Increasingly, healthcare organizations are thinking outside the box when it comes to recruiting nurses. The current shortage of available nurses has, in many ways, compelled them to find new and innovative ways of staffing their facilities.
The current shortage is fueled by seasoned nurses moving toward retirement, fewer individuals pursuing a career in nursing, and the increased demand for RNs, CNAs, and LPNs to serve an aging population. These factors, along with the mass exodus of medical professionals following the pandemic, have only made finding nursing candidates all the more difficult.
Enter networking. Professional networking is defined as the process of building and fostering relationships with others in the healthcare industry. The main goal of professional networking in healthcare or any other arena is to exchange information, share knowledge and insights, and, through that relationship, create opportunities for career building. These opportunities come to light through collaborative efforts such as mentoring, helping with advancing careers, and providing direction. This alone is why more healthcare organizations are turning to networking to find nurses.
How to Network
To get the most out of networking to find nurses, it’s imperative to begin with a well-thought-out strategy. This involves connection with others directly in healthcare or healthcare-adjacent areas through professional events and organizations, social media platforms, and alumni associations. This way, you set a strong foundation for your endeavor into networking to find nurses. Here’s how we break down what’s involved, as well as the best way to enter into professional networking.
The Reasons for Professional Networking
Before you begin setting your networking foundation, you need to know the reasons for doing so and the overall benefits of professional networking.
- Builds Professional Relationships: By forging a professional network, you build relationships with those who can help guide you toward candidates and support you in your efforts to find quality nursing staff.
- Creates Opportunities: As you build those relationships, you begin to ally. Through these alliances, you’ll find trusted referrals for potential new hires.
- Exchange of Information: You’ll stay “in the know” through your alliances with fellow healthcare professionals.
Where to Establish Your Network
A big factor in your success when networking to find nurses is your strategy for where to establish your network. Finding nurses, or any healthcare workers, for your healthcare organization involves a much more niche network than the general professional system of connections.
- Join a National Organization: Organizations such as the American Nurses Association (ANA) offer so many opportunities for networking to find nurses. There are local chapters that host events, national conferences, and even webinars. Supporting any worthy professional healthcare organization gives you an opportunity to network directly with those healthcare professionals you wish to have on your team.
- Find Local Groups: There are usually local groups that offer meet-ups and informal gatherings that provide you with an opportunity to associate with those in all areas of healthcare. You can usually find these informal groups on Facebook.
- Seek Out A Career Fair: Local career fairs for the healthcare industry allow you to meet potential candidates and recruit those who are earnestly looking for a nursing position. Nursing schools schedule regular events, usually near the end of a semester, and some counties sponsor general work fairs throughout the year.
- Professional Networking Online Platforms: LinkedIn is designed specifically with professional networking in mind. In fact, their primary focus is not as a job board, but rather as a way to offer professionals the opportunity to showcase their specific skills and experience while seeking growth and career development. LinkedIn provides direct messaging, so when you see a potential candidate, you can reach out.
- Social Media: Love it or hate it, social media platforms are an excellent way to connect with potential candidates. As mentioned, Facebook has dedicated groups you can join. Instagram does as well. And X (formerly Twitter) can help you recruit nursing candidates and get your message out to the masses.
- Online Nursing Communities: Many online nursing communities share job listings. Websites like nurse.org are a great start if you’re interested in networking to find nurses.
- Network From the Inside: Depending on the size of your healthcare organization, you may be able to network within. Connect with internal nurse managers from different departments and specializations to find potential candidates. Speak with supervisors and discuss staff needs at managerial meetings.
- Partner with A Medical Staffing Agency: You may not consider medical staffing agencies as a means of networking to find nurses. But they are one of the best ways to network as they provide a direct line to the nursing staff you need to find, who are actively looking for a position in a healthcare organization such as yours.
The key to finding the networking approach with the biggest payoff is found in careful strategizing. Define your specific goal; do you need to fill the position right away? How much opportunity for growth is there? Would a temporary hire be better? If your needs are immediate or necessary due to a rise in demand for care, partnering with BOS Medical Staffing provides immediate results.
Partnering with A Staffing Agency is An Excellent Way to Network
Healthcare organizations partner with medical staffing agencies as a strategy for establishing their professional network. And why not? BOS Medical Staffing is a highly efficient way to achieve your staff goals. Our approach to recruiting and vetting potential candidates for your healthcare organization provides access to the nurses you need to hire. That’s access to talent that you may not have had otherwise. Consider partnering with a medical staffing agency as professional networking.
Here are some of the other ways partnering with a medical staffing agency helps you get immediate results from your networking to find nurses.
- A Wider Network: When you partner with BOS Medical Staffing, you gain access to a wider network of healthcare professionals. Because of our established relationships with candidates, finding someone who suits your needs, with the knowledge, skills, and experience you need, is much easier than if you recruit on your own.
- Automatic Advocate: Because staffing agencies already have established relationships with those professional connections, they can provide direct introductions as well as advocate for your healthcare organization. This is really the ultimate goal of networking to find nurses.
- Established Long-Term Relationships: In order for networking to be effective, relationships must be established and connections must be formed. Fostering relationships and building on them requires time and dedication. The more efficient approach is to partner with a staffing agency that has years of experience, a solidly backed reputation, and connections throughout the healthcare industry.
- Access to Specializations: Sometimes it isn’t easy to find the right candidate because your needs are specialized. Staffing agencies like BOS have access to candidates in every specialty and certification. We thoroughly vet your candidate and perform necessary background checks. We also have insight into how well the candidate fits your workplace culture.
- Knowledge and Insight Into Today’s Trends: Because of established relationships with both potential candidates and other healthcare organizations, a medical staffing agency knows what your competitors offer and can help you navigate the hiring process so it’s most beneficial to your organization.
What Are the Benefits to Healthcare Organizations That Use Networking to Find Nurses?
Turning to networking to find nurses benefits healthcare organizations in so many ways. Networking helps you support career development, improve overall patient care, develop better resources, exchange knowledge, improve skills, and hone ways to retain your staff, too. Professional collaboration leads to a stronger workplace culture, resulting in better patient outcomes —the primary goal of any healthcare organization.
Here are the many benefits that come from networking to find nurses.
Staff Development and Career Advancement
Professional networking opens a slew of opportunities for career advancement and staff development. Leadership roles are much easier to fill. Increased visibility in the professional arena provides name recognition for your healthcare organization. That alone sparks interest.
Efficient Operation
When your new hires can hit the ground running, you find a more supportive team. This leads to stability in the workplace through improved communication, more advantageous workflow, and a sense of community and cooperation. When staff work as a team, your healthcare organization will experience better patient outcomes and satisfaction. All of these positive influences, in turn, improve job satisfaction, preventing burnout and improving staff retention.
Innovative Solutions
Professional networking means sharing ideas and techniques you may not have envisioned otherwise. New and novel ideas can lead to improved protocols. Through your network, you stay up to date on the latest industry trends and gain access to the latest research. Through your affiliations, you gain knowledge you may have otherwise missed, such as the latest technology to help your healthcare organization operate more efficiently, or techniques that may improve patient care.
Better Patient Care
Your network helps you gain access to a wide range of resources that enhance your workplace operations and improve patient care. Because you’re regularly collaborating with colleagues in the industry, you’ll be able to trade ideas and discuss what’s been successful for others and what hasn’t worked in the workplace. This exchange of knowledge and ideas means better overall patient care as well as individualized care.
Why Networking Works
For some healthcare organizations, networking is a new idea. It’s considered, by some, an out-of-the-box strategy. In reality, networking to find nurses works because it provides access to an under-utilized resource that’s been around for a very long time: word of mouth.
Networking places healthcare organizations right where they need to be to have access to potential nursing candidates. Nurses and other healthcare professionals understand how networking helps them forge career growth and development. By networking and developing your relationships with peers and allies, you gain the right kind of professional support necessary to find the right RNs, CNAs, and LPNs for your facilities.
By far, the most efficient way to network is through a partnership with a medical staffing agency. You’ll gain access to a professional database of thoroughly vetted and eager healthcare professionals, and you’ll get the support you need from a team of staffing professionals.
A staffing agency like BOS Medical Staffing finds the right person for the job, so you will never need to worry about being short-staffed or overworking your team and risking burnout. When your patient census goes up during a particularly busy period, we can find the temporary nursing staff to ensure patient care is prioritized in your healthcare organization.
Ultimately, networking to find nurses helps you build the talent pipeline and provides access to nursing staff candidates with the experience and specialized certification you need. Referrals from your networking colleagues mean more as you have a trusted relationship. And, ultimately, by participation and remaining engaged with professional groups and online platforms, you build on your healthcare organization’s reputation in a positive and attractive way.
Begin with BOS
Gaining your footing when you’re networking to find nurses can be challenging. Let us help you. As professional networkers, BOS Medical Staffing opens a wide world of opportunities for your organization. Learn more about us by contacting BOS Medical Staffing today.
