The nurse hiring process is complex: Healthcare leaders are navigating a persistent nursing shortage, intense competition for qualified candidates, rising labor costs, and the ongoing risk of burnout and turnover among existing staff.
Hiring a nurse raises many questions, but the following question is perhaps the most important: How can you ensure that you hire the right nurse?
Hint: You don’t have to outsource the process to a nurse staffing agency, which often comes with high costs.
This 8-step guide offers healthcare facility leaders an efficient approach to hiring nurses, from structuring the healthcare hiring process to defining a clear job description.
Professional nurses vs. private nurses: Which do you need?
When hiring a nurse, two main groups are interested: healthcare facilities or staffing looking for professional nurses to grow their team, and individuals seeking in-home care from private nurses for themselves or a loved one.
Professional nurses
- Work in hospitals, clinics, and long-term care facilities
- Are part of a larger team
- Manage various patients
- Work as part of an interdisciplinary team
Private nurses
- Typically work in a patient’s home
- Provide one-on-one care
- Assist with daily activities and long-term needs
- May be found through a home health agency
As this guide is solely for building a pool of staff at a healthcare facility, we’ll primarily focus on finding the right professional nurse fit for your needs.
The importance of finding the right nurse
There are many reasons for facilities to take hiring seriously, as the wrong recruit can affect their reputation, expose them to liability lawsuits, and harm patients.
Therefore, medical centers need to be sure to conduct the following compliance measures to mitigate risk and keep patients safe:
- A thorough background check on staff to ensure patient safety and compliance with regulations
- Constant verification of credentials to ensure that clinicians meet the qualifications for their roles
Skipping background checks puts patients at risk
Do facilities actually skip background checks?
Here are some findings from an Office of Inspector General (OIG) audit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services:
- Of 12 nursing homes audited in New Jersey, 11 failed to comply with or document background check requirements for 33 of 120 reviewed employees.
- Of the audited nursing homes, 9 facilities allowed 17 staff members to provide care before completing background checks.
- In the same audit, 4 facilities failed to conduct background checks for 6 staff members.
- Among the audited nursing homes, 1 didn’t provide documentation of background checks for 10 staff members.
This situation exposes patients to the risk of mistreatment, abuse, or neglect.
How to recruit nurses in healthcare: What’s the process?
Nurse hiring should be a structured process involving several steps to ensure a facility gets the ideal candidate. Here is an 8-step roadmap to guide you along the way.
1. Identify your staffing needs
Do you need a full-time nurse or temporary shift coverage? What skills and competencies do you need for your facility?
To determine the best method for sourcing your next nurse, you will need to understand and clarify the following points:
- The type of nurse they need
- The duration of coverage required
- The responsibilities of this position
- The skills and qualifications the nurse must have
- The amount of experience required for the role
A facility should also define whether it requires nurses to have specialty certifications, such as IV certification, telemetry, or pediatrics. Understanding these points helps to focus efforts and ensure that your time isn’t wasted casting too broad of a net during your talent acquisition efforts.
2. Review your compensation and benefits offerings
Is your nurse compensation and benefits package competitive?
To answer that question, facilities can benchmark salary and benefits against:
- Education and experience requirements: Advanced degrees, role specialization, and years of experience can all increase how much a nurse should be paid for their labor.
- Local market rates: Local wages can help you understand typical pay for comparable nursing roles. Nursing shortages and local demand for nursing talent can affect how much negotiating power nurses hold over compensation.
- Cost of living: Regional differences can dramatically influence starting rates for clinician talent—rural areas will often offer lower pay than densely populated urban areas, but also have a smaller pool of nursing talent to draw from.
To attract the best candidates, it is also important to review the total benefits package and perks, including career development opportunities, health insurance, retirement plans, PTO, tuition reimbursement or assistance, and more.
3. Create an accurate job description for the role
What should be included in a nurse's job description?
A detailed job description specific to the role will help attract the best candidates. Be sure to include:
- Position title
- Job responsibilities
- Required qualifications and skills
- Overview of the facility's values and work environment
- Opportunities for growth
4. Begin recruitment efforts
During the nurse recruitment process, it is important for facilities to post or announce their job openings in as many places as possible. Some common examples are job boards, local job fairs, and networking events.
Expand the reach of your recruitment net even wider by posting open shifts on Nursa’s per diem staffing platform. Posting a PRN job on our platform is free, and facilities can use our marketplace to “test drive” per diem nurses before hiring them for in-house positions. In other words, a per diem shift can serve as a working interview. When facilities find the right candidate, they can offer them a permanent position without paying any hire-away fees.
Approximately one-third of contract clinicians on our platform are looking for internal staff positions.
5. Interview candidates
To find the nurse you need, plan your interview process and questions in advance. Consider the following:
- How many interview stages will there be?
- How much time will you invest in each interview?
- What questions will you ask the candidates?
- Will you require a test shift through a per diem platform to observe them?
- Who will be on the interview team?
- How will you determine if the candidate is the right fit?
With your interview team, prepare a mix of behavioral and situational questions to assess whether the candidate's skills fit with the facility's culture.
6. Follow up with your candidates
Following the interviews, conduct background checks, verify licenses, and contact references to ensure that:
- The candidate has a clean record.
- The candidate is suitable for that specific healthcare environment.
- The candidate’s strengths and weaknesses are taken into consideration.
It is equally important to follow up with your candidates after the interview. They should be made aware of your timeline, next steps, and any key deadlines.
Finally, when your hiring team has selected their top candidate, extend an official offer of employment.
7. Make an offer
After spending hours identifying the top candidate, it is time to extend a verbal offer. During this call, you need to make sure to talk about compensation, benefits, and the start date.
Once the candidate accepts, an offer letter must be sent by email or mail and should include the following:
- Name and address of the candidate
- Date and expiration date of the offer
- A short welcome to the team
- The position in the facility
- Compensation
- Payment schedule (weekly, biweekly, or monthly)
- Benefits
- At-will employment
- Vacation
- Signature
- Acceptance date
This checklist is intended for informational purposes only. State laws may require variations.
8. After hiring: Onboarding and retention
To ensure that the new nurse integrates fully into the healthcare team, a scheduled onboarding and training process is imperative. Some ideas include the following:
- Welcome packet with details about public transportation or employee parking, dress code, and break room amenities
- Comprehensive orientation of facility procedures and protocols
- A facility tour and introduction to staff
- Electronic systems training
- Regular check-ins and feedback
- Effective communication
With a solid onboarding and training program, facilities can ensure that new nurses feel supported. This support will help with job satisfaction and retention.
Best practices for hiring the right nurse for your facility
Facilities that adopt standardized best practices for hiring nurses reduce the likelihood of bringing someone unqualified onto the team.
Structured interviews, background checks, credential verifications, and competency validation by “test driving” candidates not only protect the facility and its patients but also demonstrate the institution's commitment to selecting healthcare professionals who are well-suited for open positions.
If a facility cuts corners to fill positions quickly, it increases the possibility of medication errors, patient harm, and potential malpractice.
Therefore, start putting your recruitment plan into motion by using some of these best practice tips.
Be specific about what you’re looking for
Facilities need to outline the qualifications, skills, and experience with enough clarity so candidates can accurately picture the role and assess their fit. Provide information about your facility’s mission, target population, and expectations of your staff.
This gives potential applicants a better idea of how your facility fits within their desired working environment and helps you find the right culture fit as you start searching for nursing talent.
Include a paid per diem shift as a “trial run”
Requesting a trial shift through per diem staffing offers a low-risk and cost-effective way for facilities and nurses alike to understand a “day in the life” to understand the facility/nurse fit before fully committing to long-term employment.
Nursa expressly encourages facilities to use the platform as part of the recruitment process. Not only does the platform not charge hire-away fees, but it also runs credential verification (including background checks) for every clinician who requests a shift.
Additional advantages of posting per diem shifts with Nursa include:
- No long-term contracts: Post a shift for free without any contractual minimums.
- No penalties: Facilities have no obligation to hire the clinician after the shift if there is a mismatch in fit.
- High clinician quality standards: Nursa conducts background checks and verifies licenses for all nursing clinicians who pick up shifts.
Leverage tools for big applicant pools
To streamline the interview and candidate selection process—especially when you have a high number of applicants—look to technology to help. Many facilities use a type of Applicant Tracking Software (ATS) to screen resumes and cover letters.
By feeding the ATS a detailed job description (see step 3 above), it will quickly scan and pull out the candidates that meet your requirements.
Ensure your ATS provider is compliant with data privacy laws to keep applicant information secure.
Ask the hiring team for insight into candidates
When assessing potential recruits, it is helpful to gain insights from other perspectives. Lean on your hiring team and ask them the following questions:
- What are some of the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses?
- What makes the candidate stand out?
- How did the candidate perform during the interview?
- What feedback did previous employers offer?
These questions can help determine if the candidate is the right fit for your facility.
Find coverage for unfilled shifts with Nursa
It takes time to ensure you find the best candidate for your needs. Don’t leave shifts unfilled in the meantime!
It is important to reduce unfilled shifts in a facility, as understaffing can create burnout and increase turnover.
While facilities can use Nursa to “test drive” and vet clinicians, the platform’s primary purpose is to help facilities cover unfilled shifts at a lower cost than by relying on staffing agencies or paying premium overtime rates.
If your facility needs last-minute coverage while the recruitment process for an open position is underway, don't hesitate to use Nursa as your tool of choice. You might even find the perfect addition to your team.
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