Recruiting the best nurses for your organization isn’t easy. Nurses are in high demand, and thousands of people are trying to recruit them at any given time. This guide will walk you through seven important nurse recruiting strategies so you can easily hire top RNs.

If you want to find the right medical professionals for your practice, it’s all about planning ahead. You need to start recruiting months before open positions become available — and that means hiring a nurse recruiter who is experienced with healthcare staffing (and has connections with good talent).

A talented nurse recruitment agency will know how to recruit nurses. They will have the specific knowledge needed to see which candidates would be a perfect fit for your team, what questions need to be asked, and how to discreetly check references effectively.

5 Skills a Great Nurse Should Have

When searching for the best nurses, look for these five specific traits:

1. Flexibility

Nurses should be able to adapt in any situation. A nurse will need to work with a variety of people and personalities and know how to handle difficult situations — like violence and abuse. Nurses should also show flexibility because emergencies happen all the time and can change a schedule on a moment’s notice.

2. Maturity

To work with patients, nurses need to have patience and maturity — and they should be able to handle stressful situations without showing their emotions.

3. Compassion

Even though it may not be true for every nurse, compassion is absolutely essential in healthcare professions. Nurses will need to make difficult decisions every day; they need to act professionally but with empathy.

4. Motivation

There are many different reasons why someone would want to be a nurse, and it’s important that you hire people who really want to be in their position of work. You can generally get an idea about this by simply asking what drives them to choose nursing over other potential careers. A good nurse will be driven by a desire to help others and improve people’s lives.

5. Experience

It’s no secret that experience is extremely valuable when it comes to working in the healthcare field. So in addition to the above traits, be sure to hire according to what the job description requires.

If you’re planning on recruiting nurses soon, it’s important to understand that it will require time and effort, along with expert knowledge of how to attract the best candidates. 

7 Nurse Recruiting Strategies To Hire The Best RNs

Here are seven strategies for nurse recruiting success:

1. Act Quickly

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there is an increased demand for registered nurses. In fact, they predict a 19% increase between 2012 and 2022 — or roughly 590,300 new jobs. With all these positions becoming available across the country, it’s important to act quickly. 

The first step of nurse recruiting success is to plan ahead and start recruiting months before open positions become available. If you don’t, your competition will — and they might even attract the best nurses before you land them as part of your team.

2. Offer Competitive Wages

According to a study by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), offering competitive wages leads to higher job satisfaction rates among new hires. This means less turnover during those first few crucial years with the company.

To find out how much RNs and other medical staff members are making in salary, simply search for postings on Glassdoor or one of the many online job boards. Once you see how much your competitors are paying, offer a little bit more if you want to stand out from the rest of the pack.

3. Get Familiar With Your HR Options

In addition to working with a skilled nurse recruiter, you’ll need to hire an experienced human resources representative who can help recruit, interview, and hire top nurses.  You might also want to consider working with an employment agency that specializes in placing nurses, particularly if you’re looking for a hard-to-find talent.

4. Provide Training & Mentorship Programs

For any healthcare organization, nurse retention is a constant issue — and it all boils down to your company culture. If you want to find and hire the best nurses for your team, then you need to start with a solid plan that will help current employees grow their skills (mentorship programs) and learn new things about patient care (training). Doing this will not only make them more valuable to the company, but will also increase their chances of staying on board long-term.

5. Outline A Clear Career Path

As part of your recruitment process, be sure to outline clear career paths (with or without mentorship initiatives) so nurses can easily see how they’ll advance within the organization over time. In this way, they know exactly what steps they need to take next to move up. They will be more likely to stay with your team until they reach their target career position.

6. Develop a Great Onboarding Experience

If you don’t already have a great onboarding experience, now is the time to start planning. Make sure that new hires feel welcomed and appreciated within your organization from day one by investing in an extensive training program where all employees can learn the ins and outs of patient care for your specific facility.

7. Have Fun With Nurse Recruiting Strategies

Now that you know how to recruit nurses, here’s one last nurse recruitment strategy: have fun with it! If you keep things lighthearted and informal, nurses will have a great time interacting with your organization during interviews and all the way through their first day on the job. Remember, they’re coming to work for you — so make them feel at home.

If nurses are your top priority right now, then it’s time to start connecting with staffing agencies in your area that have access to the best medical professionals available today. When you partner up with a recruitment specialist like Strelcheck Healthcare Search, both sides win because these organizations always focus on finding dedicated employees who can drive long-term success (not just filling an open position).

Recruit the Best Nurses Through Strelcheck Healthcare Search

For more than 30 years, Strelcheck Healthcare Search has partnered with medical professionals across the country to find them great jobs at some of the biggest healthcare organizations. While most nurse recruiting firms focus on bringing people in, our team is 100% dedicated to keeping your best nurses and your organization happy. 

To learn about how we can do this for you, get in touch with the Strelcheck Healthcare Search team today.