Hospitals Wave Money to Land Nurses--Stat
A shortage of qualified nurses to fill dozens of openings across Orange County has some hospitals offering $3,000 bonuses and $1,000 in finder’s fees as they search for new hires from New Orleans to Toronto.
UCI Medical Center in Orange, for instance, has advertised in a Canadian national newspaper and sent a recruiter to Toronto last month to find critical care nurses willing to staff the hospital’s intensive care units.
“The hospitals are experiencing some difficulty in recruiting nurses, especially in specialized areas,” said Jon Gilwee, vice president of the Healthcare Assn. of Southern California, a hospital trade group.
Behind the hiring push is a statewide nursing shortage, which some say can be traced back at least in part to cost-cutting measures that replaced nurses with less-skilled workers. Other factors include the draw of better-paying professions for women. Some say too that nurses are increasingly leaving the field because many of today’s medical plans force them to compromise the care they give.
Administrators at UCI and other hospital officials maintain that the nursing shortage does not translate into poor care for patients. Hospital staffing levels are strictly regulated, meaning that hospitals cannot accept more patients than they can care for, Gilwee said.
More serious shortages are on the horizon as fewer enter the nursing field and today’s nurses head into retirement: 35% of nurses in California are over 50 years old, said Markie Cowley, vice president of nursing services at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.
“We are trying to identify how to address supply and demand issues in nursing, especially when you don’t have the number of people entering the profession as are leaving,” Cowley said.
Local hospitals have lots of lures to dangle before potential employees, including tuition rebates, flexible hours, more lucrative benefits and bonuses, and in-house training. The popular 12-hour, three-day shift has become common.
The competition is fiercest for critical care nurses, the professionals who staff the intensive care, coronary care and neonatal care units. Managed care plans have also led to the need for more highly skilled nurses as patients are discharged more quickly, leaving behind those who are especially sick and most likely to be in need of specialized care, experts say.
Among those competing hardest for talented new hires is UCI. It stepped up recruiting this year, when its critical care nurse vacancy rate rose to 20%.
In August, the medical center began offering a bonus of $3,000 for new critical care nurses and finder’s fees. Pay ranges from $20 to $24 an hour. The center also touts flexible work time and allows nurses to split a 12-hour shift, so each can work a shorter day. The hospital also has a tuition reimbursement program that covers up to 66% of costs.
The Toronto trip netted two hires so far with six others interested in relocating, said Connie Worden, UCI’s nurse recruiter. A local job fair also filled some slots. She is still trying to fill 34 full-time slots on a staff of about 300.
In addition to advertising in nursing magazines and other publications in the United States, Worden has made recruiting forays to Las Vegas and in May will be in New Orleans for the meeting of the American Assn. of Critical Care Nurses.
At Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, administrators eschew bonuses for new employees. Rather, they pay a finder’s fee of $1,000 to staff members who recruit nurses, said Diane Griffiths, the hospital’s employment manager. Hoag also offers a number of educational opportunities for new hires, including scholarships, and is one of the few hospitals that pays overtime after 8 hours in a regular 12-hour shift.
Among the largest financial incentives are those being offered by Mission Hospital. It boasts a $2,000 signing bonus plus a $1,000 finder’s fee, Cowley said.
But Mission relies largely on “growing” its own hires through in-house education and training, she said. As a result, she said, Mission has a 7% vacancy rate, representing a need for about 22 new hires.
Critics say that despite the job attractions, nurses still face an ever-increasing workload, putting a strain on those trying to do their best for patients.
“They grind the nurses into the ground,” said Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Assn., a nurses union. “It becomes a crisis of conscience for nurses who really want to take care of their patients.”
