Health care industry has been facing a shortage in staffing nurses even before COVID-19. But this shortage has increased significantly as the healthcare industry took a big hit during the pandemic, working tirelessly in the front line for everyone.
While the need for nurses increases with time to keep the healthcare industry going, recruiting staff is not easy. According to the World’s Nursing 2020 report, there will be a six million nurse shortfall by 2030 globally.
But where there are problems there are solutions as there are strategies to combat today’s staffing shortages and agencies like Nurse Staffing Agency in Orlando that would help you find the right staff for you.
If your organization is looking to hire recruits, it would need to improve its strategies and provide attractive benefits to find and acquire top talent and retain them for a long time without issues.
Nurse Recruiting Strategies To Combat Staffing Shortages
Here are 10 effective strategies to help hospitals, nursing homes, and other healthcare organizations to hire good nurses quickly.
- Overall Workplace Retention Strategies – According to research, ‘over 17% of newly licensed RNs change jobs after or during the first year, while approximately 33% are likely to do so after the second year.’ It is best for healthcare facilities to implement sophisticated retention measures because filing open positions is more challenging.
To do this, you must first comprehend the primary causes of nurses’ departures. Although there may be many causes, stress and burnout are two that are well-known.
Long hours, unpredictable schedules, and demanding patients and doctors will eventually wear anyone down and make them want to quit their careers. There are steps you can take even if it is impossible to completely remove all of the causes of such circumstances.
- Acknowledge The Competition – Nurse recruiters are more aggressive when there is a shortage and a high demand for nurses. Additionally, competition is going to get tougher, given that the number of nursing positions is predicted to grow faster than all other occupations.
Employers are seeking additional strategies to entice top people, including signing and retention bonuses, loan forgiveness, and educational possibilities. You cannot afford to overlook the need to step up your recruitment efforts given the level of competition.
- Provide Attractive Salaries And Benefits – To attract and retain top people, many workforces use compensation as a key strategy. It is also of utmost significance in the fiercely competitive healthcare sector, where there is a shortage of nurses and a high demand for them.
Organizations must therefore recognize this rivalry and be prepared to offer compensation in line with it. It is common knowledge that job seekers travel to locations with competitive pay.
Additionally, being competitive means differentiating yourself in terms of the benefits and bonuses nurses seek, not just paying more. Some alluring benefits include flexible work schedules, paid family leave, tuition reimbursement, and loan payback plans.
- Counter Lack Of Experience With Mentoring Programs – It is challenging to find and keep experienced nurses. Therefore, if organizations keep chasing after them, they undoubtedly would run out of candidates to hire.
Hiring recent grads who can compensate for their lack of experience through a mentoring program is the best alternative.
It is a tactical move that will provide newer nurses with the necessary knowledge and abilities, particularly in challenging settings like the operating room, emergency room, and other critical care units where no one often hires new employees.
Additionally, by giving opportunities to less experienced nurses, these programs enable hospitals to develop their personnel more quickly.
- Focus On Professional Development – Organizations can accommodate nurses with professional growth in mind by putting a strong emphasis on professional development. Additionally, it aids in luring in and keeping talented workers who will feel inspired to work hard and boost production.
Healthcare institutions can help you identify and hire nurses for specializations by offering new-graduate residency and transition-to-practice programs.
When you post a job, include information on the initiatives that will enable nurses to develop in their careers. It is yet another excellent tactic for hiring nurses.
- Use Multi-Channel Recruiting – If you only use one source for hiring, such as the Nurse Recruiter website, it will take a long time, and there’s a good possibility you won’t find what you’re looking for.
It is ideal to use a multi-channel recruiting strategy, including email marketing, internet advertising, purchasing nurse databases, and journal adverts to recruit nurses.
Additionally, hospital executives can sponsor or plan conferences or seminars in the healthcare industry that will speak to healthcare professionals, including nurses, to attract top talent.
After the event, they can contact them and encourage them to schedule an interview at your location.
- Partnering Up With Nursing Schools – According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, hundreds of talented applicants are turned away from nursing schools each year owing to a lack of faculty, classroom space, clinical opportunities, and funding.
Therefore, by collaborating with nursing schools to address the bottlenecks in nursing education, providers can aid their pipeline for recruiting nurses. They can provide grants, scholarships, work-study opportunities, and tuition reimbursement to entice students to apply for jobs at their hospital or stay put if they are already interns.
To gain more prospects before entering the competitive scene, you can also collaborate with other institutions that offer healthcare education.
- Try Recruiting Agencies – A institution with a reputation for having a shortage of nurses makes it difficult to book competent nurses and assistants, which leads to an even worse shortage of employees. The short-staff issue is directly impacted by the employee’s personalities as well.
Employing nurses and nurse assistants who are dependable, competent, and team participants are crucial. Use a nursing staffing firm that can go under the surface to find the candidates that are the best fit for your facility.
- Showcase The Healthcare Facility Feature – Nurses need organizations to emphasize the resources and techniques at their disposal that might help them be more productive at work.
You may attract the attention of nurses at your facility and convince them to join by emphasizing the help that nurses will receive from the hospital in the form of various devices.
- Keep Improving Your Strategies To Continue Hiring And Retaining Nurses – From recent grads to mid-career professionals, many millennial nurses are looking for jobs in large cities close to their loved ones. Therefore, you must be innovative with your presentation if you’re hiring nurses for community-based care or other non-hospital settings.
Focusing on applicants who want more autonomy and flexibility in an administrative, consultative, or case-management capacity is one method to draw in nursing prospects. Look for those that desire to experience a setting other than the traditional hospital setting.
Conclusion
The backbone of healthcare, so the saying goes, is nurses. This statement is 100 percent accurate. Nurses are advocates for well-being and have a beneficial impact on patient outcomes in addition to providing care for the sick and the general population.
As a result, the market will always have a high demand for them. To hire more nurses and meet their demands, it is crucial now more than ever to be shrewd in your recruitment efforts.
The quality and quantity of nurses you hire will be considerably impacted by focusing on the demands of the candidates, such as a competitive wage, incentives, and a happy work environment, along with multi-channel recruitment.