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by Darcey Trescone

 

Nursing recruitment is an on-going commitment in the healthcare industry. In general, it should be part of strategic planning initiatives on an annual basis for healthcare entities. The shortage of nurses stresses our existing workforce, leading to turnover and impacts the patients we serve, leading to lower outcome achievement.

High nurse retirement and turnover rates are affecting access to health care.

• In the September 21, 2015 issue of Science Daily, healthcare economist David Auerbach released findings from a new study, which found that almost 40% of registered nurses are over 50. "The number of nurses leaving the workforce each year has been growing steadily from around 40,000 in 2010 to nearly 80,000 by 2020. Meanwhile, the dramatic growth in nursing school enrollment over the last 15 years has begun to level off."¹

• In September 2007, Dr. Christine T. Kovner and colleagues found that 13% of newly licensed RNs had changed principal jobs after one year, and 37% reported that they felt ready to change jobs. These findings were reported in the American Journal of Nursing in an article titled Newly Licensed RNs’ Characteristics, Work Attitudes, and Intentions to Work.¹

A shortage of nursing school faculty is restricting nursing program enrollments

• According to AACN's report on 2019-2020 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away 80,407 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2019 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, and clinical preceptors, as well as budget constraints. Almost two-thirds of the nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to a shortage of faculty and clinical preceptors as a reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into their programs.¹

It is no surprise that we are experiencing a nursing shortage that will continue to grow. We have known this for years. Recruitment and retention strategies for our nurse workforce need to be prioritized, and these activities need to be budgeted annually.

We gathered a few low-cost recruiting and retention suggestions and tips

• Start or revisit the employee referral program. Your existing top talent may have candidates they can refer, and as nurses, they are connected with the community of nurses available in many ways. Market this program internally and talk it up at regular meetings. Hold competitions or consider running a raffle for employees that referred a candidate in a quarter.

• Ask customers. Ask patients, vendors, consultants, and suppliers to be referral sources.

• Trade and professional association referrals. Get to know key people within the associations your organization belongs to and organizations that nurses belong to. Seek out job boards and ask your contacts to recommend your agency when they identify a potential candidate.

• Sponsor educational content. Sponsor an educational seminar put on by a professional association. Conduct educational seminars with your staff's assistance that are free to outside nurse attendees.

• Conferences and educational events. High performers seek out continuing education and growth. Attend these events and work with the organizers to market to candidate attendees. Some organizations share these lists or offer them for purchase.

• Previous employees. When top talent resigns, tell them you would like to keep in touch, and they are welcome to come back. Follow up with the good nurses who left your organization and ask if they would like to return or know of any nurse candidates. Also, retirees may be open to working on an as-needed basis, so keep in touch with them and have these discussions.

• Revisit your previous candidate list. Candidates that were almost qualified in the past may have acquired the experience to be a good fit in your organization now. Also, review candidates that in the past rejected a job offer. Reach out to top candidates from these lists to see if they are or will be on the job market.

• Follow your competition. Track other facilities' announcements of promotions and awards, and then target those that get the accolades and promotions.  When a competing facility is undergoing cutbacks, staff reductions, or other labor turmoil, increase your recruiting efforts at their facilities. Ask your current nurses to help you recruit away their best.

• Push recruitment pieces and job openings to potential candidates. Consider using professional association, website, and nursing magazine mailing lists (sorted by local ZIP code) to mail out recruitment pieces or email messages. Develop an email mail list that "pushes" announcements of relevant job openings to individuals you are targeting.

• Win awards, write and speak. Engage your top talent to participate in publishing articles and speaking opportunities to build your brand and recruiting tools. Look at how your organization could get recognition or win a "best places to work" award.

• Offer presentations and education. Have your senior executives speak and give presentations to students at the nursing school.

• Get to know grad assistants and college professors. They are working directly with students and can easily identify top talent. Start recruiting before graduation. Interns can be potential candidates for hire, and when on campus, they can help recruit.

• Target students that graduated one to two years prior.  Nurses recently out of school may change jobs after one to two years of employment.

• Conduct your market research. If employees quit, conduct an exit interview, and identify areas of improvement. Ask new hires to share what was most important to them when accepting the position. Ask what about the company/position had a positive impact on their decision, what had no impact, and what had a negative impact on their decision. Use this information to improve your job postings and recruitment activities.

• Build a hiring team. Not all managers are good at sales or recruiting. Identify your top talent that are good at recruiting and sales and involve them. Provide recruitment and interview training where needed and reward your team for their assistance.

Although heroic and much needed, nursing is not an attractive career for many because of the stress and limited advancement available in many organizations. Recruitment is important, but retention and making nursing a role that more individuals want to do is vital. The nursing shortage is not going away, and top agencies will need to think outside the box when designing their organization and recruiting nursing talent.

 

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^1. Information N, Sheets F, Shortage N. AACN Fact Sheet - Nursing Shortage. Aacnnursing.org. https://www.aacnnursing.org/News-Information/Fact-Sheets/Nursing-Shortage. Published 2021. Accessed February 15, 2021.

 

 

Darcey Trescone, RN, BSN, is a Healthcare IS and Business Development Consultant in the Post-Acute Healthcare Market with a strong background working with both providers and vendors specific to Home Care and Hospice. She has worked as a home health nurse and held senior operational, product management and business development positions with various post-acute software firms, where her responsibilities included new and existing market penetration, customer retention and oversight of teams across the U.S., Canada and Australia. She can be reached at darcey@tresconeconsulting.com.

©2020 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article originally appeared in Home Care Technology: The Rowan Report. homecaretechreport.com One copy may be printed for personal use; further reproduction by permission only. editor@homecaretechreport.com