Most effective Recruitment Strategy

What have you done in your recruitment efforts for Licensed Nurses that you think was most effective at bringing in new applicants?

Put an ad on Careerbuilders and get tons and tons of applicants. Of course there is a lot of weeding thru to find anything useful and lots of time spent interviewing to find the right candidate.

Are you having difficulty finding staff?

Yes but I am also in a small area. I have done the online and newspapers. We have a large referral bonus and we are going to send flyers out to all Nurses in the area. I am thinking about a Job Fair with Vendors and small inservice going on. Also to do tours and interveiws during that day.

Can you go to nursing schools and recruit?

Yes I have done that but most people have in their mind what they want and few choose SNF/LTC right out of the gate...its a tug of war with the local hospitals and most do Preceptorships for the new Grads.

How is your retention? Can you offer or start a preceptorship or long orientation program? I know this isn't common in LTC and it is often difficult, but if you are having the difficulty getting applicants, this might be something to consider too.

Well really it depends on what the Nurse needs. Usually they get 5 shifts of orientation though I have done more if it was needed.

Try an Open House... Meet our staff... Walk-in Interviews... Free Gift Raffles every hour.

[COLOR=#003366] At my facility, the DON and Staff Development RN go to job fairs and they work closely with the 2 schools in the area. They've set up a training program for RN and LPN students.

The RN students have their clinical experience on the rehab floor.

The LPN students do a 2 part clinical rotation on the LTC floor. In the fall the students focus on chart review, diagnoses and medication review, ADLs and total patient care without a med pass. In the spring, after they've done their clinicals in various medical settings they come back to us and rotate through different nursing positions and...perform the dreaded medpass for 23 patients (they have their nursing instructor right with them) The staff wing nurse and unit manager are available for questions. We recruited 2 LPNs last year, one is still with us. We still have one nurse from the class 3 years ago! We've been doing this for several years now and it's working well. We encourage them to pick LTC from the very beginning!

My facility also had a CNA to LPN program. The company paid for them to go to nursing school while maintaning a part time status. The new nurses then had an obligation to work for 2 or 3 years. I think that was the most successful program. We have 4 nurses that were CNAs. They've all been with the company for over 7 years now!

Thank you all for your input. So far I have set up a Conference complete with Lunch.....4 Speakers....Vendors and now to get the word out. Am planning on doing a mailing and inviting the local colleges.