Finding great nursing staff can feel like a game of chance. You stick with the same old ways and eventually you’ll pull in some candidates. But when you get creative and think outside the traditional box you may just find your calendar packed with interview after interview as your pipeline fills with potential new hires.
With today’s nursing shortage and diminished nursing school attendees it’s harder and harder to recruit let alone find great nursing staff right now. And as most healthcare organizations are aware, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a staggering 200,000 job openings per year through 2031 for nurses. Those numbers serve to underscore the need to recruit potential hires and find great nursing staff for your healthcare needs.
As the challenges of nurse-to-patient ratios rise healthcare organizations struggle to recruit qualified staff and to retain those valuable nurses for the long term. Here we offer unique places you can find great nursing staff right now. Some of these tactics may seem a little unconventional, but in a changing recruiting landscape they work.
Top 10 Unique Places to Find Great Nursing Staff
The success of any healthcare organization is found in their patient outcomes. That means your facility relies heavily on the patient-nurse relationship and which depends on great nurses. Through creative recruiting and using these 10 unique places to find great nursing staff you’ll get a jump on the competition and grow your staff in a way that makes you a leader among healthcare organizations. Hoping to find those great nurses? Look here:
1. Your Own Staff
If you don’t already have an employee referral program in place, then start one. If you do have a referral program you need to promote it as much as you can. According to a study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research the employee referral program results in higher quality candidates and reduces turnover by 15%-20%.
Among the reasons cited for these statistics? A potential employee referred by a member of your staff who exhibits excellence in their work more than likely shares the same work ethic. Also staff members may not want to refer a candidate who reflects poorly on them. But, you must incentivize the program in big ways to increase interest and involvement.
2. Connect with Nursing Schools and Programs
In order to find great nursing staff you must go where the nurses are fresh and eager to secure a job. That means nursing schools and programs. But you need to engage these schools and programs effectively and not just show up at local job fairs. Here are some proven ways to engage in a deeper way and promote your healthcare organization’s brand.
- Set up a speaking engagement
- Offer internships
- Attend the school’s webinars and seminars; get on the docket if you can offer some professional insight.
- Attend professional conferences
- Engage with potential new candidates through school functions and support their causes
Don’t limit your involvement and support of these nursing schools and programs that are local to your area. Many new nurses are willing to transfer to other areas.
3. Join Nursing Professionals Organizations
Nurses who strive to grow in their career through professional development do so by joining professional organizations. Familiarize yourself with these organizations and reach out to find out what you can do to help. Many of the organizations offer programs for career development, mentorship and leadership. Some of these programs may benefit from your support and you get a foot in the door. Use your “in” to promote your healthcare organization and find great nursing staff through these networking opportunities. You’re not only helping your healthcare institution but your community as well.
4. Use Social Media-Creatively
Social Media is the elephant in the room these days when it comes to recruiting new candidates for your healthcare organization. Love it or not it appears these platforms are here to stay and only gaining in users. Of course the term social media covers a wide range of creative and unique places to find great nursing staff. There are professional sites like LinkedIn and Zip Recruiter, Indeed and Jobvite as well as true “social” media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), TikTok and YouTube.
The professional sites are essentially job boards that invite some interaction. You can create a buzz among potential nurse candidates by posting engaging content that’s relevant to nurses or networking with your professional peers. In order to stay connected try to post some kind of relevant article weekly.
Social sites may not be all that unique a place to find great nursing staff but they offer more opportunity to make your needs known directly to the nurses and passively recruit them. Facebook, for example, has specific pages dedicated to nursing. Create a profile for your healthcare organization and connect with different nursing-specific pages where you can actively promote your job openings.
Be sure to stay active within these groups to get your name out there. Post frequently about open staff positions and even repost or link to that engaging content you’ve posted on the professional sites. You’ll be amazed at the sheer number of people who respond and wish to network.
5. Showcase Your Organization
Host an open house style event for nurses. Be sure your most valued staff members are there to speak on behalf of your organization. Tour areas of your facility and showcase technology as well as staff.
If you can’t host an event at your facility then find a venue that’s convenient. Treat attendees well and let your event reflect your brand.
6. Sponsor a Day of Appreciation for Nurses
Sponsor a day long retreat specifically geared toward nurses. Have speakers and opportunities for self care. Treat the attendees to a healthy lunch. Encourage your own staff as well as any other nurses to attend your nurse appreciation day. You may even use this as an opportunity to passively recruit nurses to your staff.
7. Utilize Your Own Website for Career Recruitment
Your healthcare organization likely has a website but is that site all that it can be? If not you may want to rework some things and recreate your site in a way that truly engages those who view it. Most websites have a “careers” tab in the menu. Direct those people with whom you engage on social media to your careers page where they will find a dynamic bit of content that makes them want to work for you. Here’s some ideas to include.
- Emphasize your excellent workplace culture using examples
- Include reviews from your employees
- Discuss your primary benefits
- Offer benefits that are innovative, unique and relevant such as student debt relief, financial incentives, paid family leave, gym memberships and monthly self care opportunities.
- Promote your competitive salaries, bonuses and other incentives
- Highlight professional development and opportunity for career advancement
- Include your prioritizing of work-life balance
When highlighting specific staff positions you seek to fill, be sure to craft a clear and detailed job description. Once nursing jobseekers get this far they are focused on the details of the position. Providing them with a detailed description ensures they meet your specifications and vice-versa. That way you’ll get the candidate who is right for the job.
8. Good Old-Fashioned Career Fairs
Career fairs still produce results when you want to find great nursing staff right now. Network with your local schools and arrange to attend the fair. These are nurses looking for potential jobs so that means they are serious jobseekers. Ask some of your current dynamic and happy employees to attend the job fairs with you. They can certainly speak to their nursing peers regarding the positive work environment and excellent culture of your healthcare organization. Show that you’re open to new grads and offer internships as well.
9. Host Your Own “New-Fashioned” Virtual Job Fair
There are so many advantages to hosting your own virtual career fair. For one thing you have greater access to passive job seekers who may not want to alert their current employer and risk running into someone at a traditional job fair. You control the script and you can showcase your healthcare organization’s culture prior to actively interviewing candidates. Also you can use your pre-event campaign to reach your targeted invitees. And a virtual job fair allows you to reach a greater number of potential candidates in a short amount of time.
You don’t want to end up with no-shows and just a handful of potential candidates. Hosting your own virtual job fair can be a bit risky unless you plan accordingly. Here are some ways that you can host a successful virtual job fair.
- Make your event easy to access and attend by holding it across as many shift times as you can. Early morning, mid afternoon and evening event times allow you to reach many more nursing candidates.
- Create a marketing campaign at least six weeks prior to your scheduled virtual job fair. Utilize social media, advertise on nursing websites, craft an email campaign and include nursing schools and programs to get as many attendees as possible.
- Offer an incentive for attending such as a small gift card.
10. Staffing Agencies
Staffing agencies offer an easy solution for you to find great nursing staff right now. There are significant benefits to working with a medical staffing agency that result in success for your healthcare organization. Among those benefits:
- Access to a large pool of qualified candidates
- Rapid response
- Reduced burden on your organization
- Ability to address specialized nursing staff needs
- Ensure licensing, necessary certification and credentialing requirements and compliance according to your needs
- Reduced turnover
- Ongoing support
Staffing agencies offer solutions to your nursing staff needs but not all medical staffing agencies provide the solutions you need now. How do you know you’ve found the right professional partner for your staffing needs? Choose BOS Medical Staffing and rest assured you’re in good hands.
What BOS Can Do to Find Great Nursing Staff Right Now
When you partner with BOS Medical Staffing you’ve made the professional choice that will serve you well. We specialize in finding the right nurse to fill your staffing needs. Best of all we do all the work for you. Our candidates are already vetted and that cuts down on hiring time. We have a wide pool of nursing candidates including CNAs, LPNs and RNs as well as those nurses with specialized certifications. And best of all, your administrative tasks are outsourced to us. If you want to find great nursing staff right now, reach out to BOS Medical Staffing today.
