Staffing Solutions: Innovative Approaches to Nurse Recruitment and Retention in Senior Living
By Olivia Wolfe | June 4, 2024
Editor’s Note: This article was written and submitted by nursing intern Olivia Wolfe. If you work in senior living and you have an idea for an article that you’d like to write and publish in Senior Living News you’re welcome to submit your written article or idea to our editor, Jim Nelson, at jnelson@seniorlivingnews.com. We welcome all ideas.
Nursing is an essential role within the healthcare industry, and the demand for nurses in senior living is continuing to increase. Moreover, high nurse turnover rates make it both challenging to maintain staff levels and to provide the proper amount of care to residents every day.
Organizations need to focus on recruiting nurses, but also on retaining them, on keeping them happy, engaged, and reducing all of the turnover.
How can these recruiting and retention challenges be addressed? From my perspective as a nursing intern, I offer some innovative approaches.
Understanding the Challenges
As we know, failure to maintain staff levels can affect many areas within the location, some of which include:
- Cost of care goes up — residents may start to lose their health, which means their treatment and care expenses go up. This can challenge the community’s expenses and impact its yearly budget, leading to staff cuts.
- Declining health — residents who rely on nurse care and become familiar with the same caregivers on a daily basis; when nurses turn over too frequently it can affect the residents’ care and needs, leading to more illness.
- Employee morale — high turnover rates don’t bode well for any organization; it can affect the mindset of remaining nurses and lead to still more turnover.
There are ways to recruit and retain nurses, including:
Utilizing Technology
Databases with recruiting platforms — internet job boards — can help you find top talent. You can easily customize your search for exactly the type of nurses you’re looking for and explain the role of the position clearly to match candidates. There are plenty of platforms to choose from, and the software helps facilitate the entire hiring process for you. Some key features include launching ads, searching for the best applicants, screening prospects, and even tracking applications and interviews.
Don’t underestimate the power of social media for promotions and marketing. There are plenty of innovative ways to engage potential nurses, such as enticing candidates with quotes from nurses who enjoy working in your community. With social media, you can supply “behind the scenes” footage, host live Q&A sessions with your staff, share day-in-the-life videos, and offer insights into the supportive culture and career development opportunities available.
You can also leverage hashtags on social media channels to increase visibility, run targeted ad campaigns to reach nurses based on their specialties, interests, and geographical locations, and create interactive content like polls and quizzes to gauge interest in different aspects of nursing life within your organization. This multifaceted strategy not only highlights the benefits and opportunities your organization offers but also builds a sense of belonging and community among current and prospective nurses.
Educational Partnerships
Partnering with neighboring nursing schools is another creative strategy that can help boost your staff. Colleges with nursing programs are an excellent strategic partnership route where you can help address staffing shortages by bringing on those in need of more residency hours. Early career development for nurses in training creates new connections and improves nurse recruitment. Collaborations involve creating programs within schools that include research components and prepare students for their future in nursing practice.
New nurses can receive guidance by partnering them with a mentor to help build relationships and provide learning partners when they begin. It helps increase job satisfaction and confidence within their position, utilizing shared experiences with seasoned peers.
Branding and Marketing
The work environment is a big deal in today’s job force, so supplying new and existing nurses with plenty of ways to feel valued can ensure higher levels of recruitment. Recognizing and addressing the physical demands of nursing can significantly enhance job satisfaction and employee morale. For example, you can boost morale by offering all new nurses nerve pain relief socks, and perhaps going further by providing them with three pair per year. Acknowledging the hours they’ll spend on their feet, you could also consider supplying two pair of excellent running shoes per year, along with top-of-the-line inserts for additional comfort and support.
Recognition is a huge factor within the workplace, and nurses are often in a thankless job. Consider reducing overtime work as much as possible and encourage time away from work to rest and refresh. This can be achieved by bringing in part-time employees who can reduce the workload for the full-time staff. This could also include hiring retired nurses willing to work a few shifts a month or nursing students looking for practical experience.
Implementing a more flexible scheduling system can help distribute shifts more evenly and allow nurses to have more control over their work-life balance. This approach could include self-scheduling systems, where nurses have a say in their schedules within operational requirements.
Equip staff with additional skills to handle a wider variety of tasks efficiently. Cross-training employees can make the team more versatile and capable of covering different roles as needed.
Effective Retention Practices — Creating a Supportive Work Environment
Like anyone else, nurses are interested in future opportunities and growth, whether it be advancement or earning potential. You can also have recognition for things like service milestones to promote longevity.
Monitoring performance can help with the establishment of goals and reaching them. Providing regular check-ins for nurses, communicating areas of improvement as well as recognizing strengths, is helpful for mapping out potential career paths and building a pipeline for advancement (and retention).
Professional Development and Growth
Promoting a culture of continuous learning helps ensure that your nurses don’t become complacent or bored in their roles. Providing ongoing opportunities for learning is a worthwhile investment to improve knowledge and contribute to organizational excellence.
Nurses need leadership that provides quality as well as approachability. Examine things that go along the career journey for your nurses including compensation rates, benefits, bonuses, and other ways to keep up with the demand to ensure that your nurses stay.
The Role of Leadership in Recruitment and Retention
Recruitment and retention can be linked to leadership training and development. One of the most effective strategies for management and staff engagement is investing in employee engagement software, such as Smartlinx, BambooHR, Workplace from Meta, Slack, Reward Gateway, EmployeeXM, Asana, and Microsoft Teams. These platforms vary in their specific offerings but collectively they provide a comprehensive approach to improving workplace dynamics.
From HR management, real-time messaging, and performance tracking to employee feedback and recognition, each of these employee engagement platforms brings unique features aimed at boosting employee morale and engagement.
Case Studies
There are plenty of successful nurse recruitment and retention programs in senior living — studies demonstrate that there is a direct link between nurse residency programs and retention. It provides new nurses with additional support to help them feel more confident on the job, along with a collaborative culture for guidance and growth.
What makes these programs effective? It puts a focus on clinical skills while also ensuring leadership and critical thinking so that there is application of knowledge and, in that, satisfaction. Celebrating small goals being reached, such as completion of residence, can ensure more satisfaction and retention.
Future Trends and Predictions
The ever-evolving landscape of nurse recruitment and retention includes taking the time to make informed hiring and placement decisions for long-term success. Research and data can help measure a nurse’s competency and skills to ensure future leadership and higher retention in the senior living communities.
As always, there will be challenges along with opportunities. The ever-increasing demand for more staffing solutions can take its toll on those nurses who are working more hours and lead to higher turnover, so recruitment is one of the most significant parts of your well-oiled organization.
Challenging work environments and lack of professional development stand as significant barriers to retaining nurses. Addressing these key issues requires a deep understanding of the specific challenges nurses face and a commitment to addressing them, which may include investing in the nurses’ future and their professional development. Implementing strategies to create a supportive work environment, along with providing opportunities for growth, can significantly impact nurse satisfaction and retention.
Conclusion
Nurses are in high demand for senior living communities, and the healthcare industry must focus on recruiting and retaining staff. Continuous innovation in recruitment and retention strategies may involve making some changes to implement technological resources such as recruitment platforms, social media, and engagement software.
Communities also need to start looking toward partnerships, promoting more learning and professional development, higher compensation and benefits, recognition programs, and a flexible work schedule. As the healthcare industry evolves and grows, more people — particularly seniors — are going to need care, and it is incumbent upon senior living communities to provide ways for nurses to become more engaged and find satisfaction in their roles.
This article has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
