Nurse recruitment has seen a monumental shift in the last few years, and the ongoing nurse shortage is simply adding gas to the flames. There are barely around 4.2 million nurses registered currently in the USA, and with a chunk of them leaving in the next few years, things do not look very good on the nurse recruitment front.
In fact, the sheer size of the colossal healthcare industry demands an influx of more nurses and, better yet, qualified and experienced ones. So, how can you find the right nurse for your healthcare organization?
Healthcare being such a diverse industry, you need a nurse that can cater to your niche job requirements. So, how to recruit nurses who are perfect for your organization?
Well, the answer to the above questions lies in the underlying blog. Read on to educate yourself on some of the best nurse recruitment strategies in the current healthcare landscape!
Top nurse recruiting strategies to keep in mind
Here are some of the top nursing recruitment strategies, which will help simplify and streamline your recruitment drives:
1. Focus on crafting an irresistible nurse job description
The primary step in recruitment for nurses is crafting a detailed job description. When preparing your job description, use keywords that will help nurse prospects locate the job opening during their search. Include your employment title, abilities, and certifications, and be sure to mention the word “nurse” frequently.
In essence, the whole recruitment process must focus and revolve around the specialty/niche needed, with employers required to know and advertise their exact requirements successfully.
In addition to the job role entails, make sure to enlighten them on why they should work for your organization. Job descriptions ought to convince applicants of the role, therefore emphasizing what sets your company apart from the competition. You essentially need them to apply for the position, so make sure your job description is enticing enough!
2. Source only the best quality nurse candidates
Finding qualified individuals for a nursing position might be difficult due to the specialized skill set necessary and the substantial demand for them. As a result, your recruiting strategies should be specifically geared to attract elite nursing staff.
You can rely on verified and tailored third-party nurse contacts to overcome this issue. InfoClutch can come to your rescue here with an abundance of validated nurse contacts in their massive data repository.
With a 95% assured deliverability rate and 100% credible information, you can easily find nurses as per your requirements, and offer the best value to your healthcare organization.
3. Make sure you narrow down the type of nurse you need
One of the key steps of crafting good nurse recruitment strategies is figuring out the exact requirements you want the nurse to fill out. Therefore, Begin by outlining the essential job functions to determine what kind of nurse you require. Be specific about the job that needs to be done.
To give you a better picture, here are various different types of nurse requirements you may have:
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- Home Health Nurse
- Registered Nurse
- Nurse Case Manager
- Staff Nurse
- Neonatal Nurse
- Nurse Practitioner
- Charge Nurse
- Licensed Practical Nurse
- ER Nurse
- Licensed Vocational Nurse
- School Nurse
- Nurse Educator
4. Get your hospital employer branding right
Your hospital employer brand offers a sizeable solution to the question, “How to recruit nurses?” Before we move on to fixing your hospital employer brand, let’s first shed some light on what the term actually means.
The term hospital employer brand refers to the general reputation of your organization as an employer. It talks about how your hospital stacks up as a workplace, and offers a general idea of what it would be like to work there.
This includes any aspect of your hospital’s functionality that can change the candidate’s perspective, such as work environment, culture, employee benefits, and so on.
Getting your hospital employer brand right matters for a number of reasons, some of them including:
- It tells your story and evokes emotion.
- Provides direction and purpose.
- Lays the groundwork for recruitment marketing.
- Assists you in attracting the right people.
- Distinguishes you from other healthcare organizations.
- Increases the number of candidate referrals
5. Use the right advertisement channels
Once your job description and hospital employer brand pain points are dealt with, the next step is to put the word out there that you are hiring; what better way to do this than targeted advertising?
Advertise the position through a variety of online and offline channels, such as email marketing, placing adverts on the website, using medical journals, social media, sponsoring education programs, and so on.
While making these advertisements, make them with the intent of offering value to newly joined employees. This means that the advertisements must include the various perks and benefits the employee can avail of. Your offer will now be a lot more lucrative, and garner a lot more attention.
This can include various benefits such as:
- Monetary incentives
- Retirement benefits
- Paid leave, vacation and sick time off
- Health insurance
- Health club memberships
- Flexible shifts
- Ongoing education fee payment, and so on!
Keep at this practice constantly, and send out advertisements till you land the candidate that you want. Should you use the right advertising channels, you will surely get qualified prospect leads!
6. Showcase your Unique Value Proposition
Another vital part of your nursing recruitment strategies is clarifying your unique value proposition. The hiring process is a two-way street, i.e., a good hire should be as thrilled to join your healthcare organization as you are to have them on board.
So, from the job description to the closing, remember to clearly articulate what makes working for your organization different from any other one they may work at. This will assure compatibility and help you advertise your organization’s brand to recruit more effectively. That does not always imply you have to provide the greatest income or the most lavish bonuses.
Let’s say you are an already established healthcare organization with a good reputation, and you deal with children specifically. This will draw in niche nurses, as well as experienced ones, and these things matter to nurses more than monetary compensation.
7. Offer lucrative compensation packages
You need to realize that there’s a shortage of qualified nurses in the market, and you must be willing to compensate properly by providing a thorough pay package. In fact, with over 4.7 million nurses retiring before the end of this decade, the world needs around 13 million more to cope with the ongoing shortage.
Furthermore, the long and ongoing pandemic took quite a toll on a massive chunk of the healthcare workforce, with over 34% of nurse participants in a particular survey saying they would quit their job in the next two years.
On top of reasonable salary compensation, make sure you present them with lucrative perks as well. Offering nurses loan payback plans and tuition reimbursement are desirable benefits and will definitely do the trick.
8. Make sure you offer flexible schedules
Another crucial element of your nursing recruitment strategies is the work-life balance you offer once the candidate joins the organization. Whenever it comes to work, everyone appreciates flexibility. To attract and keep good registered nurses, offer work-hour flexibility.
Long working hours induce burnout in nurses, forcing many to leave their profession. So, in exchange for their long-term service, assist them in balancing both their private and professional lives.
Wrapping Up
The degree of difficulty associated with hiring qualified nurses has gone quite up. To recruit more nurses and to be attentive to the requirements of your priceless human capital, you must now leverage your creativity more than ever.
The quantity and caliber of nurses you hire will significantly depend on how much attention you pay to the demands of the candidate, including a favorable work atmosphere, incentives, and a sense of community.
So, in essence, should you wish to truly solve the issue of” How to recruit nurses?” then make sure you incorporate the above pointers in any future nurse recruitment strategies. Upon making these minuscule tweaks to your recruitment drive, you can truly bring in the talent that your healthcare organization rightfully deserves!
