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Per diem LPN work means taking shifts one at a time instead of committing to a fixed schedule. You choose when and where you work, the hourly rate usually runs above staff scale, and you give up guaranteed hours and employer benefits in exchange. Whether that’s a good trade depends […]

Staffing Industry Analysts has released its 2026 list of the Fastest-Growing U.S. Staffing Firms. Switch came in #2 in per diem nursing and #35 overall across every staffing firm in the country. SIA ranks by compound annual growth rate, which makes it one of the few industry benchmarks measuring something […]

Yes — agency and contract clinicians count toward your nursing home’s turnover rate, the same as employees. CMS puts it plainly: both are included if they work enough hours to be eligible. What decides it isn’t who signs their paycheck. It’s how many hours they worked and whether they came […]

Your CMS Five-Star staffing rating is built from six measures, all computed from the payroll-based staffing data you already report to Medicare — two on registered nurse and total nurse hours, one on weekend coverage, and three on turnover. Roughly a third of the score isn’t about hours at all. […]

CMS is moving Payroll-Based Journal submissions from QIES to iQIES on August 17, 2026. QIES stops accepting PBJ data after 11:59 PM ET on August 14. Your quarterly deadlines and reporting requirements don’t change — but if your vendor isn’t set up in iQIES before the switch, your Q4 submission […]

If you’ve ever looked at a PRN shift rate next to your staff hourly and thought wait, why is this so much higher? — you’re not missing something. The gap is real, and it’s not a fluke of one facility’s budget. The short answer: a PRN rate is a higher […]

A per diem nurse works shift by shift, on their own terms — no set weekly schedule, no guaranteed hours, and usually a higher hourly rate in exchange. “Per diem” means “per day”: you pick up the shifts you want, at the facilities you want, when you want. This guide […]

Picking up PRN shifts means working on an as-needed basis — you choose which shifts, days, and facilities you work, and you’re paid per shift instead of on a fixed salary. To start, you need an active credential (CNA, LPN/LVN, or RN) and a way to find open shifts: a […]

The best app for picking up shifts depends on what matters most to you — how fast you get paid, whether you can go back to facilities you know, and whether a real person helps when a shift falls through. The major options — Switch, ShiftKey, Clipboard Health, CareRev, Nursa, […]

If you’re a CNA looking for flexible work, you can find per-diem shifts through a traditional staffing agency or, increasingly, through a staffing platform like Switch. The difference is control: a platform lets you browse and claim open shifts yourself, get paid the same day, and go back to facilities […]

PRN and per diem nursing get used interchangeably all the time — but there’s a real difference, and it changes what you’re actually signing up for. In short: PRN work is usually tied to a single facility, with a baseline of shifts and sometimes benefits. Per diem work is picked […]

The nurse shortage in nursing homes is easing, but not over. Nursing homes added about 40,700 workers in 2025 and CNA turnover fell to roughly 42% — yet 91% of providers still say recruiting is difficult. In 2026 the problem is no longer finding staff. It’s keeping care continuous. If […]

Have you ever come across a job add for a “CNA certified nursing assistants PRN” and wondered what that meant?