Per Diem, Temporary, or Permanent: Matching Staffing Type to Your Facility's Need

Facilities often default to whichever staffing arrangement they've always used, without stopping to ask whether it actually fits the gap they're trying to fill. A single missed shift, a maternity leave, and an open position that's been vacant for months are three different problems, and they call for three different kinds of placement.

The four placement types

Just CNA's Inc., a Richmond-area staffing agency with 24 years of experience placing CNAs and other healthcare staff, works across full-time, permanent, part-time, and temporary positions. Understanding the actual difference between these makes it much easier to ask for the right thing when you call.

• Per diem or temporary: coverage for a single shift or a short, defined gap, typically when someone calls out or census spikes unexpectedly
• Part-time: a recurring but limited schedule, useful when a role doesn't need full-time hours but does need consistency week to week
• Full-time temporary: coverage for a longer, known absence, such as leave or an extended vacancy while you search
• Permanent placement: a lasting hire into an open role on your own staff, rather than an ongoing agency relationship

A facility that's short one CNA for a weekend shift and a facility that's been unable to fill an LPN role for three months are not the same situation, even though both might start with the same phone call to a staffing agency.

Match the discipline to the setting

Just CNA's Inc. places RNs, LPNs, CNAs, PCAs, and Med Techs, in addition to per diem nursing, travel nursing, pharmacy, anesthesia, clinical research, and management solutions, into settings that include physician and medical offices, assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, psychiatric facilities, hospitals, hospices, private duty facilities, rehab facilities, schools, and daycare centers. The range matters because a facility juggling multiple types of vacancies, say an RN gap on one unit and a CNA gap on another, benefits from working with one agency that can cover both instead of splitting the relationship across vendors.

Their own screening standard applies to every placement type

A single per diem shift and a permanent hire should clear the same screening bar. Just CNA's Inc. describes verifying professional licenses, providing written copies of credentials or on-site access to their automated credentialing program, completing criminal and abuse background screenings, and completing drug testing as standard across their placements. That consistency is worth confirming with any agency, since a lighter screening standard for a one-off shift is exactly the kind of gap that causes problems later.

How to decide which type to request

If you're not sure which category your gap falls into, a straightforward way to think about it is duration and intent. A one-time absence is per diem. A known leave with an end date is temporary full-time. A recurring but limited need is part-time. An open role you intend to fill for good is a permanent placement. Naming that clearly when you call saves time on both ends, and it's a fair question to ask any staffing agency to help you sort out if you're genuinely unsure.

Don't let the placement type outlast the actual need

One mistake facilities make is leaving a temporary arrangement running long after the original gap has resolved, simply because it's working and nobody revisits it. It's worth checking in with your staffing partner periodically to confirm whether a per diem or temporary arrangement should convert into something more permanent, or whether the underlying gap has actually closed. Just CNA's Inc. works with facilities across the Richmond area on exactly this kind of ongoing relationship, not just one-off calls, which makes that periodic check-in easier to have with a consistent point of contact rather than a different recruiter every time you call.