A Nursing Agency is an industry that provides nurses and typically health care assistants to people who require the services of healthcare professionals. Nurses are usually engaged by the agency on provisional contracts and make themselves obtainable for hire by hospitals, care homes and extra providers of care for help throughout busy periods or to cover for workers absences. Some nurses may be seconded to personal clients who choose to be given their nursing care within their own homes. English nursing agencies are keeping pace by the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

In the United States, they are too called Nurse Registries. It is a recruitment agency which may offer per diem or locum teens nursing staff to hospitals, medical offices and persons. They are normally small, privately owned businesses. They are also documented as "nursing pools" and "nursing staffing agencies".

As with additional staffing agencies, a huge amount of capital is essential to operate, as nurses must be paid by the registry as often as they work, but the hospital or other organization utilizing the services of the registry force not pay the registry until more than a few months after the work has been done. Profit limits for this type of business go between 4% and 70%.

Nurse staffing is a cyclic business. During holidays, hospitals frequently pay their staff overtime pay, and therefore the need for outside staffing services is diminished. A conflicting effect is felt throughout summer time vacations, when staff workers at hospitals get time off and the services of the nurse registry are in better need.

Nurse staffing is extremely demanding and requires a high amount of care and liability. There are many legal responsibility issues which must be reserved in mind. Claims of carelessness and unsuitable actions by the registry's nurses may consequence in lawsuits over bodily injury. Malpractice insurance must be approved by the registry.