Nurse Recruitment and Retention Strategies
Nurses are among the most sought after professionals, with their demand projected to increase tremendously over the coming years. The demand for nursing services is met with an influx of undertrained, overworked and underpaid nurses trying to keep up with the growing market needs. Eventually, this affects the quality of care delivered to patients and can be costly to organizations. It also leads to high turnover rates, with more nurses quitting in their first few years of practice (Marufu, Collins, Vargas, Gillespie & Almghairbi, 2021). This leaves recruiters, managers and administrators with the daunting task of improving nurse recruitment and retention. This paper provides the strategies employers can used to improve nurse recruitment and retention.
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Strategies to Improve Nurse Recruitment
The aim of every employer is to recruit a nurse who is highly skilled, focused and willing to work for the organization for a long period of time. Additionally, organizations look to recruit better nurses and retain them for longer periods to reduce turnover rates. The recruitment process influences turnover rates. This is through the expectations implied by the recruiter throughout the recruitment process.
Recruiters should employ holistic approaches throughout the advertising and interviewing stages. The aim is to recruit a nurse who is not only qualified, but also fits the organizational culture. This makes pre-assessments an important step in filtering out applications and ensuring the only best candidates are engaged for physical interviews. Using the appropriate assessment tools prior and during interviews is crucial in selecting the best candidates. It enables recruiters to understand candidates’ motivation in applying for the position and what they hope to achieve from the organization (Marufu, Collins, Vargas, Gillespie & Almghairbi, 2021).
Retention strategies should be considered as early as during recruitment. The organizational culture plays a great role in this. The organization should set and meet its hiring standards in order to attract and interview the correct applicants. Such applicants have expectations of the organization in terms of work environment and services delivered (Yeager & Wisniewski, 2017). If these expectations are not delivered, even the top quality nurses will exit the organization within the first few years of employment. Therefore, it is important for recruiters to communicate early on what the organization offers and meet the promises after hiring.
Strategies to Improve Nurse Retention
After a successful recruitment process, the new nurse should be brought onboard in a most comfortable way possible to ensure they adapt quickly to their new workplace culture. Providing the nurse with a mentor or establishing a residency program to offer support and guidance improves retention in the long run. It also instills the culture of collaboration and a sense of community (Marufu, Collins, Vargas, Gillespie & Almghairbi, 2021).
During their stay with the organization, there are a lot of factors that could contribute to high turnovers. This includes poor work-life balance, lack of personal and professional growth, poor reimbursements, bad leadership or management and non-conducive workplace cultures (Yeager & Wisniewski, 2017). Addressing these individual factors will improve retention and also improve the quality of services provided by nurses.
Organizations should therefore strive to improve the flexibility of working hours, offer education and learning opportunities to foster professional and personal growth and pay their employees competitively and introduce incentives or bonuses for motivational purposes. A workplace with collaborative and dedicated staff improves work satisfaction and reduces instances of bullying which contributes to longevity. Last, the leadership and management team has a great impact on retention. Most nurses quit the management and not their teams or work. Hence, organizations should invest in good and supportive managers who prioritize the welfare of their employees (Marufu, Collins, Vargas, Gillespie & Almghairbi, 2021).
References
Marufu, T. C., Collins, A., Vargas, L., Gillespie, L., & Almghairbi, D. (2021). Factors influencing retention among hospital nurses: systematic review. British Journal of Nursing, 30(5), 302-308. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2021.30.5.302
Yeager, V. A., & Wisniewski, J. M. (2017). Factors that influence the recruitment and retention of nurses in public health agencies. Public Health Reports, 132(5), 556-562. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0033354917719704