Solving the nursing shortage: How facilities can fill RN positions faster
Healthcare clinics are facing several challenges while recruiting skilled professionals. These include an aging workforce, increasing patient demand, growth in the baby boomers, and a limited supply of qualified nurses.
These main factors are leading causes of the nursing shortage, creating significant challenges for facilities trying to quickly fill workforce gaps.
Recruiters like you must understand that these delays in recruiting can be the reasons for increased workloads for existing staff. These delays can affect the quality of patient care.
This blog explains practical strategies a recruiter like you can use to attract qualified nurses and maintain a strong workforce.
Why facilities need proven strategies to hire nurses
As a clinical owner, you need proven strategies to recruit skilled registered nurses and manage growing patient demand.
A well-planned registered nurse staffing approach helps your hospital to reduce dropouts, fix staffing shortages, and enhance patient care while ensuring the staffing process is completed within the planned budget. The following are proven strategies that can help fill RN Positions.
Strategy #1: Identify your workforce priorities
Healthcare facilities are facing nurse staffing shortages and are looking to hire skilled RNs to improve daily operations at their clinics.
As a recruiter, you must evaluate your clinic’s workforce requirements when planning recruitment. This evaluation lets you know which recruitment model fits your hospital and what needs to be followed. The proven staffing models for recruiting are listed below.
- Choose a contractual staffing method to quickly fill short-term workforce gaps, especially during periods of increased patient volume.
- As a recruiter, you can choose a full-time approach if your priorities are to maintain a stable RN team and deliver high-quality patient care.
Once you have finalized your staffing model, you can allocate recruitment resources to hire and reduce staffing delays, and improve overall workforce efficiency.
Strategy #2: Create a comprehensive job description
Hospital owners like you who are planning to hire professionals must know how to create a detailed job description, as it will help you overcome the nursing shortage and attract skilled candidates for the role.
Crafting and posting a well-written job description helps job seekers clearly understand their roles and duties.
For example, if you want to hire registered nurses in Alaska, as a hospital owner, you are responsible for stating that in the job description.
It helps the candidate understand the work location, roles, and responsibilities. To make the job description creation process easier, a detailed infographic has been added for better understanding.
Essential duties of a registered nurse in healthcare settings
Strategy #3: Make use of employee referrals
Using the employee referral process is the most affordable strategy to address nursing shortages at your clinic. It is one of the most used and affordable recruiting methods in healthcare.
In the healthcare sector, the referral program provides access to skilled, experienced professionals, reducing recruitment time.
In order to encourage quality in referrals, hospital owners like you need to follow steps such as :
- Create easy-to-understand and transparent referral points so your working staff can easily recommend qualified professionals.
- Support your staff with perks such as a referral amount.
Following in-house referrals will help you create a healthy environment, as these hired professionals will help you to overcome workforce gaps.
Strategy #4: Collaborate with nursing schools
Clinics planning to hire registered nurses in their staffing budgets must collaborate with nursing schools or other healthcare educational institutions to address the nursing shortage.
Maintaining partnerships with nursing schools will enable you to hire fresh talent that meets your requirements.
This collaboration enables clinics to develop a structured academic plan for upcoming graduates, so they can hire skilled graduates.
Following a structured partnership approach helps healthcare owners quickly fill RN positions and reduce the impact of workforce shortages at the clinic. This partnership also ensures a consistent supply of skilled professionals for your facility during employee turnover.
Strategy #5: Attract talent with better compensation
Hospitals offering salaries are among the most well-known and proven strategies to overcome nurse staffing shortages.
In order to fill skilled RN positions as a clinical owner, you must evaluate and check if registered nurse salary numbers are attractive or not.
Recruiting RNs can be challenging; if you do not offer market-competitive pay, candidates may overlook your offer and choose a better-paying one or another clinic.
To overcome this challenge, as a hospital recruiter, you must state the salary range upfront in the job description.
For example, if you are planning to hire a registered nurse in California, you can mention that the average annual salary is around $133,340.
This process can help you overcome recruiting competition and manage your cost per hire effectively. A detailed, state-wise salary infographic has been added to streamline your staffing process.
Annual salary of registered nurses by state in the USA
source: BLS
Find better registered nurse talent with modern platforms
Hospitals planning to overcome the nursing shortages must maintain planned recruiting strategies to quickly address workforce gaps.
Most facilities want to recruit within the allotted budget and maintain high standards of patient care. In order to maintain this process as a recruiter, you must follow a couple of tips, such as not over-dependence on the traditional agencies and free job portals.
It is better advice not to depend on these free portals and staffing agencies, as most may charge high markups ranging from 30%–60%.
Additionally, most job postings may be unverified, and most traditional agencies rely on manual processes, which may delay your recruitment. To overcome these challenges, facilities should consider choosing modern staffing platforms such as MedSquirrels.
MedSquirrels, a modern staffing platform, comes with RN staffing solutions with multiple benefits, such as :
- Transparent pricing with no markups, ensuring predictable staffing costs.
- Providing access to qualified healthcare professionals for both contract and full-time roles.
- Streamlining the sourcing process by delivering qualified resumes within 2–5 days.
Healthcare owners can book a free demo to see how the platform helps them make planned recruiting decisions. LPNs can also check open jobs and apply for those that match their skills.
FAQs
How does compensation impact RN recruitment success?
Compensation remains one of the most important factors influencing a candidate’s decision. Offering competitive salaries and benefits helps facilities attract skilled nurses, reduce offer rejections, and remain competitive in a challenging labor market.
What is the most effective way to reduce RN hiring delays?
The most effective approach is to establish a structured recruitment process. This includes identifying workforce needs, creating detailed job descriptions, leveraging employee referrals, partnering with nursing schools, and using modern staffing platforms to access qualified candidates faster.
What are the benefits of partnering with nursing schools for registered nurse staffing?
Collaborating with nursing schools allows facilities to build relationships with future nursing professionals before graduation. These partnerships can create a steady talent pipeline and help facilities fill RN vacancies more efficiently.
How can MedSquirrels help healthcare facilities fill RN positions faster?
MedSquirrels helps healthcare facilities streamline their recruitment process by connecting them with qualified healthcare professionals for both contract and full-time roles. The platform is designed to reduce sourcing delays and support faster hiring decisions.
Can healthcare facilities use staffing platforms for both short-term and long-term hiring needs?
Yes. Many modern staffing solutions support a variety of workforce models, including temporary, contract, and permanent placements. This flexibility allows facilities to adapt their staffing strategy based on changing patient demand and operational requirements.
