Kristina Navarro and Danielle Taylor
Amanda Pulsifer
Becky Thomas
Partners to Boost Nursing Career Image
Seeking the Best and Brightest
Recruiting the right amount of new nursing hires with the appropriate skill sets to fill the vital openings at BWH is very much a planned strategy at BWH. Retaining such valuable employees is equally as important, and BWH is constantly improving its efforts to do so.
BWH’s Recruitment and Retention Steering Committee meets monthly to think through issues and make decisions that affect the hiring, orienting and continued education processes associated with all nursing employees. Barriers to hiring and retaining nurses are discussed and rectified and opportunities are identified and pursued.
Convening for just over a year a half, the committee blends expertise from a number of specialists in Nursing Administration and the Human Resources Department.
“To support BWH’s immediate needs and those extending well into the next five years and beyond, the committee’s aim is to develop well thought-out strategies for short and long term goals concerning the league of nurses at BWH. In order to do so, we keep a careful eye on turnover, internal transfers, the average age and experience level of the nursing staff, and program expansion and specialty nursing needs,” said Nancy Hickey, MS, RN, director of Personnel and Resource Applications in Nursing Administration, who co-chairs the committee with Vice President of Human Resources Cheryl Locke. Hickey explains that things such as the target number of hires per year and the ratio of experienced nurses versus non-experienced nurses in each area is regularly analyzed to bring about the most appropriate team of nurses at BWH.
“Despite an extremely turbulent job market, Human Resources and Nursing Professional Development are very committed to carrying out the hospital’s strategic plan involving nurse recruitment and retention,” added Hickey.
As a result of the committee’s work, subcommittees comprised of staff nurses are often created to work on specific issues, which are usually related to workforce development.
BWH’s success at aggressively recruiting nurses from across the nation is due in large measure to the hospital’s many attributes as an employer. BWH has made great strides in its diversity recruitment efforts to create a nursing workforce that more closely reflects the hospital’s patient population.
Regina Cullen and Leona Martin, BWH’s two nurse recruiters in HR, also credit two additional tools that have had a noticeable effect on recruitment. These are the handsome packages available to nurses who relocate to Boston to pursue a nursing career at BWH and the very popular Employee Referral Program.
“Because nurses are a close-knit group of individuals, many of BWH nurses know highly recommended colleagues from throughout the city or elsewhere who are suitable for open positions at BWH. Thanks to the Employee Referral Program, the new hire and the referring employee both benefit,” said Cullen, who explains that it is beneficial to have existing employees involved in the nursing recruitment process.
At BWH, a strong emphasis is put on making a new hire’s transition into BWH a smooth one.
“Because BWH is very different from other institutions, educating Nursing employees on BWH standards is key,” said Peggie McCarthy-Mogan, RN, MSN, director of Nursing Professional Development, who sits on the Recruitment and Retention Committee and feels that the collaboration between various departments seeking new hires and those departments responsible for nurturing such hires in the BWH environment is extremely important.
From the committee’s work, clear-cut short term and long term goals are established both in hiring nurses and in their orientations and offered educational programs.
Orientation and education programs in place such as the newly licensed nurse program and the faculty model are prime examples of creative ways of making a new hire's transition into BWH smooth and seamless. Such training better acclimates nurses to their specific discipline or pod.
McCarthy-Mogan explains how, over the last year, BWH facilitated the training of 32 new nursing school graduates. “What doesn’t seem like a huge number, required an amazing amount of support. However, all the support pays off as nurses are happy with their transition into the BWH system and feel more confident in their care delivery. Investing in orientation, training and support only helps retention,” McCarthy-Mogan added.
“New graduates are the future of the nursing profession. Our ability to recruit energetic and young talent will only bolster our ability to provide the best patient care now and in the future,” said Martin, who has had a hand in recruiting many medical-surgical new nursing graduates to Tower 14.
Thanks to BWH’s refined orientation and education programs, inexperienced new graduates are able to join the BWH nursing team in areas that were typically reserved for nurses with prior experience. Two such areas are the Operating Room and the Emergency Department, both of which have new graduate training programs. “The support and infrastructure is now in place to make it possible for Leona and I to attempt to hire a diverse mix of nursing professionals to our workforce,” said Cullen.
In addition, BWH’s many educators are a helpful resource, particularly for new graduates or nurses who have recently shifted disciplines, even after their orientation and training.
“After a nurse’s orientation and training, it is important not to let him or her ‘on their own’ and to encourage them to continually ask questions. It is also important for BWH to regularly provide both inexperienced and experienced nurses new to BWH resources during their tenure at the hospital,” said McCarthy-Mogan, who sees first-hand the benefits of various conferences, inservices and other courses that both educate and challenge the hospital’s nursing staff.
“One of the main reasons why nurses join the BWH team is that the hospital promotes abundant opportunities for all employees to advance in the organization,” said Cullen.