Nurse Aide retention/recruitment

[punkdmm, BSN, RN]

I work in LTC and we, like most other facilities, are experiencing a shortage of nurse aides. I am looking for suggestions for how to get them in the door and how to keep the ones we have. We have ads in the paper, and job offers on web sites; going to be trying out a job fair at a community college. We have undergone a great deal of changes...expansion of our assisted living, a new DON and our building has been under major construction, so we have lost a few good people the last few years. What are some things any of you have see actually work?

[Pangea Reunited, ASN, RN]

Good working conditions, good ratios and good pay are how you attract and retain good employees. Gimmicks just don't work.

[Extra Pickles]

it's a circular problem because you need enough staff so you don't mandate to death the ones you have and you burn out staff with mandation before you get enough staff to keep mandation at bay. I'd suggest not hiring one or two people but plenty so that you have enough staff to keep the ratios down, the workload down, and people will know they will get out of work without being forced into extra shifts. Do that and you'll end your problem.

[Asystole RN]

If you are truly interested in recruiting and retaining employees then look into the things that are important to them. Do not just pay them the going rate for the area, pay them the going rate +10%. Increase the amount the paid time off and increase ratios.

FTEs are many times the greatest expense in a facilities budget and many times they look to cut their staffing for short term gains. What is interesting is that increasing compensation, paid time off, and working conditions is a much better long term investment.

Look to the large industry leaders for their example of how they increase retention, they put serious effort into finding the optimal return on investment when it comes to FTEs. There is a reason why companies like Google, Apple, and 3M give employees 20-15% of their time back. They literally say for 20-15% of your work time do whatever you want, work on a project, do some self improvement, whatever. Investing time back into the employee not only increases retention but actually has a gross improvement on overall productivity.

Ancillary staff in healthcare has always historically been treated poorly, if you want to seriously recruit some talent and retain them then consider things like increasing compensation, 20-15% time, improving working conditions, and allowing for professional growth. Not cheap but it is a good long term investment.

[mindofmidwifery, ADN]

The nursing home I used to work at offered free nurse aide training + guaranteed job afterwords as well as a $500 bonus after 6 months. Starting pay was $12/hr but eventually staffing got so low they raised it to $15/hr not including shift differentials. From what I hear now, they haven't had a problem with retention and even with the staffing problem, we were all willing to work more hours because of the pay.