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One of the facility's most successful strategies was
finding ways to attract student nurses to do rotations
at the hospital. It hired a nurse who would teach at
the nursing school, and these students performed rotations
with her at Memorial Hermann. Now, the hospital has
about 70 students who do rotations each year, compared
to only about 10 in the past. So far, the hospital has
hired about 23 students by forging these connections
with the local nursing school.
To attract more people to the hospital, Memorial Hermann
also offered classes for nurses that would give them
continuing education credits.
The hospital wanted to draw both new nurses in search
of jobs and also seasoned nurses who wanted to work
in a different hospital.
The hospital also experimented with a phone-a-thon
in which job candidates could call in and be guaranteed
an immediate phone interview. The hospital advertised
heavily in those areas that were not experiencing an
acute nursing shortage.
These tactics in combination with others allowed the
hospital to cut its vacancy rate from 18 percent to
2 percent, and the facility now is not using any agency
nurses. The hospital also has doled out some of these
savings to a bonus for each employee.
Now that the hospital has weaned itself of agency nurses,
employees and administrators expect that their efforts
will last.
"I've been through other shortages, and I knew
the payback would be there," Walsh said.
"It was a little bit scary sometimes, but we knew
it's what we had to do. When you invest in the nursing
environment, you keep people in the long run."
Contact Heather Stringer at heather_stringer@yahoo.com
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