The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that healthcare and social assistance, along with professional and businesses services, will generate 8.2 million jobs by 2018, more than half the increase in total employment.

The healthcare industry is stable, it’s growing, and it’s not going away. This is an important fact to share with your nursing professionals. Your nurse retention strategy needs to include sharing positive news about the healthcare industry. Nursing professionals need to be reassured that their hard work will pay-off in the long-term.

To learn more of my nurse recruitment and nurse retention strategies and/or to have me speak at our facility to improve morale, retention and recruitment, contact me.

A boom in nursing care, as record numbers hit retirement age, and a clinical emphasis on preventive care, help spawn thousands of jobs within the nursing profession – including nurse specialists and therapists.

Healthcare jobs projected to increase most in coming years include many in the nursing profession: registered nurses (RNs), nursing aides, licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses, reports The Bureau of Labor.

The outlook for healthcare jobs is positive according to Labor. Healthcare jobs continue to outpace employment sectors manufacturing and construction and are expected to number 344,000 by year’s end, a level of growth not seen in four years.

There is much hope for nursing professionals seeking jobs.

To learn more of my nurse recruitment and nurse retention strategies and/or to have me speak at your facility to improve morale, retention and recruitment, contact me.

Transforming Care at the Bedside (TCAB) is a joint effort by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI.) The key goal of the  initiative is to increase the amount of time nurses spend with patients. (www.ihi.org.) The American Organization of Nurse Executives is also collaborating.

A large body of research shows that if nurses spend more time in direct patient care, clinical outcomes are better and complications are fewer.  The typical nurse spends only about 30 percent of her or his day in direct patient care. The rest of the time they are on the phone, looking for other staff or equipment, tracking down medications, charting at a central nurses’ station, running errands…well you know the rest.

Nurses entered our benevolent profession to care for people. Allowing us to do so increases morale and satisfaction. This is perhaps the greatest nurse retention tool.

To learn more strategies to recruit and retain nurses, contact me. I’d love to come speak at your hospital to increase nurse satisfaction, recruitment and retention.

While many debate the pros and cons of the new

Health Care Bill, it seems it will include programs

that may benefit nursing.

Some of the provisions that will most directly affect nurses are under the Reauthorization of Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs. These programs, under the Public Health Service Act, are the primary source of federal funding for nursing education and help insure that there will be enough nurses in the future to care for the masses. One major grant programs is:

• Advanced Education Nursing: Provides grants to nursing schools and academic health centers to increase education and practice for nurses in master’s and post-master’s programs. These programs prepare nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, nurse midwives, nurse anesthetists, nurse educators, nurse administrators, and public health nurses. The legislation also eliminates the 10% cap on grants for doctoral education.

Increasing education is a great way to retain nurses.

Stay tuned for more information on these programs in future blogs.

Can I help you recruit and retain your nurses? Contact me.

Let them see what you do, the difference you make.

Sometimes it’s good to have them follow another of your staff member too. This is a great way to recruit nurses (plus they get a great appreciation for all you do and why you might be pooped after work!)

Can I help your hospital recruit nurses and retain nurses? Contact me.

When we consider that it costs a minimum of $62,000 to hire and train a new nurse, this is a great nurse retention idea.

I’ve got lots more tried and proven nurse retention ideas.

I’d love to  help you. Please contact me!

Scheduling changes, such as moving from eight-hour shifts to 12-hour shifts, meant that scheduling could be juggled to allow cutbacks without affecting nurses so dramatically.

Still, as I visit hospitals as an expert on nurse recruitment and retention, I hear that much more attention needs to be given to boosting nurse morale. This is the best nurse retention tool.

To learn how I can help with nurse recruitment and retention at your hospital, contact me.

The Labor Secretary revealed plans to stimulate the economy with the bill’s funds while touring the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas and the Shawnee County Community Health Care Clinic in Topeka. These Kansas clinics and medical centers are among the areas that need the most help, as recruitment and retention of nurses and other workers is most difficult in rural areas.

With baby boomers aging and needing further medical care, the need for nurses and health care workers will only increase. The Labor Department aims to take advantage of this medical necessity by providing workers with a chance to start over in a field that is both lucrative and necessary.

I’m eager to see when these funds are released and to whom. I have found no applications process for this. If you learn more, please post a comment and share.

To learn more recruitment ideas, see www.NurseRecruitmentandRetention.com