Recruitment and Retainment

[MaineNurse67]

I am a Registered Nurse currently working in the capacity of Acting Administrator in a long-term care/skilled rehab facility here in Maine. Prior to assuming the Administrator position, I was the Director of Nursing Services. Due to the shortage of nurses in our area, both CNA and licensed, we decided to take a serious look at what we could do to encourage people to take a look at our facility and to make it a place that people would like to work and where they wanted to be. We began a Recruitment and Retainment Committee to address these issues. We call it the "R&R Committee" for short! It is a fun committee and we have done some really neat things. We started by focusing on our orientation process. We have done some serious revisions to the old process. We have added several "fun" things that incorporate learning more about the facility, including a "scavenger hunt" to complete on their first day at the facility. This encourages them to interact with those staff on the floor and familiarizes them with their new environment. We are also adding a short version of the "Meyers-Briggs" personality test. We serve coffee and donuts. We give out pens to all new orientees with the facility name and phone numbers on them. All these things kind of lighten up that first day a bit and make them feel welcome. We have also added a "post-orientation" survey to make those new employees have a feeling that their input is important to us. We invite new members to the committee meetings each time. We pick random members of the staff and invite them. We have gotten some wonderful input from all departments. We have implemented some staff appreciation activities at least monthly. Simple things, but from the comments we receive back, it really does matter. It is so important that we do not become to busy or too involved with other things to forget those people who make it all happen! Be kind to your staff, trust me, it makes a difference! And these simple things sure do cost a lot less than hiring and orienting new staff...if you have some good staff, you want to hold on to them as long as you can. The best way to do this is to make them have a sense of appreciation and satisfaction with their jobs. Thought I would share this and maybe it will make a difference for someone else, as well. Any other questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Thanks! Tim