MU Health Care takes nurse recruitment strategies to a new level

A nationwide nursing shortage and influx of patients has left hospitals with little choice but to try new strategies to entice nurses to work for them. For the University of Missouri Health Care (MU Health Care) it means offering bonuses--not to the new employees--but to staff members who successfully recruit registered nurses to the organization.

M U Health is offering staff members who recruit RNs to its neurosciences, internal medicine and psychiatric ICUs a $10,000 bonus, the Columbia Daily Tribune reports. And those same staff members are also eligible to win an all-expenses paid trip for four to Hawaii.

While it’s too soon to know if the bonus incentive is successful (the initiative was rolled out two weeks ago), the recruitment strategy shows that in a competitive market where demand is high and supply is low, hospitals will pull out the stops to get qualified nurses to work for their organizations.

The idea behind the incentive plan is to convey to its existing staff and new hires the respect and value the health system has for its employees, MU Health spokeswoman Mary Jenkins told the publication. And perhaps by giving the bonus to employees, rather than the new hires, it will prevent job hopping to the next hospital, the article noted.

The system, which employs 1,200 RNs, predicts it will need to hire another 75 nurses in the next two years. The new incentive plan, she said, is meant to “grow our current nursing staff but also to fill future nursing positions that are going to be open within the next year.”

MU Health’s approach of offering bonuses to employees rather than new hires is intended to convey the “respect and value” the health system has for its employees, Jenkins said.

The United States will need 1.1 million new registered nurses by 2022 to fill jobs and replace retirees, FierceHealthcare previously reported. But rather than invest money in new graduates, hospitals seek experienced nurses with five or more experience. As a result, many, like Boone Hospital Center in Missouri, offer a $10,000 sign-on bonus to full-time RNs with five years or more experience, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.

- read the Columbia Daily Tribune article