Question

The administrator of an 80-bed nursing facility in a rural community 30 miles away from a medium-sized city is losing two veteran RNs, who are retiring after working at the facility for 20 and 25 years, respectively. The staff of the facility are tightly knit and view each other as a family, so the loss of the two RNs is especially painful. Although there is a sufficient labor market in the community for nursing assistants and other support personnel, there is a significant shortage of nurses. The administrator has connections with several hospitals and nursing programs at schools in the city, but in the past she has found that candidates are reluctant to drive out so far to work. She is discouraged at her prospects for qualified applicants and is at a loss at how to proceed.

If you were in this administrator’s position, how would you go about recruiting for the two open nursing positions?

What recruitment sources would you consider and why?

How would you overcome the obstacle of the commute faced by applicants from the city?

What strengths of your facility would you promote and what benefits would you offer to entice potential candidates?

Answer 1

Ans) 4 Ways to Recruit & Retain Engaged Nurses Who Love Their Jobs:
- Create a Strong Culture. Creating a strong workplace culture is by far the most important component to making a nurse want to work for you.
- Offer Career Advancement.
- Provide a Flexible Work Schedule.
- Recognize and Reward High Performers.

Nursing recruitment strategies that can help you fill those nursing positions.
- Acknowledge that competition is fierce.
- Sell candidates on the quality of the organization.
- Get new RNs to think outside the hospital.
- Compensate lack of experience with strong supervision.

The following can damper your nurses’ productivity, but you can take steps to help:

- Inadequate staffing. A skeleton crew forces your nursing staff to more with less, and can result in burnout, error and turnover. To help your nurses do their jobs well without becoming overwhelmed and overloaded, you can hire additional nurses, or temporary travel nurses.
Demanding patients. Your nurses are helping to heal the sick, but people who don’t feel well can be upset, frustrated, confused and difficult. Regular team meetings and an open door policy allows your nurses to air concerns, and get the advice and support they need from you and coworkers when treating difficult patients.
Worksite hazards. Every day, your nursing staff encounters items and situations that can present on-the-job hazards if not properly handled. Always provide processes and in-services on proper sharps disposal, lifting and patient transport, hazardous substance handling, ergonomics and potentially dangerous worksite situations, such as patient or coworker conflicts.
- Difficult access to medications and supplies. Your nurses should be able to easily locate and obtain any medications or supplies needed to treat patients. You can enable this through convenient storage on each unit.
- Poor communication between nurses and physicians. Information such as patient health status, medication orders, treatment orders or discharge should be available to the entire medical team. This helps improve care efficiency and patient outcomes. Strategies to facilitate good communication between all members of your medical team include regular team meetings and electronic medical records.

Strengths Necessary for Success in the Nursing Profession:
- Communication and People Skills. First and foremost, to be a truly successful nurse, it is highly essential that you possess both communication and people skills.
- Empathy and Compassion.
- Reliability and Flexibility.
- Honesty and Trustworthiness.
- Time Management Skills.