Helping you Navigate Staffing Challenges for Nursing and Residential Homes in 2025
After taking a look at healthcare recruitment trends over the last few years we’ve noted some serious challenges in staffing nursing and residential homes.
We identified the most prominent challenges as:
evolving regulations
a growing demand for high-quality care
a shortage of skilled healthcare workers
Each makes it increasingly difficult to maintain optimal staffing levels in care homes. So, as 2025 draws ever nearer we wanted to get ahead of any new potential hurdles and explore opportunities for care homes that are striving to meet staffing demands while delivering excellent care.
The Staffing Challenges in Nursing and Residential Homes
We’ve taken some time to research the key challenges that could be facing care homes in 2025 and explore how together we can tailor our services to the unique needs of the industry and help you find experienced agency staff for care homes or nursing homes.
Staffing Levels in Care Homes
One of the biggest issues right now is maintaining appropriate staffing levels in care homes and nursing homes, and this is often under difficult circumstances. To ensure safe, compassionate, and timely care, nursing and residential homes need qualified staff available around the clock.
This can prove difficult, however, when considering balancing ideal staffing ratios with budget constraints, seasonal fluctuations, and as unexpected vacancies create ongoing difficulties.
Here's where Nurseplus can help. At Nurseplus, our agency staff for care homes and nursing homes are experienced, flexible, and ready to provide reliable cover to support you on demand. With short and long-term cover, last-minute availability, and a guarantee of quality care, you can maintain appropriate staffing levels that suit your individual needs.
Looking forward into 2025, stricter regulations on staffing ratios could place additional pressure on care homes to ensure the right number of skilled staff members are on-site around the clock. Add this to recruitment challenges of permanent staff, due to a tight labour market and limited availability of qualified professionals, and maintaining staffing levels in care homes could become a real problem.
At Nurseplus, we’re always working on building more robust recruitment practices to help support these challenges. We are recruiting healthcare staff in local areas, all over the country, training them to deliver exceptional care, and building strong relationships in our local communities to provide the best support we can to those who need it.
Working with Nurseplus means you’ll have the confidence to face whatever the future holds, knowing you can meet the demands and challenges that changes to staffing ratios bring up.
Reliance on Agency Staff for Care Homes
There’s certainly a growing difficulty for care and nursing homes when it comes to recruiting full-time staff, in turn, many have increased their reliance on agency staff for care homes. We know that agency workers are invaluable in filling gaps and providing flexibility, but over-dependence on inexperienced or under-qualified staff can create challenges. We understand there are major concerns for care and nursing homes when it comes to agency staff and wanted to reassure you that when you book agency staff for care homes with Nurseplus you needn't worry about:
frequent turnover - with Nurseplus you can ensure a steady and reliable stream of qualified staff as and when you need them
lack of familiarity with regular residents - you will be given the option to request the staff you and your teams work well with, to ensure your residents' comfort
potential inconsistency in care quality - all our care staff are trained to meet the same high standard of care, so you can be sure of consistent care with us
So, as the demand for experienced agency care staff for care homes continues to rise, you be sure that Nurseplus are ready to step in and provide rapid solutions when you need us. We can help you overcome those common concerns, we can offer you consistency and the freedom to choose the staff you are familiar with. We also promise to deliver the highest-quality care at all times in line with the high standards you have come to expect from us.
Workforce Burnout and Retention
It’s well-known that employee burnout remains a serious problem in the care sector. Your staff members are expected to perform high-intensity, emotionally taxing work for long hours, which can lead to increased turnover and prolonged or frequent leave. These high turnover rates or intermittent leave periods can disrupt resident care and put a strain on your remaining team members, which in turn can increase their risk of burnout, and the cycle continues.
As we move into 2025, we’d like to take a wider stock of the causes of burnout and help address the problem before it begins. An aging population and increased demand for care means looking at sustainable solutions for workforce retention, and this is where Nurseplus can help.
Our teams will work closely with you and get to know your needs so we can work out if you need frequent short-term staff support or longer-term placements. Better still, because we get to know you, and we already know our care staff so well, we can match you with quality agency staff for care homes that meet your needs and requirements. In short, we know the right people you need to support, not only the people in your care but your team as well.
How We Are Working to Address Staffing Challenges in 2025
To tackle the coming challenges, Nurseplus will be putting a strong focus on adopting and perfecting recruitment practices to support nursing and residential homes.
Our strategy in 2025 will be:
to optimise staffing levels in care homes
to ensure continuity of care
to maintain a supportive environment for caregivers
We can be the solution to any challenges nursing and residential homes are facing when it comes to achieving the right staffing levels and balancing quality of care with budgetary constraints. And here's how we'll do it:
Reliable, Qualified Agency Staff for Care Homes
With Nurseplus you’ll have access to a local network of skilled, reliable agency care staff who are experienced in the healthcare sector and fully trained in the specific demands of nursing and residential care homes. We can ensure your care home will have access to high-quality, compassionate care professionals who can integrate seamlessly into your existing teams and help you maintain consistency of care.
Flexible Staff Support
Nurseplus offers you the chance to customise a level of support that fits the unique needs of your care home. Whether you require last-minute cover or longer-term staffing arrangements, your Nurseplus team will work to provide both temporary and ongoing support and help you meet regulatory requirements, avoiding any disruptions in care.
Commitment to Quality and Compliance
All Nurseplus staff members are rigorously screened, trained, and supported to ensure they meet the highest standards of care. By maintaining strict quality assurance processes, we guarantee all agency staff for care homes from Nurseplus will come to you equipped to deliver safe, person-centered care.
Efficient Staff Management Tools
Let us help you manage your staffing needs effectively. We can take away the pressure of constantly recruiting by taking care of everything from finding the right staff to communication, and compliance tracking. Our recruitment teams and branch support staff will make it easy to maintain staffing levels in care homes while reducing your administrative burden and allowing you to focus on what’s important; delivering excellent resident care.
Navigate Staffing Challenges with Nurseplus
We understand that maintaining staffing levels in care homes is an ongoing challenge that is only becoming more difficult. With Nurseplus, we can work together to ensure your nursing and care homes can thrive. We can support you as you navigate the complexities of care home staffing in 2025 and beyond.
Nurseplus will remain committed to empowering care homes to overcome any future staffing challenges and help to provide the best possible environment for both residents and caregivers. Through our flexible, dependable people and our dedication to quality, we can be the solution you need to meet the demands of today and tomorrow.
Posted on November 18, 2024 by Nurseplus