Directly employed nurses are a valuable asset and need to be rewarded for their skills, agency nurses are not committed in the same way and generally give much lower productivity
Nursing schedules have an overlap of unproductive time in the afternoon. 75 hours a fortnight are worked. A change to to 5 shorter morning and 5 longer afternoon shifts over two weeks eliminating all but the necessary hand over time will produce greater productivity.
I made this change while I was the Hospital Director of Princess Grace private hospital and we reduced the number of agency nurses by rewarding the permanent staff.
The reward was to pay a premium for the afternoon shift – ONLY IF WORKED, i.e. not while off sick or on holiday.