The University of Michigan Health System launched an aggressive campaign to hire 100 nurses in 100 days. To date, 40 nurses have been hired since the active recruiting and advertising that started Sept. 1.
- Paul Wong
- PATRICK JONES/Daily
Nursing school student Mindy Pallas studies in the student lounge at the School of Nursing Monday afternoon. The University is working to attract more nurses to the area.
The campaign to hire more nurses is in response to the national nurse shortage. UMHS hopes to attract nurses to the diverse arena of patient care settings, nurse recruiting leader Carrie Dawson said.
The campaign to hire recent graduates and experienced nurses by Dec. 15 will help continue the success and growth of UMHS.
“We are using a multi-faceted strategy of recruiting through radio advertisements, billboards, medical journals and even cinema slides,” Dawson said. “More than just advertising to hire, we have an employee referral program and a retention program to keep nurses already working here to want to stay.”
The Retention Program, started last year, works with nurses to help build their career at the University by keeping communication open between nurses and managers. Nurses can report concerns to administrators before problems arise.
Retention Program Manager Juanita Parry said in conjunction with actively recruiting, the program works on taking better care of the already hired nurses so there is a low turn-off rate.
“There needs to be good word of mouth about working here so that candidates hear positive feedback from other nurses and want to work here,” Parry said. “The retention program works to keep a good working environment. We want to close the gap of what nurses expect when they are hired here and what their actual experience as nurses is.”
The nursing career fair, which took place Sunday at the medical complex, enabled candidates to meet with University nursing leaders and tour the facilities on campus. The career fair was successful and attended by more than 150 nurses, Dawson said.
“We are looking for talented nurses, committed to patient care and to the profession of nursing,” Dawson said. “We are hopeful that we will achieve our goal of hiring 100 nurses.”