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Are you a recruiter or healthcare manager looking for an edge on what nurses want and how to attract quality nurse applicants?

Recruiting quality nurse candidates requires knowledge of the historical nursing shortage, present conditions of vacancies, insight into what candidates want, and nurse recruitment skills to secure an interview that will likely lead to onboarding a new nurse for your organization.

Nursing Recruitment Insights

Over the last two decades, there has been a steady increase in nurse job vacancies. There are various reasons for the number of job openings.

One is the demand for nurses has outpaced the supply. According to the 2020 American Association of Colleges of Nursing Annual Survey , universities have turned away qualified Registered Nurse (RN) candidates for their nursing programs due to a lack of nurse faculty to teach courses. Unfortunately, the implications of not having enough nurses to care for the aging and the sick affect everyone who utilizes healthcare.

The nursing demand for RNs and Licensed Practical Nurses (LPNs) is projected to grow by 9% from 2020 to 2030. In addition, the number of projected retiring nurses, 1.1 million, will ultimately drive up the number of vacancies. Therefore, recruitment strategies need to be sound for the long haul.

Tips for Recruiting Quality Nurse Applicants

Understand the job requirements before posting the position. Since there are various skill levels the nursing profession offers (i.e., LPN, RN, Advanced Practice RNs), determine the minimum qualifications needed.

For highly skilled positions, it may be necessary to require specialty certifications and experience. The best recruiters seek out quality candidates by thoroughly vetting nurse applicants. Appropriately vetting includes ensuring they meet the basic job requirements before scheduling an interview.

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Nursing is one of the most popular majors for new college students. You’ll increase the odds of securing quality applicants through up-to-date research and market analysis. Understanding the climate of the available workforce, the new graduate work pool, and the regional market wage is critical.

Furthermore, awareness of the employer’s geographic location and the job pool will impact the nurse recruiter’s ability to negotiate. In other words, know if there are enough skilled nurses in the region to meet demand. If not, the recruitment reach may need to widen to attract quality candidates.

Preparation is key, and knowing what candidates are looking for will help recruit the right person. What do nurses want? According to Minority Nurse, the nursing workforce regards safe staffing levels as a priority and will likely ask about nursing staff plans.

Nurses also regard their health and well-being as extremely important.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused and continues to strain the well-being of nurses from a personal standpoint. Therefore, you need to be ready to answer the hard questions about work-life balance and what well-being programs are in place for them should they be hired.

Lastly, healthcare managers and recruiters need to look for specific characteristics of quality nurses, especially if the nurse will be at the bedside. Some of these qualities include empathy, compassion, the ability to communicate, being ethically sound, reliable, unbiased, a problem-solver, and a team player.

Nurses who hone these qualities can be trusted to perform quality nursing care and should be at the top of the list to fill a much-needed vacancy.

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Renee Hewitt
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