find out how they ensure the clinical competency and relevant experience of candidates beyond their stated qualifications. Inquire about their fill rates for critical care positions in facilities similar to yours.

Choose Snelling Staffing for the Roles You Need

With decades of experience in the industry, Snelling Staffing is the ideal contingent staffing agency for your healthcare organization. We offer a broad network of candidates who can fill travel, PRN, and temp roles, all aligned with your strategic goals. To learn more, contact your local Snelling Staffing office today.