MightyRecruiterRecruiting nursing graduates for future hiring needs means thinking ahead about openings that may occur in your company, including building relationships and courting top recruits before they’re on your payroll. You’ll need to consider current employees’ ages and anticipate whether they’re at risk for retirement or a new job to see the full picture of your business’s needs for the future that may require new nurses for new procedures. This is an ideal time to be recruiting nursing graduates for future hiring needs. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) is placing numerous demands on health professionals, creating many opportunities to build a more patient-centered system. The long process of shifting the focus away from specialty and acute care is in place. The need for this transformation is particularly urgent for primary care including care coordination and transitional care, chronic conditions, prevention and wellness, and hospital-acquired infections. Given the aging population, the need for long-term and palliative care will continue to grow in the upcoming years.
The Changing Landscape of the Health Care System
The dynamic population profile and landscape of the healthcare system demand that it undergoes a radical shift to allow nurses to take more interest in the community, deliver additional primary care, and help provide patient-centered attention. Providing seamless care enables all health professionals, including nurses, to practice to the full extent of their education, training, and competencies while fostering inter-professional collaboration. Achieving such a shift will empower the health care system to increase safety, reduce errors, and produce higher-quality care. Providing care in this way can tap traditional strengths of the nursing profession. In fact, nurses are so well poised to address these needs by their adaptive capacity, scientific knowledge, and numbers that the health care system should take advantage of the contributions they can make.
A Versatile Occupation
Nursing is one of the most versatile professions in the health care industry. Nurses have been an enabling force for change in health care along myriad dimensions, starting with reinventing the profession with the changes and advances in the health industry. As a result of its adaptive capacity and versatility, new career pathways are evolving, drawing in a larger and more broadly talented applicant pool. This leads to expanded responsibilities and scopes of practice in the nursing profession. Because nursing is an increasingly indispensable element of health care services, a future without significant numbers of nurses is unlikely, making it crucial to identify nursing graduates for future hiring needs.
Nurses and Access to Primary Care
Nurse practitioners (NPs), physician assistants (PAs), and physician make up the majority of primary care providers in the country. The Bureau of Labor and Statistics estimates that there are about 287,000 primary care physicians, 83,000 NPs, and 23,000 PAs. The numbers of NPs and PAs are steadily increasing, while that of medical students and residents entering primary care is declining. This alone enforces the need to find skilled nursing graduates for future hiring needs. Expanding the primary care workforce is directly related to coverage and services developed under the ACA. While nurses currently comprise a little less than a fourth of the country’s primary care professionals, it is a group that is increasing and has the potential to continue to grow further at a comparatively fast pace.
Partnerships for Hiring and Retention
Many healthcare providers, from university medical centers to community hospitals, are developing a candidate pool by partnering with nursing schools. Recruitment is ongoing, even at prestigious medical centers where nursing vacancies went from below average to almost nothing during the recession. The hope is that by developing a partnership, the quality of clinical rounds will enable the institution to remain a priority in the minds of nursing graduates for future hiring needs. Some organizations are acknowledging the continuing nursing staff shortage by contributing directly to the supply of nurse educators. Providing experienced, masters-prepared nurses as instructors facilitates partnerships for hiring and retention.
A Smart Venture in Nursing Recruitment
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, healthcare recruitment of nursing graduates is anticipated to grow 22 percent by 2018, which is faster than the norm for all other occupations. Pulling together the resources needed to fund and staff a graduate program and identify nursing graduates for future hiring needs may be the optimal approaches for ensuring that qualified applicants are on your radar. As you search for methods to tap nursing graduates for future hiring needs, use the resources here at Mighty Recruiter to learn the best ways to do so.